the instruction that never crosses

Bain's ambiguous-abuse catalog includes a pure channel-failure: a father so engrossed he lets the son "help" only by fetching tools, never once transmitting how the work is actually done, until a freak accident closes the window and the instruction is "forever lost." It's the father-son version of the whole theme — proximity and even fondness with no transfer occurring across them — the boy left standing next to a competence he was never handed, having been present for everything and taught nothing.