He meant it the other way round, for you to learn from others, not that you should teach them. Confucius was a famous teacher, but the quote is about how other

He meant it the other way round, for you to learn from others, not that you should teach them. Confucius was a famous teacher, but the quote is about how other people were his teachers. tokenadult then says of himself, that "[I] expect to learn from most people of my acquaintance, whatever their IQ scores". You can learn from someone without becoming entangled in an intense relationship. Don't try to see from "their level", but try to see from their point of view (as if they were the center of the world instead of you). In my experience, seeing another's point of view has been difficult to do, but it's always been rewarding. Everyone literally has a unique point of view (where their eyes are at any particular moment), so they can see things that I can't. And everyone's unique background, attitudes, experience and genetics also gives them a different point of view, figuratively. Even when someone is mistaken, it is revealing to me in what way they are mistaken. What are they seeing that I'm not? And, of course, mostly, they aren't mistaken. Human beings have an instinctual need for community, to connect, to understand and be understood, and we aren't happy without it. I believe the benefits of sharing our unique perspectives is one of the reasons that we have that instinct: our aggregate perspective is greater than their sum.