Process of learning

Maybe it's just me but I believe learning penetrates deep inside our brain through adjacencies.

Say I want to explain to you an abstract thought. For example, I wanted to say to James Damore of the Google sexism fiasco that I disagreed with his stance on women in technology.

To illustrate to him why his ideas are absurd, I invoked a parallel, self evident truth that we both could agree on as being absurd and then tried to draw the connection that his position on women in tech was equally absurd.

My example was this - women have had the right to vote for decades, centuries in some cases. Yet the participation of women in electioneering is lower than statistically acceptable. Is this to mean that we were wrong to include women in the voting process and that women are less capable leaders than men? The parallel is that if few women like to be in tech despite the efforts of society as a whole, it shouldn't discredit the efforts nor the women.

The merit of my point aside, I tried to convey that I disagreed with the premise of Damore's argument using a parallel situation.

Does all learning proceed exactly this way? Do others gain insight into life using this process? If so, can education be conveyed using a series of foundational parallel examples?