I don't think I can upvote this hard enough. Getting people to think and talk about what they do in context provides a lot of great insight in how to use tech (or not use it) to solve their problems.
Well that's rote learning for you, but I don't think it's the same issue as people avoiding knowing about context. I've met very smart people who know their silos quite well and refuse to acknowledge any picture bigger then they need to, strictly speaking.