The autobiography by Frank Abagnale Jr. was made into a hit movie in 2002 starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Catch Me If You Can. Frank is a master con man who’s exploits between the ages of 15 and 21 made him one of the most notorious impostors.
In the book(but cut from the movie) was a con where Frank taught Sociology at Brigham Young University in Utah for a full semester after answering an ad in the papers.
How did he pull that off?
According to Frank, he just had to read one chapter ahead of the students every week.
Whether or not this story is true isn’t really the point. The point is that the transfer of information requires more knowledge from the source to the destination. (Obviously the method of knowledge transfer matters and that’s a subject of another post)
The point is also that this works in all applications of life. When you encounter a new problem, someone that has dealt with it before will have more knowledge than you. But after having seen it yourself, you’ve gained experience. And now know more than someone who hasn’t. More importantly, you now know more than your previous self.
To have personal growth, keep up your reading and studying. Stay one chapter ahead of your past self.