This post feels a bit confused to me. I’ll try to make a more precise thesis.
People have different starting points, different destinations (goals), and different paths they can and wish to take.
You want someone who can walk you through the best path for you from your starting point to your destination.
Without taking any teaching ability into account, it’s most likely that someone who did a path similar to the one you wish to take would be most helpful, because they can show you where to go and guide you through the same challenges they faced.
Taking teaching ability into account—a good teaching ability would mean being able to take people from multiple starting points, to multiple ending points, through multiple paths (that are good for them). Someone who’s a particularly bad teacher, would also be bad at taking someone through the same path they took. This is another skill, perhaps not completely orthogonal to being good at the thing you’re teaching, but neither is it directly related.
People who are particularly good at that skill are usually called coaches. The selling point is that even though they didn’t walk a similar path to you, they have a general understanding of the challenges people face and they can help you out with those.
It would be great for you if you found someone to teach you who’s both the best teacher and the best at the thing they’re teaching, but unfortunately the tails come apart. The best person at the subject isn’t likely to also be the best teacher.
Johnswentworth points out an example where someone found a new destination point. Now anyone who wants to get there should get help from that person even if they don’t have the same starting point, because no one else knows how to get where they got from any starting point.
In summery—Without knowledge of teaching ability, default to someone who walked a path most similar to the one you wish to take—Starting point and ending point included. If you include teaching skills in the calculation, then some people who walked the same path as you will become less desirable, and some people who walked different paths than you will become more desirable.
You still want someone who was good at getting from your starting place to your desire ending place, just as long as they don’t want to take you through a path that doesn’t fit you.
The title “If you’ve learned from the best, you’re doing wrong” doesn’t feel like it captures this. “Learn from the same” is closer, but not a necessity since it doesn’t take teaching/coaching ability into account.
This post feels a bit confused to me. I’ll try to make a more precise thesis.
People have different starting points, different destinations (goals), and different paths they can and wish to take.
You want someone who can walk you through the best path for you from your starting point to your destination.
Without taking any teaching ability into account, it’s most likely that someone who did a path similar to the one you wish to take would be most helpful, because they can show you where to go and guide you through the same challenges they faced.
Taking teaching ability into account—a good teaching ability would mean being able to take people from multiple starting points, to multiple ending points, through multiple paths (that are good for them). Someone who’s a particularly bad teacher, would also be bad at taking someone through the same path they took. This is another skill, perhaps not completely orthogonal to being good at the thing you’re teaching, but neither is it directly related.
People who are particularly good at that skill are usually called coaches. The selling point is that even though they didn’t walk a similar path to you, they have a general understanding of the challenges people face and they can help you out with those.
It would be great for you if you found someone to teach you who’s both the best teacher and the best at the thing they’re teaching, but unfortunately the tails come apart. The best person at the subject isn’t likely to also be the best teacher.
Johnswentworth points out an example where someone found a new destination point. Now anyone who wants to get there should get help from that person even if they don’t have the same starting point, because no one else knows how to get where they got from any starting point.
In summery—Without knowledge of teaching ability, default to someone who walked a path most similar to the one you wish to take—Starting point and ending point included. If you include teaching skills in the calculation, then some people who walked the same path as you will become less desirable, and some people who walked different paths than you will become more desirable.
You still want someone who was good at getting from your starting place to your desire ending place, just as long as they don’t want to take you through a path that doesn’t fit you.
The title “If you’ve learned from the best, you’re doing wrong” doesn’t feel like it captures this. “Learn from the same” is closer, but not a necessity since it doesn’t take teaching/coaching ability into account.