I had negative karma and I deserved it for being a retard on some occasions. And you never feel as good as yourself as when the other person walks out of the d

I had negative karma and I deserved it for being a retard on some occasions. And you never feel as good as yourself as when the other person walks out of the discussion with a solid comprehension after a give and take with you. Nothing beats that. So even if you're doing it for the ego, talking down to someone is a nickle, compared with the equity you have sharing the knowledge with someone else. One of the best lessons I've learned is this one: You learn so much teaching and explaining to others, you wouldn't even believe. You always neglect an area of a topic because you find it "trivial", or "easy". Your brain tricked you into thinking you understand it. (I had this when I started was learning English. I was able to read books and understand, I watched movies and understood.. But it's only when I started to interact with other English speakers that it became obvious I sucked at articulating my thoughts. It was hard. And it's not like I didn't understand English, but writing and talking was something else). Knowing is something. Doing is another. I've had the privilege to tutor a lot of my classmates, the benefit is that they ask questions you haven't asked, for you've taken a concept or another for granted. This pushes you to deepen your knowledge enough to master it and be able to explain it from a gazillion angles until you lock in an angle from which things seem clear to the other person. So when they say: "Thank you a lot for taking the time !", I'm thinking :"Thank you". You'd never be able to do that with only your own perspective. (perceptual positions, coming...) I use that approach too learning about something. I take all assumptions from the table and go slightly schizophrenic: One personality is "dumb" and "newb", the other tries to explain things. It's one of the greatest exercises provided you take out assumptions. You detail every thing until it's rock solid. Most advanced users can explain advanced concepts to beginners, that's how you recognize them. They have a solid basis. And if the topic is really complex, the beginner at least grasps the concept of it. Like I hang out in Python's mailing lists (I also was on Perl's) and I'm in Electronics' forums (ETO, mainly) and you wouldn't believe the effort the most senior users there take to make sure people understand a concept. Many uses, big fat posts detailing not only a fix to the problem, but how to think about it.