> In my experience, people just don't. Agree. Most don't. Most learn best by example and by "partial imitation" not by 1st hand experience... Unfortunately :(

> In my experience, people just don't. Agree. Most don't. Most learn best by example and by "partial imitation" not by 1st hand experience... Unfortunately :( This is why I find it frustrating when I try to teach people something the way I learned it best: 99% just "don't get it" if I go about it my way. And it's infuriating, I'd want to stuff them in a concentration camp and do some brain-reprogramming procedures on them! I'm personally horrible at learning by example / by imitation / from others: you can show me 10 times how to do something and I'd still not get it! But make me experience the problem first hand so I can understand the "why" of the solution and all lightbulbs turn on instantly in my head! Or give me a good book with clear conceptual explanations and a set of problems/projects I can work through alone, and I'll learn in a day what others need a month to learn "by example"... So for me it's definitely what the OP said, "learning the mistakes and seeing the problems and pain firsthand lets you appreciate and understand the decisions that were made" works incredibly well, especially when complemented with some well-written "design documents"!