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How I Built a Six-Figure Business on the Back of Writing Online

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Creating my dream job while working four hours a day.

Speaking at LEAP23 in Riyadh (credits: Mohammad Al-Suraye)

Many online creators complain about how hard it is to make a living from writing online. But if you take a more strategic approach, it can become easier.

Back in 2020, I had a couple of +$5,000 months on this platform, primarily through shallow buzzword articles like this one:

Source: screenshot by the author

This article took me a bit under three hours to write.

Money printing, huh?

But the truth is most earnings from my articles on Medium look like the one below, or even worse.

Source: Screenshot by the author

If I had relied on making a living through this platform alone, I could have never made a living as a solopreneur.

In this story, I share how I built a six-figure business on the back of writing and what you can apply to your journey.

Master These Two Areas to Unlock the Rest

If you want to build a sustainable online business on the back of writing, there are two areas you want to pay attention to — learn how to write articles people want to read and become a subject expert.

Write articles people actually want to read

When you start writing online, you have no clue what you need to do so that people read your work. Many new writers start with an illusion of superiority. They expect their first article to be a hit (including me back in April 2020).

New writers know so little they fail to see what they don’t know. It’s not as simple as having an idea, writing it down, publishing it, and watching it reach millions of readers.

Moving from idea generation to a well-articulated article requires multiple sub-skills you must master. For example, idea generation and selection; headline, hook, and paragraph title writing; editing; reader-centricity; formatting; consistency; and more.

I invested in writing courses and spent hundreds of hours experimenting and learning. (I am now offering a live writing course myself, scholarship application here.)

By the end of May 2020, I had spent around 200 hours writing online, earning roughly $0.07 an hour. I kept going, although I had zero followers and was invisible online.

Becoming a decent writer requires discipline and constant improvement. It’s hard to keep going when no one would care if you stopped. So many writers don’t stick around for long enough.

But if you’re willing to put in the effort, keep learning, and consistently publish high-quality content (I published 176 articles in my first 13 months of writing), you will become a good writer.

But good writing isn’t enough. Most likely, this platform alone won’t generate enough of your income for you to stick around. That’s why you want to focus on a second area.

Become a subject expert

One side effect of writing many writers ignore is that when you share what you learn and know for long enough, people will recognize you as an expert.

My deep-dive articles on learning and education have attracted most of my ongoing clients (more on that in the next section).

So how do you become a subject expert? There are three repeatable steps:

  1. Pick a topic or area that you feel curious about
  2. Learn and read about the topic
  3. Synthesize what you learn in great articles (this requires you’ve mastered the first skill — writing articles people want to read)

When selecting a topic, don’t chase the next big trend. Focus on a topic you feel genuinely drawn to.

Pick a topic or industry that you could imagine working for. For example, I chose education and learning, and Julia Blum chose psychedelics.

Don’t pick your area of expertise before you have mastered writing. Practice the craft with whatever comes to your mind. You want to explore anything that potentially excites you.

In the first months, I wrote about nutrition, relationships, spirituality, and much more. Monitor what you enjoy writing and feel curious about exploring even further. As widely-read blogger Mark Manson says:

“Until you’ve written 100 posts, you generally have no clue what you enjoy writing about or what people enjoy reading from you.”

Diversifying your income streams

In 2020, when the first potential client asked me about my hourly rate, I replied with the only reference point I had — my last student job. (Yes, in 2020, I sold my first 100 hours of working as a writer and researcher for $20/hour).

Less than three years into my online writing journey, my day rate is $1,400 (with a discount for non-profit organizations).

How?

Five months into my online writing journey, I started to receive LinkedIn messages like this one 3 or 4 times every week.

Source: screenshot by the author

I didn’t have a homepage.

I didn’t advertise any services.

Hell, I didn’t even have a fixed day rate.

But the better I became at writing, and the more I published high-quality articles on my key subject area, the more requests filled my inbox. And this never stopped.

I still don’t have a proper homepage.

I still don’t do sales calls.

I publish only a couple of articles a month on Medium.

And yet, I have sold my available work days until the end of July. My projects vary — from writing and research to consulting, project management, public speaking, and advisory roles, but all within the realm of learning and education.

Naval Ravikant says: “You’re never going to get rich renting out your time. Earn with your mind, not your time.”

Online entrepreneurs can indeed become wealthy by establishing systems that make money independent from time. They build products without costs for selling additional units such as books, online courses, media, movies, and code.

But I realized I don’t care about this truth. Because my life became richer the day I stopped optimizing for passive income.

I am fully committed to a few projects aligned with my purpose and long-term goal of creating learning and education systems that allow all learners — independent of their socioeconomic background — to thrive.

Attracting clients through writing has been the key to unlocking this life. It created tremendous opportunities and helped me build income streams I couldn’t imagine when I started three years ago. And I am convinced it can do the same for you, even if your journey might look different.

Speaking at the European Education Summit in Brussels (Source: European Commission)

Final Words

Writing has become and will remain integral to my life. I’m deeply grateful for the insight, people, and projects writing has brought to me. I’ve created a life I enjoy living, and this reality wouldn’t have been possible without writing.

Most likely, writing alone won’t generate an income to live from, but it can open up incredible opportunities and help you create your dream life.

Whether searching for more purpose in what you’re doing, feel as if you have not yet unlocked your professional potential, or are looking for ways to have a higher income, know that writing can be the tool to help you get there.

Writing does not remove systemic barriers and privileges. Timing, luck, and other factors determine whether you can up-level your life through writing.

But when you consistently commit to writing and publishing online, you put yourself out there and showcase your work. If you stick with it long enough and become good along the way, people will recognize you as an expert, bringing new opportunities along your way.

Ready to fuel your career through writing?

Subscribe to the bi-weekly write letter to get inspired, or join the next cohort of my writing online accelerator (scholarship application here).

Audre Lorde Completely Changed How I Relate to Pleasure and Sex

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These revolutionary ideas can rewire how you think about the erotic.

Created by the author via Canva.

When my tantra teacher read out a sentence, I didn’t anticipate how much the words would influence my life.

It was last August, and the sentence was one of those where you need to put in some mental effort to get it. I didn’t.

My brain was fogged from Vienna’s summer heat, and I only managed to save a link in my read-later app.

A week afterward, I read the entire essay. Again. And again. I have read it ten times since. And I discover new layers of meaning every single time.

Audre Lorde’s ‘Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power’ is one of those timeless essays with the power to change you. Below are some of her ideas that have transformed how I relate to pleasure and sex.

Tapping Into The Most Underrated Source of Power

I remember the moment I started to fear the yes within myself.

It was a week before I turned 13, in the bedroom of my then-best friend. We stroked our skin, and I felt an until-then-unknown heat arising from deep within.

It was in this moment of embodied desire towards another woman that my friend’s mum opened the door — eyes wide open, lips pressed together, her head shaking in disapproval.

I froze.

My deep-felt YES turned into something shameful to be ignored and avoided at all costs.

Audre Lorde writes, “We have been raised to fear the yes within ourselves, our deepest cravings.” She goes on to dismantle the oppression of the erotic in a patriarchal society.

Depending on where you live, there are implicit and explicit rules for acceptable behaviour in sex, pleasure, and desire.

Most societies are organized around patriarchy, with laws and media representation of practices that keep existing power dynamics in place (e.g. sex in a marriage between a cisman and ciswomen), and stigmatization, violence, or laws against practices that threaten them (e.g. free love of whoever they want, including other women and trans bodies).

Forty-five years after Lorde published her essay, cisgender women still learn to be submissive and obedient instead of being self-affirming, emotionally complex, and erotic powerhouses.

And while I feel troubled by the fact that Lorde’s text from 1978 applies almost half a century later, her words also make me feel hopeful.

Because as Lorde writes, “once recognized, those which do not enhance our future lose their power and can be altered.” Calling out dysfunctional structures and learned behaviour is empowering.

Despite global suppression, our deepest non-rational YES is still there.

