You learn the ropes. You start with the basics. You learn to walk the walk before you talk the talk. But you learn fast, and you learn often, and very soon you learn to do interesting things. You get beyond the basics. You learn the tools of the trade. But beyond that, slowly, you learn to talk to talk, and not just walk the walk. You learn the frame of reference, the state of mind, the philosophy - if you will - of your beautiful craft(not art) - that's right, your beautiful craft(not art). It is so called yours, because of all the time you put into it. It is yours because all the thought you put into it. It is yours because you enjoy it, but even more so, because you live and breath it. At this point, you are an expert. You are an elite among your peers. You are no longer a fish in a pond. You are somebody. You grow satisfied with yourself. And you begin to think: that your are all that.
It is at this point, that you stop learning. You stop learning because you don't need to anymore. You think you've seen it all. When new things come along, you dismiss them. Because you know it all, you can do it all, and you've been doing it right all along, and so why would you need something else that you haven't heard before? The problem is, as time progresses, other practitioners developed new techniques, new frames of reference, new states of mind, new philosophies, what may seem alien - at first glance - to your own - the one that you had known. Now they all embrace new techniques you ignored, ever since the day when you thought you knew it all. You see that your expert status could be weakened, so you belittle the new, and promote the old. You attack with logic, you attack with examples, you attack with stories that you heard - second hand from your sources. The problem is that since you decided to stop learning, you don't know the new techniques, you refused to learn them. You can speak ill of them but it won't convince the others, because you - although the expert that you are - do not have the benefit of knowing both sides of the story - you know only one.