Cam degreeing. I totally don't understand.

Bewy said

I think people fuss too much about 'exact' cam position. Dot to dot, 4* adv or 4* retarded etc...
Unless you are building an exact duplicate that was dyno tested & the cam position varied to get best HP, it is just a guessing game.
David Vizard makes a very good point about cam position: the closer the cam specs are to being perfect for that parts combination, the more HP will be lost if the cam position is not optimised. The opposite applies.....
For the average Joe [ or John or Jill.. ], I would install it dot to dot. After the engine has been run, you can change the cam position to see what, if any, difference it makes.

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I don't and I can give you great example of why. I built a 454 Chevy for a guy years ago. I used a Comp billet set on a Comp solid flat tappet. I put the wheel on it. Came up 12 degrees retarded. TWELVE. The number after eleven and before thirteen. TWELVE. That's been about 25 years ago and I still have a hard time believing it. But it was right. I duplicated it five or six times. It took an offset bushing in the cam sprocket along with the nine keyway crank gear to get it right, but I did and it ran like the dung who flung. That right there taught me to check them all and if somebody doesn't want to pay me to do it, I'll load their junk on their truck.