Learning From Those You Hate

The benefit of learning from people you hate is that the lessons stick.

It is natural to learn from those you like. But over time, when many of those people engage in distasteful act, or just turn into people you dislike, it can create a form of cognitive dissonance. You begin to question the lessons. You begin to feel embarassed for sharing values with them.

Back when I was fourteen I had read a book from an author I admired. The book informed by career path in a major way. Later, it was revealed that the author was running a fraudulent business. I hesistate now to mention his name or the title of the book.

The illustrations in that book were probably fabricated, or at least, highly exaggerated. Nevertheless, there remains validity in the lesson. It takes me some effort to separate the wisdom from the fraud, and not discard what I learnt from that book.

There have been a number of instances where I have acquired lessons from people I liked. Many of those have revealed a gross lack of intellect and integrity in the post-pandemic era and I have grown to dislike them. Again, it takes effort to separate the lessons from the people.

So the strategy now is to learn from those who deserve hatred. They are hated because they are capable beings; otherwise, they would not even be on the radar. So there must be lessons to learn from them. These lessons, from the outset, are distinct from the people teaching them, so the character of the people fail to color the lessons. If for some reason these individuals redeem themselves in my eyes, there is not a loss.