One thing you cannot learn outside of work

What’s one thing you cannot learn except at work? To be honest, picking most important one is hardest.

I think I can do almost anything outside work. I can learn how to write words. I can learn how to write better code. To observe. To reflect. To focus.

There is one thing I cannot learn on my own: become a better listener.

Becoming an increasingly better listener can happen when I bump into people with different mindsets, quirks and interests. 

That new engineer on your team who intends to re-write 10 year old codebase in the language he picked up few months ago (and naturally excited about) and did not clear the onboarding yet. 

A person who is willing to tell you a story about the skiing vacation they had.

An engineer from another team who checked in the code to your code base that caused you 4 hours-less night and SLO dive. He is still not admitting it.

When I do not work, those stories are naturally muffled. Soaking, respecting and learning from them requires patience to shut up, 5 minutes and belief of learning from them.

In my experience, having them is making you a better listener. 

What is your thing at work you cannot learn otherwise?