Is is a common to hear that if you want to become good in a given area one of the good ways to achieve results is to gather with people devoted to becoming good in the same area or better yet, people already good in it. It sounds logical and even intuitive and I know it from personal experience but I am just curious if any research has been to explain how exactly this works?
(My own assumptions are these:
1) people tend to imitate the behaviour of the members of social group they are in, that is learning by unconscious imitation;
2) there is an element of competition, you try to outperform those determined to improve themselves in the same field;
3) observations, know-how, questions, ideas and shared in conversations would tend to gravitate around the subject of the area of improvement and make your mind much more engaged with that subject than if you were meeting other people.)
