Informal learning, by contrast, happens in the mental space between lectures. It’s what you learn outside a formal setting by observing the world and trying things out. (You didn’t learn the consequences of sticking a fork in the toaster from a book; you simply tried it.) It’s what you learn when you follow the trail of questions raised by every answer—once you read this, it makes you want to learn more about that, which in turn sparks your curiosity about something else. The next thing you know, hours have gone by and you’re the world’s newest expert on something you, perhaps, hadn’t expected. Odds are, just like in the first example you thought of above, you may have even called on your friends, colleagues, and the Internet to help in this process. Type I learning means developing networks (with people) and connections (between disparate concepts) that help you better understand ideas, both new and old.
Read the full thing here: http://www.inkling.com/blog/
It also reminds me of a quote from Tony Hsieh's Delivering Happiness:
"...happiness doesn't come primarily from within but, rather, from between."
-Jonathan Haidt in The Happiness Hypothesis
Anyway. Just food for thought.