“We have been taught to suspect this resource, vilified, abused, and devalued within western society. On the one hand, the superficially erotic has been encouraged as a sign of female inferiority; on the other hand, women have been made to suffer and to feel both contemptible and suspect by virtue of its existence.”

— Audre Lorde

How this changed the way I relate to pleasure and sex:

Before, I was unaware of the erotic as a resource, a replenishing and guiding life force. But, since reading her essays, I started to prioritize pleasure.

Thanks to women who have done this for a much longer and are now sharing their tools, I learned to invite and embrace the DEEP YES within myself.

I am doing practices that teach my brain to connect power and pleasure. I am letting go of shame. I am uncovering what happens if I replace the roles patriarchy has scripted into me with actions guided by what I want to create instead.

I am learning my feelings are the most genuine path to knowledge. I am unlocking new levels of satisfaction, power, and completeness.

Eroticism is a source of female power — and power not meaning power over (as within our Western framework of individuality and independence) but power with others (self-actualization linked with the community).

Unlearning How Porn Fucked Up My Mind

Lorde writes how the erotic is a question of what we do and how acutely and fully we can feel in the doing. She argues pornography isolates sex from feelings, thereby abusing the erotic.

In my first few reads, my mind objected. Porn can extend our spectrum of sexual imagination. Some films blend feelings, sensuality, and sex (see, for example, Getcheex or Erika Lust).

But most porn doesn’t.

I must have been around 14 when I watched my first YouPorn video. At that point, I had no sex education from school or my parents (beyond contraception and wrong depictions of female genitals).

I did not know almost all porn videos portray sex (seemingly) optimized for male pleasure, the male gaze. I did not sense that the sex I saw was only one very limited and female pleasure-ignoring form of sex created inside a mainstream paradigm stretching between rape culture and a culture of repression.

The most popular search terms on pornhub, a site people visit more often than Amazon or Netflix, revolve around racialized power dynamics, incest, or sexual encounters with women as objects.

Building upon Lorde’s essay, adrienne brown writes in her ‘Pleasure Activism’ “, While we didn’t create the water we are swimming in, it’s still poisoning us.”

“But pornography is a direct denial of the power of the erotic, for it represents the suppression of true feeling. Pornography emphasizes sensation without feeling.”

— Audre Lorde

How this changed the way I relate to pleasure and sex:

Lorde helped me investigate how porn has shaped sexual interests and behaviours.

The sexual scripts I learned from porn guided my sexual self-expectations and made me fake orgasms long into my twenties. I pretended to be satisfied, thinking this was normal, while now understanding, I followed scripts robbing any real sexual pleasure.

Lorde’s essay helped me understand how most porn was created from a patriarchal standpoint. These storylines wired my brain around fantasies and desires that are unhealthy for me. I also acknowledge the power of fantasies, as they can contribute to perpetuating existing inequalities.

I have started to retrain my brain around desires that stem from a new paradigm that centres around female pleasure, inclusivity, consensual non-monogamy, non-gender conforming roles, and a broader spectrum of beauty and attraction.

“I have been intentionally working on developing new fantasies. Fantasy is where I first explored the impossible idea that I am desirable. The improbable idea that fat bodies, brown and Black bodies, scarred and dimpled bodies, bodies that hurt and lurch and roll, bodies with hair and acne, bodies that sweat and make sounds and messes — that all of our bodies are desirable. This work has shifted my reality of lovers and my reality of how I see myself and let myself be treated.”

— Adrienne Marie Brown

Not Settling For Less Than Excellence in Life

Have you ever felt you are asking for too much?

Many women have been taught accommodation and obedience, with partners or families expecting them to sacrifice their desires for their partner’s or families’ greater good.

In her essay, Lorde encourages striving toward excellence in the erotic and not misconstructing it as demanding something impossible.

And this goes beyond intimate connections with ourselves or others. The erotic is a form of embodied energy that can inform many areas of our lives.

Lorde writes, “When I speak of the erotic, then, I speak of it as an assertion of the lifeforce of women; of that creative energy empowered, the knowledge of which we are now reclaiming in our language, our history, our dancing, our loving, our work, our lives.” She invites us to connect with our capacity for joy.

“It is an internal sense of satisfaction to which, once we have experienced it, we know we can aspire. For having experienced the fullness of this depth of feeling and recognizing its power, in honour and self-respect we can require no less of ourselves.”

— Audre Lorde

How this changed the way I relate to pleasure and sex:

Lorde made me realize that liberating pleasure is a precondition for satisfaction, joy, and excellence.

I don’t fear the yes inside myself, but I invite it. I dare to demand and aspire for what I truly want and not settle for less. I show up as the most empowered version that feels most like me in the context of the reality I was given.

Her words, and the interpretation of her words by brilliant minds such as adrienne brown, Minna Salami, and bell hooks, helped me understand that our power starts from within. Our pleasure and most non-rational knowledge can guide us to our most authentic desires.

I will continue to explore the erotic as power by sharing my deepest desires through my writing and the spoken word, engaging in more activities at a speed that allows me to feel fully (ecstatic dancing, self-pleasure practice and embodied awareness through breath, sound, feeling), and cultivating all my senses, and especially my felt-sense of touch (as opposed to my overdeveloped sense of sight).

Source: Created by author

Final Feelings

Every woman, cis or trans, experiences the erotic and discrimination against it. Yet, the ways of experience differ because of factors like race, class, disability, and gender presentation.

Lorde’s words still hold revolutionary power for all of us, as she shows how the erotic is a form of power that both reveals and endangers oppressive forces.

Organizing your life around pleasure is one of the most revolutionary things to do while nourishing our minds, bodies, and souls.

Ready to bring more pleasure into your life?

Sign-up free for the Pleasure Letter, a monthly newsletter where I share the best resources, reads, and tools for leading a more pleasurable life. If you want to become a fearless writer, sign-up for my free Write Letter.

A Reasonably Detailed Annual Review Guide for Better Health, Wealth, and Wellbeing

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A no-fluff template for living a more intentional life.

Los Muertos Crew on Pexels

I should not compare myself to others, but I do it anyway.

I browse social feeds and see acquaintances mastering the most challenging yoga pose or raising millions of venture capital. I then enter thought patterns of no being and doing enough.

At the turn of the year, it’s easy to get lost in thoughts about what you don’t have instead of focusing on all the things you do have. But not much good can grow from the feeling of insufficiency.

One tool that helps me overcome feelings of inadequacy and start the new year with a deep sense of trust and power is my annual review.

I have done the review for six years in a row, and it has been life-transforming, specifically through two side effects:

  • Boosting self-efficacy— you zoom out to take a more nuanced look at your progress, revealing the factors that contributed to your failures and successes, recognising patterns, learning from key insights, and integrating them into your next year.
  • Increasing intentional living — you develop an understanding of what matters to you; you can see whether what you’re doing with your life is what you actually want to direct your time and energy to.

For example, as a late millennial and first-gen student from a well-resourced country, I grew up in a society that equates hard work with success. I unconsciously learned what’s acceptable (attaching self-worth to productivity) and what’s not (embodying felt emotions). Reflecting on how I relate to work helped me see patterns and unlearn beliefs and habits I perceived as harmful to my well-being and relationships.

This article guides you through the process and questions I use to look at the past, the future, and distinct life areas — from health to work to relationships, wealth, and more.

“My Annual Review forces me to look at my actions over the past 12 months and ask, ‘Are my choices helping me live the life I want to live?’”

— James Clear

Before you start, keep this in mind

I review my review each year and look for ways to improve it. Over the years, different brilliant minds and resources have inspired my thinking, such as Anne-Laure Le Cunff, Sara Blakely, James Clear, Michael Simmons, the free YearCompass, and the book Designing Your Life.

There is no single right way to do it. The best way to complete it depends on how much time you have and what you want to focus on.

Take anything that feels helpful for you and ignore the rest. You might do the entire review or just answer one or two questions.

