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Think of parenting. Think of apprenticeships in the trades. Think of training to be a professional in medicine. All are developmental processes, and all facilitate development through a combination of teaching and role modeling. Development occurs through learning, but learning is internalized through role modeling. This is the flaw of many "education" efforts in trading. They attempt to facilitate the development of the trader by teaching. That creates an informed person, but it doesn't create a successful trader. The latter requires role modeling--an internalization of what has been taught.

A model in mathematics or physics is an approximation of the reality we're trying to understand and predict. A scientific theory, at the end of the day, is a model of reality. A role model is our theory of the reality we hope to achieve; it is a model of our desired reality. In studying a role model, immersing ourselves in the model, and imitating the model, we make that desired reality part of our reality.