Why I Only Want to Learn From Real People

When I look at what truly shaped me, it was never content in the abstract.

It was always people.

A teacher who cared. An author whose voice I could almost hear while reading. A filmmaker whose way of seeing the world slowly changed how I see mine. A mentor, even if only through their books. A friend who said something at the right moment.

What made those encounters meaningful was not just the information. It was the person behind it.

Their way of thinking. Their way of hesitating. Their way of choosing what to say and what to leave unsaid. Their limitations as much as their strengths.

That is why I notice a clear boundary in myself.

I am happy to use tools. I am happy to let machines help with certain tasks. But when it comes to being inspired, moved, or taught something that really matters, I want to feel a human presence on the other side.

I want to know that someone paid a price to learn this. That they failed somewhere. That they changed their mind at least once. That what they are sharing is not just correct, but lived.

A machine can summarize. It can recombine. It can explain. But it cannot stand anywhere in life.

It cannot be embarrassed. It cannot be proud. It cannot be uncertain. It cannot care whether something is true in the way that matters to a human being.

When I watch someone learn to fly a drone and struggle with it, I learn more than just technique. I learn something about patience, frustration, and persistence.

When I read someone thinking in public, even awkwardly, I learn how a mind moves, not just what it produces.

That is the kind of learning that stays.

It is slower. Less efficient. Less clean.

But it changes you.

Maybe this is also why I never cared much for perfectly packaged motivation or overly polished advice. I trust the person who is still in the middle of the process more than the one who pretends to have arrived.

I do not want to be impressed.

I want to be accompanied.

And for that, there has to be someone on the other side who is actually there.