This is not a test you need to pass — it’s a framework intended to help you wherever you are. So treat it like a buffet, and just take what looks delicious and nurturing for you.

The review is split into three parts — your past, a deep dive into your life’s areas, and your future. The below screenshots are from a template I create (access it free here).

Doing such a review is intense — you’re revisiting your key emotions and lived experiences. It’s normal to feel resistance or tiredness. Take breaks whenever you need them. I like to spread my review over an entire week, completing it a couple of questions at a time. But again — you are the only one to judge how you want to do it. Ready? Let’s start.

1) Reflecting on the past

Starting with open-ended explorative questions allows your most memorable experiences to bubble up. How have you lived your life? What feelings remain? By beginning with an explorative investigation, you allow your

Start with recalling things from your memory. Once you’re done, look at journals, calendars, diaries, and your camera roll, and add anything note-worthy.

Access the entire template free here.

Once you feel your answers are more or less complete, you can stop. Then, if you feel like it, share your highlights and lowlights with a friend, or send kind messages to people that were part of your most memorable experiences.

2) Diving deep into your areas of life

In this part, you take a more in-depth look at each area of your life. If you don’t feel the six life areas apply to you, feel free to replace them with whatever seems more adequate for you.

I’m most happy when I put equal focus on all life areas. I can be in perfect health, but I might be unhappy if my relationships are loaded with unresolved conflict and a feeling of disconnection.

Source: Your Annual Review Template (get the full template free here).

When looking at each life area, it is most helpful to consider three prompts. When answering “What went well?” and “What could have gone better?” I focus on the things you had an influence on — something where my choices or behaviour made a difference.

“Next year’s goals, focus and action steps” implies the following sub-questions: What habits, behaviours, or attitudes will you need to develop or adopt next year? What things or habits do you need to stop doing? Have you developed any healthy habits you want to keep? What helped you learn them?

Look at your overall health and well-being in the past year — how were you physically, emotionally, and mentally?

Which activities left you feeling drained, and which activities gave you energy? Has your health improved, deteriorated, or remained constant? How do you feel about your levels of movement, sleep, stress, awareness, pleasure, and time with yourself? Did you move in ways that supported your strength, health, and energy levels?

It can be tempting to lose yourself in storylines — either on how great you are doing or on how much you fucked up. But neither is true. Try to let go of any judgment and take stock of what you did and didn’t do.

Think about the relationships in your life and the people you spend time with — your partner(s), friends, parents, siblings, and more.

Which relationships gave you energy? Which relationships drained your energy? With which people do you feel safe? Who can you be vulnerable with? When have you felt connected to your community? How have you supported the people you love? Which conversations moved you? What new relationships would you like to bring to your life in the next year?

Consider how you spend your time and energy on work. Use your work emails, your work calendar, or meeting notes as evidence to get a better picture of what you worked on this year.

How do you feel about the role work has in your life? What achievements and challenges are you most proud of? What were your favourite projects? What professional relationships impacted your trajectory? How have you supported fellow workers? When did you feel most and least productive?

Most people live from paycheck to paycheck. Don’t feel bad if you have neglected this part of your life so far. Financial literacy is inherited — if your parents aren’t smart about money, chances are high that you don’t know essential investing principles.

Your annual review is a chance to take stock of where you’re at. Are you happy with how much you earned, spent, saved, and invested? How did you develop your net worth (assets (what you own) minus liabilities (what you owe))?

Knowledge isn’t permanent. Most of what we consider truth today decays within a decade from now. Nothing will benefit you more than learning how to learn and becoming a lifelong learner.

When you look at your year, ask yourself what things you have learned, e.g. through online courses, books, podcasts, or formal training. What was the most helpful thing you learned this year? What skills have you developed, and how did you progress? What do you need to continue and accelerate your desired learning path(s)? What new skills do you want to develop?

Your purpose is a deep understanding of the impact you’d like to make on the world. It’s the fuel behind your efforts and where you spend your time and energy. I find this the most challenging part, and I never felt done.

What fills you with excitement and passion? What can you contribute to have a positive impact on the world and our interconnected beings? What makes your life meaningful? How are you useful to humanity?

Write down your best version of your purpose statement(s). Don’t stress about the perfect purpose(s); you can adapt and change them anytime. You can have as many purposes, statements, and goals as you like.

3) Looking into the future

In this last part of your annual review, you look into your next year. You write from your future self, involving all of your senses.

Where do you live? What do you smell, see, hear, or touch? How do you feel when you wake up? Which habits do you follow? What do you work on? Which projects have you committed to? What have you let go of? What people do you spend time with? What hobbies are you pursuing? What are you learning?

Don’t edit yourself while writing the story — it can be as long as you like. You can do it in your journal, on a piece of paper, in the template, or in a text file.

The more vividly you describe your future life, the more emotions will emerge. And your feelings can serve as a helpful primer for your unconsciousness. This narrative is no fixed roadmap; this prompt invites you to dream and think big. Don’t edit yourself while writing it; try to ignore your judgmental voice as much as possible.

Conclusion

Taking the time to do your review, one question at a time, will help you reveal life lessons and critical insights you can integrate into your next year.

Do it a couple of years in a row, and you self-witness the power of consistency over a long period. You can replace all-or-nothing sprints with a more sustainable marathon mentality.

Whether you have 15 minutes or 10 hours doesn’t matter — the most important part is that you do it. Save the template, schedule in a couple of minutes, and give yourself space for one of the most direction-setting activities you can do all year.

Want to get more helpful tools like this?

Subscribe free to my Learn Letter. Each Wednesday, you’ll get proven resources that elevate your love for learning and help you live a happier and healthier life.

A Comprehensive Metaverse x Learning Guide For Curious But Busy People

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Research-based predictions for a soon-to-be reality.

Photo by Fábio Lucas on Unsplash

Have you ever wondered how the metaverse might shape the future of education and learning?

Trying to find answers can be frustrating. While there’s much writing on the metaverse, most of it lacks substance. Unless you’ve got time for thorough research, finding no-fluff scenarios is a challenge.

But don’t worry, I’ve got you.

As a teacher-turned-writer, I have the time to follow metaverse rabbit holes so that you don’t have to. In the past weeks, I read everything I could find on the topic (I even visited a web3 exhibition in New York).

This comprehensive guide is a no-fluff, distilled version of what I learned about the metaverse and its impact on education and learning.

The article will help you understand what the metaverse is (1), how it might — or might not — disrupt learning (2), companies worth knowing (3), and what is required to build a great metaverse for all (4).

Table of Contents1 The Metaverse is More Than Meta
1.1 A brief history of the metaverse
1.2 How tech leaders define the metaverse2 Can the Metaverse Do What EdTech Failed to Do?
2.1 Doing the Same, Only Better
2.2 Disrupting How We Learn3 These Companies Are Already Disrupting Learning
3.1 Roblox
3.2 Labster
3.3 FundamentalVR
3.4 Talespin, Mursion, and Unimersiv4 Prerequisites for Building Something Great
4.1 Diverse content development teams
4.2 Hardware access for all learners
4.3 Governance to ensure privacy, safety and security5 Conclusion

1) The Metaverse is More Than Meta

Since Mark Zuckerberg’s presentation in October 2021, the metaverse has been on most people’s radars. But what many don’t know is that there won’t be just one metaverse.

Here’s a brief history of the metaverse, as well as the current definition of what it actually is.

1.1) A brief history of the metaverse

The term metaverse first appeared in Neil Stevenson’s 1982 novel Snow Crash and referred to a hellscape of corporate control.

At the time, Stevenson wrote, “the people are pieces of software called avatars. They are the audiovisual bodies that people use to communicate with each other in the metaverse.”

Since then, different companies have started to develop and build on metaverse technology. For example, they have introduced VR machines, glasses, and applications long before Facebook’s metaverse (for example, IKEA’s place app in 2017).

