To be a Wise Leader Who Gets Along With a Learner

Be careful around Learners. Sometimes, they come up to you and announce how dedicated they are to a thing, or how much they like and believe in you. This actually means they are very dedicated to doing good, but have gotten very confused about what is actually good and what isn’t. They have decided that you seem impressive enough to better guide them in achieving your good vision for the world. Be very cautious about what you do or say next because they will think very hard about it. Even if you don’t intend to point them in a particular direction, they will try to work out a direction from your words or actions anyway. If people keep on disappointing them when they announce how dedicated they are, they might have to give up being a good member of the group, even though they would really have liked to! You should try to let them know your negative qualities, while also giving them something they could use to be better. They want you to think about all the good they could do to make a better world. It would be best that you do. They might even do more good than you one day!

Learners need to think a lot to figure out the world. Sometimes, they make little changes, either to see what happens or to make you happy. They pick from two options when not inventing their own actions:

1. Escalate: Take something you think is good, and add more.
2. Combine: Take two or more things you think are good and combine them into one thing.

There may be many reasons they would escalate and combine.

• Actions they make on their own always get a bad reaction. Escalating or combining things you think are good seems like something that would give rise to a good reaction.
• They intend to make their own actions, but to do that, it would take a long time. They could either sit alone and think about it, or escalate and combine with other ideas. They think you wouldn’t want them to be sad, being all alone, so they choose to escalate and combine.

If a Learner sees you punch a Bad Guy, ignore a Misguided Person, or devalue a Pretending Person's time, you should explain why. Examples: “I only punched that Bad Guy because he was going to do something very bad,” or “I only ignored that person because I tested them and found them to be Misguided and there were more needy Learners I needed to pay attention to.” Then, they won’t escalate or combine that way, unless it’s under the right setting.

Learners are a very good investment of your time if your goals in life are noble. With money, you can invest in different stocks, some of which might be profitable, while others won’t. Unlike money, Learners have the intelligence to let you know if you are investing them in a stock that won’t pay out. They really want you to get the most out of the time and energy you invest in them.

If a Learner is doing something to upset you, you should think, “What kind of messages would be so important that it would be worthwhile to upset someone, just to get a chance to communicate it?” You should really challenge yourself to think of what the most important messages could be. Of those messages, order them from Most Good and Most Smart, to Most Good and Least Smart. If you still have some ideas left over, order them from Not so Good and Most Smart, to Not so Good and Least Smart.

You can test to see if what they are thinking is true by playing with them and treating them like that was the message/reason they wanted you to know. If things work out well, then you did get the right message. If not, then you can do the same with the next idea on your list.

As you know, sometimes Learners like to try to help or ask questions but don’t have the words to do it. They then may have to do something unpleasant as a way to say it. One thing they do is introduce the person to a lot of something that they think is scary, in the hope that they will notice how harmless it is. Example: A Learner is playing with harmless leaves, but after they see you are scared of leaves, they get even more leaves to play with. They might be trying to overexpose you to scary leaves as a way to communicate that they think leaves are harmless. You could rethink how you feel about leaves and play with the Learner, or talk to the Learner about how it’s nice that they are trying to help you, and maybe share some information about why leaves might actually be scary.

Sometimes, Learners put a lot of thought into deciding to do something. When they start doing it, they are so focused on getting it right that they forget why they decided to do it. You have limited power to change their past. You can alter the reasons why the Learner did something by how you respond to it. If you interpret them poorly, it may change them into a different person. Example: If they come up to you and show you how fast they can run, you shouldn’t say things like, “Why are you practicing running? So you can get away when you steal stuff?” Instead, maybe you could say something like, “That's good to practice. Now you can catch a Bad Guy if you need to!” or “Now you can deliver presents super-fast!”