Learning is not acquiring of information. Learning is an act of discovery. Perceptive observations and skeptical inquiry are what drive this act. A teacher is a person who trains a disciple to become better at observations and more thorough in his in inquiry.

A student’s discovery is distinct from his teacher’s discovery. Teacher’s own discovery is no substitute for his student’s. And a student’s discovery needs not to be less insightful than teacher’s own. The student-teacher relationship is asymmetric in time but not in value. Both benefit from each other’s discovery.

Books are not a store of information to be acquired. Books are field-diaries of people involved in act of discovery, and hence a highly useful resource for one’s own acts of discovery.