History of the Metaverse. Source: Days Tech

1.2) How tech leaders define the metaverse

Since Stevenson’s novel, the understanding of the metaverse has shifted. Cathy Hackl, an expert on web3, asked 20 tech leaders how they’d explain the metaverse.

In essence, what they said is that the metaverse will bridge the gap between reality and a virtual world by relying on technologies such as virtual reality (a full immersion in virtual environments, e.g., through a VR headset) and augmented reality (the real world enhanced with virtual objects, e.g., through your phone).

“The Metaverse is the internet, but you can go into it (VR) or it can come out to you (AR). As with any new technology we invent, there will be unintended consequences which require us to stop and think ‘What is the future we all want to see?’”

– Alan Smithson

Experts are predicting several use cases, including virtual retail venues for shopping, virtual co-working spaces, advertising channels for brands, fitness and telehealth hubs, social gaming platforms, space for global convenings, and even digital lecture halls.

Yet, tech leaders agree that we’re still far from the metaverse becoming our new reality. We’re still in the early stages of development.

Eric Hazan, one of the lead authors of a McKinsey report on the metaverse, writes: “There’s a lot of excitement about the potential this technology holds, but the computing power isn’t there yet to make the metaverse of people’s imaginations feasible.”

For instance, the graph below shows the different layers needed to unlock the metaverse’s potential. As you might notice, we’ve barely unlocked each stage.

Source: Jon Rodoff

But supposing we had the sufficient infrastructure, human interfaces, and enough computing power, what would the actual predictions for the metaverse’s impact on learning in future scenarios be? And can the Metaverse achieve EdTech’s promise?

2) Can the Metaverse Do What EdTech Failed to Do?

Analyzing the past twenty-five years of education technology, you’ll realize that EdTech often has over-promised but under-delivered.

Massive Open Online Courses scaled traditional chalk and talk settings, and you can now learn from the best experts on MasterClass. However, despite the high-quality videos, the format remains painfully static. Even though learning science revealed the ineffectiveness of passive content consumption, it often remains a predominant paradigm in EdTech.

Education technology has yet to transform how we learn, but a true disruption of this paradigm should include fully immersive, active, and experiential learning experiences.

The metaverse could enable such unpredictable, real-life scenarios by combining augmented, virtual, and mixed reality within a shared, explorable, and adaptive virtual universe.

But will the metaverse live up to its potential? Here are two predictions for how the metaverse will or won’t change how we learn.

2.1) Doing the Same, Only Better

This 30-second clip by Meta Platforms, Inc. (formerly Facebook ) displays what happens when metaverse builders fall into the same trap that many EdTechs have fallen prey to — doing the same, only better.

Source: Meta/Youtube

The metaverse allows you to “step inside your textbooks.” You can see learning objects — such as the planet Saturn — in 3D, and you can zoom in and zoom out to study its details.

So what’s the problem?

We’re doing the same thing we’ve always done. It’s just bigger and a bit better, but not different.

Meta Platforms, Inc. is not the only metaverse builder following that route. Most examples I came across are variations of the following two use cases.

Visit the world without the cost, effort, and climate footprint of traveling. You can do field trips and visit museums, nature, monuments, and historical sites worldwide. You could be living in Austria but visiting the Museo Frida Kahlo in Mexico City or exploring biodiversity in South Africa.

Travelling becomes less resource-intense and more accessible, which is disruptive for travelling.

But is it for learning?

Learning remains the same; it’s just delivered in a different format. You’re still a passive consumer, watching, seeing, or witnessing the learning objects.

Here’s another example that feels innovative but doesn’t disrupt learning itself. Knowing what you know now, you might already sense the missed opportunities behind the initial excitement.

Imagine not reading about historical events but immersing yourself in them. You could be participating in key historical moments to feel how they changed the course of humanity. You might, for example, stand in a crowd of 250,000 people while Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his “I Have a Dream” speech during the March on Washington on August 28, 1963.

Again, this use-case copies what we’ve been doing into a new format while not adding additional benefits for the learner.

Dr. Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, explains: “I don’t think just porting material to some new format is the way to go. I think what we need to do is explore what is the gift that this new platform can offer us.”

So what will it take for the metaverse to truly transform how we learn?

2.2) Disrupting How We Learn

To revolutionize how we learn, the metaverse needs to offer experiences that go beyond immersion. Here’s what this could look like:

Work as Marie Curie’s lab assistant during her discovery of radioactivity. You could also run any chemical experiments that would be too dangerous for any classroom, like melting aluminum or smashing a flower that’s been frozen with liquid nitrogen. You could test gravity by dropping a feather and a hammer under Earth-like conditions, on Mars, or under the sulfur rainfalls on Venus.

In a metaverse that builds on experiential learning, you’re not simply watching a 3D movie. Instead, you can interact with your environment and experience changed conditions and get live feedback based on your interactions.

You can learn high-risk skills such as driving, performing surgery, flying, sailing, skiing, or firefighting in virtual environments. Instead of reading books on public speaking, you can practice in real settings with an actual audience — and receive feedback given your performance.

Disruptive learning experiences in the metaverse go beyond immersion and virtual field trips. The learner’s experience changes based on the questions asked and the decisions made in hands-on, minds-on virtual environments.

Through deliberate and repeated practice opportunities and feedback loops, learners can benefit from more engagement, confidence, and application.

“Are you going to try to make something that’s good for people, just like junk food, or you’re going to make something that’s healthy […] .Let’s make it good. And let’s not go down a rabbit hole that is going to be dangerous for children.”

— Dr Kathy Hirsh-Pasek
Image by Freepik

3) These Companies Are Already Disrupting Learning

As you know, the metaverse is more than Meta (formerly Facebook). There’ll be many metaverses.

Against the backdrop of metaverses and learning, these companies are operating on the edge of transforming how we learn.

3.1) Roblox — An ecosystem to disrupt teaching and learning

Roblox is a platform for virtual gaming experiences, and they already have a metaverse. As of August 2020, Roblox had over 164 million monthly active users, including more than half of all American children under 16, and plenty of educators are using Roblox.

Roblox aspires to help 100 million students learn by 2030 and intends to offer an ecosystem of educational experiences that are both fun and engaging. One prominent example of this is Project Lead The Way, which offers STEM educational learning experiences in an engaging, hands-on classroom environment to PreK-12.

Source: Roblox

3.2) Labster — Science for High School and Higher Ed

Labster, a company founded by educators, scientists, and game designers, builds on learning science to offer virtual labs, science simulations, and interactive learning environments.

Their simulations could enable the described Marie-Curie experience by giving students access to a million-dollar laboratory with highly immersive learning experiences.

What excites me most about Labster is its evidence-based product development. In fact, the company conducted 11-peer reviewed research studies to inform product development and improve learning outcomes.

3.3) FundamentalVR — Medical training for professionals

FundamentalVR focuses on teaching healthcare and medical training through mixed reality. The company patented a haptic intelligence engine to deliver high-fidelity physical interaction and offer cross-platform multi-user VR.

Plus, FundamentalVR partnered with Microsoft’s HoloLens. They created experiential learning experiences you can practice surgery with colleagues from around the world.

FundamentalVR partnerned with Microsoft’s HoloLens.

3.4) Immersive learning for workforce re- and upskilling

There are a number of companies operating in workforce re- and upskilling. Three of the most promising ones include:

Talespin, a platform for XR workforce learning. Talespin offers a no-code authoring tool for immersive soft skills content, as well as off-the-shelf learning content on emotional intelligence, critical thinking, communication, and leadership development.

Mursion, a platform that provides immersive simulated practice for social-emotional skills in the workplace. In 1:1 immersive training simulations, learners can practice difficult and high-stakes conversations.

Unimersiv, a platform for VR educational experience. It offers, among other things, training solutions for corporations, such as forklift and excavator training.

Unimersiv’s Forklift VR Training example

“We challenge those creating educational products in the metaverse to partner with educators and scientists to ensure that children experience real human social interaction as they navigate virtual spaces. Children’s agency is supported as they explore these spaces.”

