Learning the unexpected

From the Creating Passionate Users Blog come a few posts about learning ....

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This is where so many teachers (and books) go wrong. In trying to make the learning smooth, and in a well-intentioned attempt to save the learner from having to learn the hard way, they simply tell you in advance what to do and what not to do. If there's a surprise lurking, they just tell you up front and spare you the trouble.

But they just robbed you of the chance to remember. To have that thing seared into your brain. What's worse, is that after they tell you how things really work, then they give you a lab exercise that simply demonstrates exactly what they told you. No surprises there, and your brain never really wakes up. At least not until someone really hot walks into the room. (Remember, at that point your brain is thinking... "UDP socket programming or survival of the species...")"

...and...

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"...when you want them to really learn and remember something new, look HARD for opportunities where things don't work as expected. Places where something behaves counterintuitively, or radically different from something that appears (at least on the surface) similar are golden."