>At some point, when you become really good at something (almost anything), you realise that a lot of your own knowledge now comes from explaining the basics to

>At some point, when you become really good at something (almost anything), you realise that a lot of your own knowledge now comes from explaining the basics to people who don't know anything. By forcing yourself to redo the basics, you get fresh insight on a level that someone new to whatever activity simply can't appreciate because they don't have X years experience with which to consider things. I'm not sure it works that way. I'm very good at one or two things myself, but I don't really find that any additional knowledge now cames to me from explaining the basics to newcomers. Rather, it's one of these (depending on the person): 1) when you become really good, you realise how much you still don't know, so you don't find it insulting of hilarious that other people don't know even the basis... 2) people motivated and devoted enough to get really good don't really care for the politics and the elitism anyway. They just care about the subject matter, and have no problem explaining it to a newb (and some love their field so much, you can't get them to STOP explaining it!).