— Center for Universal Education at Brookings

5) The Metaverse’s Three Key Challenges

The metaverse can bring many benefits to the education world, such as overcoming obstacles that prevent you from doing something in real life or experiencing truly experiential learning with people from across the world (for example, through holoportation).

And yet, there are a couple of things to keep in mind when building a metaverse that’s great for all learners.

5.1) Diverse content developers to build an inclusive metaverse

Virtual worlds reflect the visions of the people building them. For now, the metaverse is mostly built by white male developers.

We’ve learnt from other technologies about the risk of built-in bias when they’re only developed by a dominant group (for example, gender and skin-type bias in facial recognition software).

To unlock the metaverse’s full potential, diversity must be part of its very fabric. One way to do this is to have development teams with diverse ages, genders, ethnicities, socio-economic backgrounds, health status, physical attributes, sexuality, and other important factors that characterize us human beings. Learners and educators must be given agency in the design process. Excitingly, the World Economic Forum announced a new initiative to build an equitable, interoperable and safe Metaverse.

5.2) Hardware to enable access for all learners

The World Bank states that the metaverse could potentially democratize education, by “bringing people from geographically dispersed locations and varied economic backgrounds together to learn, in a cost-effective, flexible, and quicker duration.”

However, to fulfill this promise, all learners need access to the required infrastructure and hardware. For instance, while the price of a VR headset dropped from $500 in 2016 to $300 in 2021, the devices enabling immersive metaverse experiences are still reserved for resource-rich countries and households.

Initiatives, funding, and government support will be essential to make hardware accessible for all instead of increasing an already wide digital inequality divide.

5.3) Governance to ensure privacy, safety and security

How can all users feel safe and secure in the metaverse? Learning researcher Sirkka Freigang reports that the challenges we have encountered on social media platforms will likely be present and amplified in the metaverse.

Terri Horton highlights that significant vulnerabilities such as issues of corporate surveillance, access to worker biodata, privacy, data security, mental health impacts, identity, and reputation theft can have overwhelmingly adverse effects on organizations, workers, and society.

If left unregulated, the data generated in the metaverse — even in educational contexts — can be sold for targeted marketing, nudging, and influencing consumer behaviour.

This means that metaverse governance will be a multifaceted challenge that requires particular attention to interoperability, privacy, safety, and security.

Calls to Action & Conclusion

The metaverse has the potential to revolutionize learning. Whether it will live up to its potential is yet to be determined — which also offers the opportunity to develop education technology based on principles from the science of learning.

The future might be better than we think it is, but we need to create a vision of what we want instead of simply doing what’s possible.

Perhaps, by 2035, young learners will look back at the web3 and metaverse developments from 2022 to 2030 similarly to how we look at the internet’s development between 1998 and 2006.

If you want to learn the skills you need to co-create the metaverse, check out these resources:

Want to feel inspired and become smarter about how you learn?

Subscribe to my Learn Letter for free. Each Wednesday, you’ll get proven tools and resources that elevate your love for learning.

These 8 Unusual Strategies Helped Me Write Consistently For +2 Years

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And build a loyal online audience.

Photo lya Pavlov on Unsplash

Writing consistently is the most important yet hardest part of building an online audience.

If you’re starting out, you’re writing in the void. You feel as if nobody is interested in your work. You start to question why you’re even spending the time on it.

I’ve almost given up hundreds of times. I’ve spent months in the process, not knowing whether my writing will ever attract readers. I’ve written 40 articles before my first story went viral back in 2020.

Fast forward two years, and I have an email list of +4K subscribers and +27K followers on Medium.

Most writers give up when they don’t see much traction. If you really want to build an online audience, don’t be one of them.

If you can keep writing when no one seems to bother about your work, the odds are high that you’ll attract an online audience one day.

In the last 2 years, I’ve kept writing and improving. The strategies below are the ones that have helped me the most. They can help you stick to writing too.

1. Knowing that attracting an audience isn’t linear

Most writers hope that after they’ve published their first or second article, people will read it. For all of the about 50 successful online writers I’ve talked to in the past two years, this was not the case.

Sinem Günel helped me start with the right mindset — don’t expect anything all before I’ve written and published 100 articles.

I wanted to give myself that range to try, fail and figure out what works and what doesn’t.

Because the thing is, success in writing isn’t linear. If you keep writing a lot, you’ll likely experience sudden growth. One of your articles will get traction and tens of thousands of people will read it.

Having the idea of exponential growth in the back of my mind saved me.

I know it feels lonesome to keep writing when nothing happens. You can get anxious, stressed, and desperate. All your feelings are valid.

But if you hang in there and keep up with a consistent writing practice long enough and keep learning and improving (with the strategies outlined below), more and more people will discover and read your work.

Source: Screenshot from the Writing Online Accelerator Module 1

2. Knowing your why

The second thing that helped me become a consistent writer was knowing why I write.

My why changed.

When I started, I wrote a very vague why in my bullet journal: “I want to be a writer. I’ll sit down and write every day.”

Some weeks in, I learned more about what really motivated me and added: “I write because it’s the best learning habit. I want to support others. I write because I want to make a full-time income through writing.”

It doesn’t matter why you start but knowing the reason why you want to spend time writing will help you stick with it in the long run.

You have a lot of competing priorities in your life — your job, hobbies, friends, and family. So why do you want to spend your precious time writing online?

3. Write what you’re curious about

Initially, I forced myself to write about topics that were popular on this platform at that time — productivity, finance advice, and relationship habits.

My writing motivation vanished. Sitting down to write became harder and harder. I almost stop.

It wasn’t until I allowed myself to follow my curiosity that writing became joyful again.

If you’re passionate about a topic, your readers will notice. Within the right framing (great headline, solid introduction, clear and reader-centric story structure), you can make even the most niche topic interesting.

For example, I was deeply fascinated by the Zettelkasten technique and how to apply it in RoamResearch. I wrote a guide about it. The article attracted +16K readers, led to 512$ earnings, and about ten clients that requested a 1-on-1 session to get coached on their knowledge management.

I would’ve never written that article if I hadn’t followed my curiosity.

I still stick to this principle. When I looked at my idea board on xTiles this morning, I thought, “What am I curious about? Which topic would I like to explore?” I then chose the metaverse and education.

Even though your niche isn’t among the popular topics, you can make it work by making it helpful for the reader.

If you want to write consistently, write about what you want to learn or think about.

4. Being your biggest cheerleader

Now, this advice might seem weird. But I’m sharing it because it’s one of the factors that has helped me a lot.

When I started writing, I prepared a motivational audio recording. I talked about why I want to be a writer and how it’ll feel once I’ve attracted an audience. I told myself what I must do daily to achieve this (sit down before work every morning for two hours no matter what).

In the first months of writing, I listened to that audio almost every day.

Self-recorded affirmations can become a powerful motivator. You don’t even have to believe in positive thinking, etc. Recording yourself can serve as a reminder, and anchor, to prioritize what you want to do.

5. Keep on learning

You can only improve your writing if you write. Don’t get lost in reading or learning about writing instead of doing the work.

But once you do have a regular writing habit, learning from the people who’ve already done it can level up your writing practice.

These are the most useful books I’ve read are about writing:

Taking writing courses can further accelerate your writing skills. I took courses by Tim Denning, Sinem Günel, Niklas Göke, and Tom Kuegler. And I’m glad I learned from the people who’ve walked the talk.

But the most important thing is to sit down and actually do the writing.

That’s why I created the outcome-focused online course where you learn and write. In the Writing Online Accelerator, you don’t only sit in front of pre-recorded videos. You’re part of a highly-motivated peer group.

I and two other editors will give you 1-on-1 feedback. By the end of the course, you’ll have 3 high-quality articles online. If you want a free sneak peek into the material, subscribe for my free workshop here.

6. Build support groups and learn from others

To make writing less lonesome, reach out to fellow writers and start a group where you exchange ideas, help each other with headline practice, or even edit each other’s articles.

