I'm still thinking through it so forgive me if I'm a little rambly.

I ask people to write a lot of documentation. I talk to these people pretty regularly and for the most part we have really fun casual conversations. When I ask these people to write, they start using "essay english", saying things like "when one finds themselves facing the dilemma of an angry customer..." This stuffy language creates a barrier of formality - it's not only hard to understand but it's boring and not engaging, so it usually goes in one ear and out the other.

The same thing happens when I ask people to teach or present. If I ask that person to explain something to me, we'll sit down and have a conversation. They'll stop and check to make sure I'm still with them, they'll look at my face and see if I'm getting it, they'll make jokes and tell me about quirks. If I ask them to do something formal like "teach" they'll make power points and stand at the front of a room with an invisible wall between them and the learners. Once again, we have distance and boredom.

In both of these situations, people are treated a bit like machines - data is pushed out for them to consume, it's a very soulless form of education. I try to push people to stop teaching the way they were taught, through formal lectures and essays, and start teaching the way they learned, through conversations, experiences and laughter.

In this way, all education is a human dialogue where one who knows is trying to make a genuine connection to one who doesn't. The stronger this connection, the better the learning.

That's the idea at least.