There is no teaching...

Here's a lesson I've learned in my (admittedly short) time working with people.

You can't teach anyone anything.

This probably needs some clarification. Let's say that I'm a karate instructor (which I am) and let's say that hypothetical person A (let's call them Balthazar) is my student. I can't present a lesson to them, what you may think of as teaching, but there is zero assurance that they've learned the lesson I'm trying to impart. Balthazar will most likely learn a lesson, but it may be completely unrelated lesson. Likely, in that situation it's (hopefully) close to what I was trying to present, but it is rarely, if ever, 100% of what I'm hoping they will learn.

And that is with a willing student!

I often hear the phrase "I'm gonna teach them a lesson!" Usually it's spoken in the context of vengeance. For example, watch this video:


The guy that steps out of the car with the bat was undoubtedly thinking "I'm gonna teach these guys to harrass people." I sincerely doubt that's what was learned by the other guys. If anything they probably learned something along the lines of "Huh, a douchebag with a bat isn't nearly as tough as I thought."

One last scenario. Let's say you're really good at something. Let's say it's llama herding. You think you're just the bees elbows when it comes to llama herding and you see someone who is struggling to herd llamas nearly as well as you. So you think to yourself, "I'm gonna teach this guy a thing or two about herding llamas!" And you go and show off. You think he learned something how to herd llamas better? I doubt it. He probably just reinforced something he learned in elementary school: arrogant assholes will be arrogant assholes.

Summary: You can't teach anyone. Sure, they can learn things, but it's all beyond your control.

So, my suggestion on all this? First off, try to present only positive lessons as they're more likely to be receptive to that. And if someone is not going to be receptive, don't even waste your time, just smile, nod and move on.

Now the question is, what did you learn by reading this? That I'm an arrogant douchebag of course!