I’ve relied on multiple slack groups in the last two years, which have been extremely helpful in my journey.

Whenever you read something from the writers you like, tell them. Comment on their articles and share what you love about their work. Connect on LinkedIn or other social media platforms, offer help, and ask for their advice.

7. Have a metalog

If I had to name one tool that has kept me going and improved my writing it’s the meta log. It will support you in establishing a deliberate, consistent writing practice that will make you a better writer.

I’ve invented this tool to improve my writing while keeping my motivation. The meta log is rooted in metacognition, a skill essential for learning, according to educational scientists.

According to research, three steps are necessary for unlocking your metacognition: planning, monitoring, and evaluating.

I’ve built the meta log with these principles in mind, which can help you build a consistent, deliberate writing practice.

Here’s my template:

Source: Screenshot from my course Writing Online Accelerator, Module 6

Fill a line every time you finish your practice.

If you use it consistently, you’ll discover a pattern and see which topics flow well and which are the ones you don’t prefer that much.

Three principles for using the meta writing log:

  1. Write this for yourself. It can be messy.
  2. The longer you keep collecting data, the more useful it will be.
  3. Bold your key insights to highlight your critical lessons.
My meta log from April 2020 looked like this. Source: Screenshot from my course Writing Online Accelerator, Module 6

Remember the essence

It’s challenging to write consistently in the long run. But you can build up your unique support system to help.

The following things kept me on my journey:

  • Knowing writing is exponential
  • Being aware of why I write
  • Reading and listening to my affirmations
  • Continuously learning and improving
  • Reaching out to fellow writers
  • Relying on my support groups on slack
  • Having a meta-writing log

Take what feels right and ignore the rest. Not all these things will work. Experiment to find a way that supports you to write consistently.

Ready to accelerate your writing journey and build an online audience?

Subscribe for a free 5-day course on how you can set up the single most important thing writers usually forget to attract a large audience online. With a total time investment of only 20 minutes.

The Only 9 Tools I Use to Write Great Articles in Three Hours

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They will help you improve your writing process.

Eva Keiffenheim (Credit: Florentina Olareanu/Golden Hour Pictures).

When I started writing online, I thought you need the best equipment and tools to become a professional writer.

I got distracted by all the options for upgrading my work setup. I believed you would need to invest plenty of money to write great articles.

In the past two years, I experimented with all the popular options out there and settled for these ten. Most of them are free, and they help me craft an article in less than three hours. They can do the same for you.

1) This browser extension helps you not get distracted

Writing with full focus is a superpower many people lack. With distractions one browser window away, thinking and writing become a struggle.

In the beginning, whenever I didn’t know how to continue a story, I’d impulsively open a new tab with LinkedIn to distract myself. This wasn’t a conscious choice. Distraction just seemed to happen to me.

The following tool has been very helpful in overcoming the distraction habit. I searched for it after reading Cal Newport’s ‘Deep Work,’ and I continue to use it every day.

BlockSite Extension disables websites at the time you want. There must be many similar alternatives, but I use the free version and I love it.

How this tool helps you write great articles fast:

What are the websites or apps that distract you from writing? Add all sites that prevent you from doing the work.

I block the below sites 07:00 am — 10:30 am every day so I can focus on undistracted creation time.

Blocked sites from 07:00 am — 10:30 am (Credit: Screenshot by Eva Keiffenheim of BlockSite)

Depending on your schedule and work, the sites and timing will look different for you. Once you’ve found the right settings for you, you don’t have to look at it again.

2) An easy way to retain focus and motivation

Do you know that satisfying feeling of completing a task in the allocated time?

With writing, this is tricky. Because unless you define what “completion” means, writing has no end. Similar to an artist painting a picture, you can always improve.

You often can’t anticipate how long it will take you to write an article. Some are more research and thought-heavy and require more time; some (like this one) are easy to write because you already know what you want to say.

A cornerstone habit in my writing process is defining “done” and sticking to it. If you always finish your writing time with the feeling of “I should write more,” it’s tough to keep coming back to it and stay consistent.

If you write too much, it can ruin your motivation. I finish writing before I’m exhausted. That way I’m quitting at a point of deep satisfaction (by flow state and deep work) and I’m excited to get back to my desk and write the next morning.

In my writing world, “done” is determined by undistracted writing time. While I can’t fully influence how many words I type in a given time, I can determine how much time I want to spend writing.

BeFocused is the tool that helps me keep track of it. In essence, it’s a free productivity timer. You have quick and easy access in the toolbar, can track how many sessions you completed, and time your pauses.

BeFocused productivity timer in my toolbar (Credit: Screenshot by Eva Keiffenheim of BeFocused)

How this tool helps you write great articles fast:

How do you know you’ve achieved your writing goals for the day? Set a realistic writing time goal. Then, stick to it.

I write three times for fifty minutes. When I sit at my desk (mostly at 7 am) I open my Spotify writing playlist (more on that later) and click on “start” in BeFocused. This combination signals to my brain it’s time to get into writing mode.

After each 50-minute interval, I take a five-minute break. I make myself a tea or coffee, walk around in my apartment, do some stretches, look outside the window, or clean some stuff.

If you can, don’t check your phone during breaks, but put it into flight mode in a different room.

3) What I do to get into a writing flow

Flow states are your sweet spot of peak performance. It’s where your writing magic happens.

And yet, I used to find it difficult to get into “the zone.” And once I was in there, it was a fragile state. I was annoyed by every distraction. I snapped at my partner when he asked me a question, I was angry at the postman when the doorbell rang so he delivered a parcel, I was even annoyed by birds.

It wasn’t until I bought noise-canceling headphones that my flow states became the new normal.

I got these ones from Bose. I know how privileged I am to be able to spend money on optimizing noise. Likely there are cheaper noise-canceling alternatives that do the same.

How this tool helps you write great articles fast:

A steady noise input can help you ease into a flow state. I put them on whenever I start to write. I then choose one song from my Spotify writing playlist and put it on repeat.

Since I use these headphones I get into flow states wherever I am, even in the backseat of a car during a 3-hour drive or in a public park. They help me be in fully focused writing mode whenever I want to.

4) Collect and manage ideas with xTiles

When I started writing, I felt I had nothing worthy to say. I thought I’d soon run out of article ideas. Two years and 300 articles later, I know I was wrong about both.

If you don’t kill your baby ideas but capture them, you never run out of writing ideas. To capture and manage my ideas I use xTiles. It’s a merge of Notion and Miro that helps you keep a visual overview.

xTiles for managing my ideas (Credit: Screenshot by Eva Keiffenheim of xTiles)

How this tool helps you write great articles fast:

Collect every idea you have. This will help you save time in your writing process. You don’t start with a blank page but can choose out of an abundance of ideas.

I have a bookmark in my browser reading bar. Whenever an idea crosses my mind while writing, I type it down and add context or links. If I’m on the go, I do the same from my phone.

Your best ideas arise when you don’t expect them. The most important part is to have a capturing tool. With the right system, you’ll always have enough ideas.

5) The lifesaver for non-native English speakers to publish with confidence

“But what if my English isn’t good enough?” is something I often hear from students in my writing course.

I shared the fear. Growing up in rural Germany I never felt comfortable talking in English. But the thing is: many of your readers aren’t English natives as well. For them, it will be easier to understand your articles.

But if you’re still feeling insecure (which I definitely did), the following tool can have your back.

Grammarly suggests corrections for your grammar and word mistakes, helping you communicate effectively and as you intend.

Grammarly’s suggestions for this article (Credit: Screenshot by Eva Keiffenheim of Grammarly)

How this tool helps you write great articles fast:

Use Grammarly once your article is ready to be edited. It will improve your articles and ease you from language worries.

I write my articles in Roam and paste them into a language formatting tool and into Medium drafts. I format my article in Medium (headline, subheadline, section headings, correct image attribution, spacing, and a call to action at the end) and then run a Grammarly check. I include all “correctness” suggestions and see whether there are useful hints for clarity, delivery, and engagement.

