I think the case re: lesson / learning is less clear, because in a “learning” there’s no teacher, you’ve all learned something, whereas lesson implies teacher and taught.

I still hate “learning” as a noun though.

A lot of the time, a metaphorical lesson has no teacher, too. "Learning" is imported to the tech scene from India, where "a verb-ing" seems to be able to be the noun form of one instance of the verb (in certain contexts).

It I fall on my butt due to running on ice, nobody really taught me, yet I still learned a lesson :-)

I am so with you. "Ask" drives me up a wall!

I find that limiting the number of things that drive you up a wall is good.

"I have something to ask of you" is not a novel term for request. And ask is softer than request, giving the other party more opening to decline. I don't hate it.

Yeah we're talking here about "ask" as a noun, as in "what's the ask?"

> I find that limiting the number of things that drive you up a wall is good.

Me too, but if this is really just a way of saying "this shouldn't upset you", you should just say that. As stated, it comes across as condescending.

I think the annoyance is in the use of the word “ask” as a noun. Example: “I have an ask for you” being used instead of “I have a request for you”.

"Ask" the pseudo-noun.