“When I walk along with two others, they can serve me as my teachers.”Confucius · Analecte · -450 · VII, 22
Every person you meet teaches you something: an example to follow, one to avoid.
The line expresses epistemic humility: no one knows everything, so every encounter is a chance to learn. In Confucian thought, learning comes not only from books but from watching people — including their flaws, which serve as warnings. A young person at a first job can borrow a seasoned colleague's method and quietly note, without judging, another's mistakes. Attitude matters: whoever believes they are always right walks past lessons without seeing them.
This passage takes the idea one step further: learning from others requires active practice, not just openness. Confucius saw observation as a tool: you deliberately choose what to imitate and what to note as a warning. This turns ordinary colleagues into study material. For instance, in a café, you can adopt a busy barista's calm and quietly notice what goes wrong with another one. Rigor makes the difference: the lesson exists only if you articulate it for yourself. The next step is to see what happens when observation turns into judgment, and how to avoid that.
Why it matters A practical nudge for any social or professional setting: treat every conversation as a possible source of a lesson, positive or negative.