Ask HN: Times you’ve learned something without being taught?

One moment which sticks out was when I was about 12 years old.

My parents weren’t home and the phone rang. I picked up and the person said they were trying to reach my dad. I said they weren’t home and they asked me to take down their name and number.

As they were telling me their phone number I was saying “ok” after each pause but without writing the message down.

When we were done they politely asked me to read the number back.

After stammer and saying “uh” a bunch of times, they never addressed that I was lying to them and simply restarted. I took down their name and number this time.

25 years later, I still remember the feeling I had, but looking back am most impressed that the lesson didn’t actually take any words. Perhaps it was the lack of a lesson that made it stick.