President-elect Barack Obama attended a presidential lunch on Wednesday in the White House with President Bush and three living ex-Presidents. Such events occur rarely, except for a funeral or an historic ceremony. They certainly had a chance to talk about current affairs, the war in the Middle East, and certainly the economy.

There are many ways to learn from someone more experienced than yourself. The President-elect has certainly learned from his predecessors. From George W. Bush, he learned not to run a country like a ranch and also to learn from his mistakes. That’s the way we all learn: from other people’s mistakes. As the Bemba of Zambia say, “No one is without knowledge, except he who asks no questions.”