You ain't gonna learn what you don't wanna know.

In this colloquial, almost proverbial line, Garcia points to a basic limit of teaching and self-improvement: learning depends on willingness. The phrasing suggests that ignorance is often not a lack of information but a kind of refusal—people screen out facts, skills, or truths that threaten comfort, identity, or habit. Read in the spirit of Garcia’s improvisational musicianship, it also implies that growth requires openness and curiosity; without desire, even the best instruction or experience won’t “take.” The quote’s bluntness makes it a caution against trying to force insight on others and a reminder to cultivate one’s own readiness to learn.