6) The power engine behind my idea-to-paper process

There are five steps to my creative workflow: seek, consume, capture, connect, and write. Readwise and Roam help me optimize the capturing and connecting process.

Readwise is an online service that imports all your article and book highlights into other software. You can do a ton of things with Readwise, but I mainly use it for importing my kindle highlights into my Roam database. Roam is an online workspace for organizing and evaluating your knowledge.

I used to have an entire workflow around Zettelkasten and Roam system and I still do.

How these tools help you write great articles fast:

I see the Readwise and Roam combination as my curated google. When I write an article about creativity I type # howtobecreative or # creativity I find any related book highlight, article, or personal thought. I tried Obsidian for a couple of weeks but switched back to Roam.

Once you have a clear idea-to-paper process you can write and create faster. You no longer waste time searching for sources. Instead of using my brain to browse through books and digital bookmark notes, you have everything in one place.

7) Increasing word variety with this free extension

Ever found yourself repeating the same word thrice? Especially as a non-native speaker it can be tough to come up with synonyms.

Power Thesaurus helps you expand your vocabulary and increase your word choice. It’s a fast, convenient and free online word bank.

Power Thesaurus helps you find synonyms (Credit: Screenshot by Eva Keiffenheim of Power Thesaurus)

How this tool helps you write great articles fast:

Whenever I’m editing an article and feel as if I’ve repeated the same word too often, I highlight the word, click on the powerthesaurus icon and check for synonyms. If there’s a word I like, I use it.

8) Write powerful headlines with the free headline analyzer

Composing great headlines is the most underrated writing skill. You can have the most amazing story. But if your headline sucks, nobody will read your work.

The following tool won’t magically make your headlines click-worthy. And yet, CoSchedule can turn good headlines into great ones. The tool checks your word balance, clarity, reading grade level, and many other factors to calculate a headline score.

Coming up with a headline for this article (Credit: Screenshot by Eva Keiffenheim of HeadlineStudio)

How this tool helps you write great articles fast:

After you’ve written a couple of headline variations, paste your favourite one inside the tool and start to experiment. You can use powerthesaurus (the tool from above) to come up with better words.

Once I have a +70 score and feel confident, I paste the headline into my Roam and start writing. I do this before I write an article as the headline will determine the structure.

9) Format your titles in the right way

Title case is the correct style for article headlines. You capitalize every word except articles (a, an, the), prepositions (in, on, for, up, …), and coordinating conjunctions (and, or, but, …).

There are some rule exceptions and luckily, you don’t need to memorize them.

For correct title case creation, I rely on the free Title Case Converter.

Title Case Converter for correct spelling (Credit: Screenshot by Eva Keiffenheim of Title Case Converter)

How this tool helps you write great articles fast:

Editing can become a never-ending process. This tool is one step inside my efficient five-step editing process. All you need to do is copy and paste the title to get the correct spelling.

In Summary

While these tools won’t turn you into a professional writer overnight, they will help you write better articles in a shorter time.

BlockSite, BeFocused, and noise-cancelling headphones help you stay productive and ease into flow. Software such as xTiles, Readwise, and Roam, optimize your idea-to-paper process. And lastly, Grammarly, CoSchedule, Title Case Converter, and Power Thesaurus improve your editing process.

But most importantly, use this article as inspiration, not as a blueprint. Pick the tools that seem helpful and ignore the rest. The quintessence to becoming a better writer is to write.

Ready to accelerate your writing journey and build an online audience?

Subscribe for a free 5-day course on how you can set up the single most important thing writers usually forget to attract a large audience online. With a total time investment of only 20 minutes.

Hope or Hell? A No-Fluff Guide to Understand the Metaverse

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Mark Zuckerberg isn’t the inventor and other things worth knowing.

Source: Nike

More than half of all asked adults have no clue about the metaverse. A majority feel uninterested and indifferent.

But the question is not if you’ll use it one day, but when. If you’re among the 50,000 early adopters, you’re already using it.

I’m among the laggards. I’m not interested in escaping reality and feel resistant to immersing myself in a digital environment.

But I decided to stop being ignorant and instead understand the metaverse basics. So what follows is a no-bullshit guide for laggards (including me).

Source: Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY 2.5

How to Define the Metaverse

“How would you explain the metaverse?” Cathy Hackl asked 20 tech leaders.

What all answers have in common is the conviction that the metaverse will bridge the gap between reality and a virtual world.

But that’s where commonalities stop.

Tech leaders define the metaverse very differently, drawing on many emotions:

  • Fears: “At a time when technology is pulling us apart, this word literally says that in the future, we will live in separate universes.”
  • Hopes: “Owned by young people who care more about community than profit and use it for the good of the real and virtual world.”
  • Dreams: “Live digital universe that affords individuals a sense of agency, social presence, and shared spatial awareness.”
  • Expectations: “This is the next iteration of life.”

So if you can’t define the metaverse, you shouldn’t feel dumb. Experts don’t agree on one metaverse definition (yet).

“We are already in the MetaVerse, it’s just mostly 1D (text apps, clubhouse), 2D (Zoom, shared productivity apps like Google Sheets), 2.5D (games like Fortnite, Virbela) — 3D (VR/AR) is just in the development stages.”

— Forbes

Three Technologies to Understand the Metaverse

To understand how the metaverse actually bridges the gap between reality and a virtual world, you want to understand three things:

  • Virtual Reality (VR)
  • Augmented Reality (AR)
  • Mixed Reality (MR).

In essence, the metaverse combines these experiences within a shared and persistent virtual universe.

Created by Eva Keiffenheim

Virtual Reality — VR

VR is a fully computer-generated environment where you can immerse yourself in artificially constructed realities. To experience VR, you need some kind of hardware, for example, glasses, controllers, or body suits with detectors.

Virtual reality. Source: Canva.

Augmented Reality — AR

AR think Pokémon GO. You are in the real world while seeing objects from augmented reality. You can, for example, enrich your reality with new objects through your smartphone.

Augmented Reality. Source: Canva.

Mixed Reality — MR

MR is a mix of virtual methods and real-world spaces. For example, someone could create an exhibit either at a museum or a conference on mixed reality.

Mixed Reality. Source: Canva

The State of the Metaverse in 2022

I was among the naïve who thought Marc Zuckerberg introduced the Metaverse in October 2021.

But the Metaverse has a much longer history.

“Metaverse” first app have eared in Neil Stevenson’s 1982 novel, Snow Crash. Since then, different companies introduced VR machines, created VR glasses, or developed applications (such as IKEA in 2017 with their Place app).

History of the Metaverse. Source: Days Tech

When we now talk about the metaverse, there is a number of companies that work in that space. Here’s a non-exhaustive start:

Meta Platforms, Inc. (formerly Facebook)

According to Meta, the “metaverse” is an integrated environment that links all of the company’s products and services. Zuckerberg wrote that the metaverse will feel like a hybrid of today’s online social experiences, sometimes expanded into three dimensions or projected into the physical world.

Microsoft Mesh

Microsoft launched Microsoft Mesh, a mixed reality platform for digital collaboration. You can use Microsoft’s services through your smartphone or laptop without VR headsets. Through Holoportation, you can project yourself as your photorealistic self and move through a fluid, digital reality.

Roblox

Roblox is a platform for virtual gaming experiences. One can argue they already do offer an early version of a metaverse. As of August 2020, Roblox had over 164 million monthly active users, including more than half of all American children under 16.

Nike Creates NIKELAND on Roblox to connect, create, share experiences and compete. (Source: Nike)

Nvidia

Nvidia Corp creates an omniverse to connect 3D virtual worlds in one shared universe. Building on photorealistic rendering capabilities and advanced AI, Nvidia can create an industrial metaverse.

Siemens Xcelerator (left) and NVIDIA Omniverse (right) could enable full-design-fidelity, closed-loop digital twins. (Source: Nvidia).

