Teacher and Student

Yesterday I was involved in a discussion on Google+ discussing a rather shortsighted review published in Forbes. While the tone of the of the discussion was about how the author had gotten things wrong, some people's only contribution to the conversation was to call the man an idiot.

I found this to be counterproductive. The cure for a lack of knowledge is not to label it and walk away. Instead we should be prepared to teach and to educate. At the same time we cannot approach the interaction as from the unshakable assumption that we are right. For all we know, we may be the idiot.