“You could learn to do firefighting, skiing, etc from anywhere/time in the world and in a safe way”

— Gisel Armando CTO of Anything World

Where to Go From Here

The metaverse infrastructure is still under construction. When one looks at the examples, the metaverse appears as the internet in 1999 — pixelated and promising.

One can not tell yet whether it’ll be hope or hell. Technology is not ready yet for mass adoption. If you want to learn skills to co-create the metaverse, check out these resources:

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6 Principles That Helped Me Write Effective Headlines

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Over 2 million people clicked on my headlines after I improved them using these techniques

Photo by 43 Clicks North on Unsplash

If your headline isn’t good enough, no one will read your articles. Your content can be perfect. But you drive the audience into your writing through the title.

No one clicked on my articles in early 2020.

My headlines were as shitty as “The digital gap is increasing — we need to act now!” and “Out of your head and into your body in less than 5 minutes”.

I didn’t think of the reader when crafting my headlines, and I believed recycling older, but well-performing headlines is a great idea. I didn’t put time and thoughts into crafting the heading. Hence, almost nobody clicked on my words.

If you ever want to be a successful writer, you need to start working on your titles. Because if no one clicks on your heading, you’ll always have zero readers.

The good news is headline writing is a skill you can master.

Once you understand the components of successful headlines, you can create your own engaging titles.

But consistently writing headlines that make people click is more complex than you might think. It requires continuous practice and re-learning.

And yet, there are a couple of components that will help you craft titles that make people click. The following tips helped me reach 2 million readers in less than two years.

Considering just half of them, you’re already better off than 90% of all online writers.

Write clearly for the benefit of your readers

Online readers don’t have much time. They need prompt satisfaction and quick solutions.

That’s why great headlines focus on the reader’s benefit. They specifically answer the question: What’s in it for the reader?

If readers click, they’ll get something out of the article.

This seems trivial, but when you look around, you’ll see that most articles neglect the reader’s benefit. They read like journal entries and lengthy life stories where the reader’s benefit is hidden.

How you can apply this:

Every time you write a new story, ask yourself: what’s in it for the reader?

Provide your readers with a specific benefit that can bring transformation to their lives. To give you some concrete examples, the reader’s benefit is crystal clear in these headlines:

You can be explicit and use the word “you” to state that the article will be about the reader. As an alternative, you can guide the reader through an experience of your life that can help the reader as well.

Find an angle that attracts a broad audience

I love writing about education.

Yet I’m aware that if I write about Estonia’s education system, the article likely won’t go viral. There are simply not enough people who’re interested in the topic to such depth.

If you’d like to attract a broad audience, contemplate the breadth of your writing by considering what other people might find interesting about your chosen topic. While the title should be as specific as possible, it should also appeal to a large audience.

How you can apply this:

When crafting your headline, answer these questions: Why would many readers care? Who is this relevant for? Is my topic broad enough?

These articles appeal to a broad audience:

While, in my case, Estonia’s education system can’t appeal to a broad audience, I can still write about education in a more inclusive way. People want to remember everything they read, and they’d also like to read books from which they can learn.

People only share specific kinds of articles

Would you share an article titled “How I Overcome My Emotional-Insecurity” on your LinkedIn or Facebook profile?

People only share stuff on the internet that makes them look smart or helpful.

If your article has the shareability quality, it’s more likely to go viral. Because if people share your work, more people will read it, and more people will share it.

How you can apply this:

Think about: Which angle is share-worthy for your readers in your article?

To make your readers look smart and/or helpful, craft headlines where you solve a specific problem for them. If the solution is useful, they’ll happily share it with their friends and colleagues.

You don’t need to solve the biggest life challenges of the readers. It’s enough if you can help them declutter their mailboxes.

These articles, for example, are broadly shared on the internet:

Don’t copy the past. Share your spiky point of view instead

The reason why re-using old headlines most of the time can’t work is the lack of novelty.

What went viral last year won’t be popular this year. People want to read stories from angles they’ve never seen before.

To avoid repeating what has been said before, add your spiky point of view to the title.

As Wes Kao explains, a spiky point of view is someone’s unique, slightly controversial perspective that others can disagree with. It lays outside of the mainstream and brings fresh ideas to the conversation.

You can think about your spiky point of view as the unique way you see the world.

How you can apply this:

To discover your spiky point of view, ask yourself:

  • What is something I strongly believe but others might disagree with?
  • What do most people like but I can’t stand?
  • What is something that I stand by but isn’t (yet) accepted by the society?

You could also use structures such as:

  • Most people think X, but it’s actually Y
  • How I got Y (desirable result in your industry) without Z (conventional advice)

These headings did a great job at adding novelty to the conversation:

Build on other people’s credibility

If readers recognise well-known names in a title, they’re more likely to click because those people already have expertise in their fields.

Readers didn’t know me when I had my first viral article, but they were for sure aware of Bill Gates. The advice came from him and not from me.

Yet, if you have a unique experience that can be useful for others, you can also add “self-proof” to your heading. Whether you built up a career, skipped coffee entirely, or just learned how to meditate and stuck to your practice for years, you can add self-proof to your work.

How you can apply this:

Rely on well-known names, or add self-proof if you’re an expert in the topic you write about.

To help your thinking, here are a few examples:

You’ll write great headlines if you do this one thing

People also click on a headline if it awakens emotions in them. Whether it’s curiosity, anger, or joy, if you can make others feel a certain way when they read your headings, you can also make them click.

This component is tricky, though. Be aware that half of your readers won’t like what you share if you’re controversial. Prepare that they won’t return and might leave angry comments under your work.

Feelings are powerful. Be aware of which emotions you want to transmit.

How you can apply this:

Use power and emotional words in your headings, such as:

Source: Coschedule

To give you some concrete examples, these articles awaken emotions:

What to Keep in Mind

Writing great headlines is complex. Unfortunately, you likely won’t get it intuitively right; you need to learn about titles, and then you need to practice writing them.

And headline practice requires a lot of practice. That’s why we spend an entire 1.5-hour live session on headline practice in my online writing course.

To refresh your memory, these are the six components that make people click a headline:

  1. Reader first
  2. Breadth
  3. Shareability
  4. Novelty
  5. Social proof
  6. Provoke emotions

Don’t feel overwhelmed. Even though it’s challenging, headline writing is also a skill you can master.

For a start, focus on 1–2 components depending on what you write about. You got this.

Ready to accelerate your writing journey and build an online audience?

Subscribe for a free 5-day course on how you can set up the single most important thing writers usually forget to attract a large audience online. With a total time investment of only 20 minutes.

I Used to Run out of Writing Ideas. This Repeatable 3-Step Process Helped.

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A straightforward approach to ideation so you never start with a blank page.

Eva Keiffenheim (Credits: Florentina Olareanu/Golden Hour Pictures)

Every great article starts with an idea. But while ideas are your entry ticket to writing, they can also be a barrier.

Lucky people feel overwhelmed by their abundance of ideas. Others find themselves uninspired, staring at the blank screen.

I was among the latter.

When I started writing online I was sure I’d soon run out of ideas. I feared I’d quickly use up the good ones. I felt uncreative and as if I had not much worth sharing.

It took me months to understand how wrong I was.

Creativity is practice. With the right process in place, you’ll never have to run out of ideas.

The following three-step process is my writing fuel. It has helped me publish more than 300 articles, and reach over two million readers. This structure can help you never again struggle with ideas.

1) What goes in will come out

Most writing consists of living your life and consuming content. Only some part of the process is actually sitting down, writing, and editing your work.

And most importantly, the former determines the latter. How you live your life informs your writing.

Most people mindlessly consume content. They scroll through the jungle of ever-growing content. Occasionally they’ll stumble upon interesting ideas, but mostly they consume trash.

On the internet, consuming trash content is the default option. Unless you work against it, you’ll find yourself in the doom of social media and daily news cycles.

A couple of years ago, I spent two hours a day scrolling through Facebook, reading through newspapers, or listening to news podcasts. It wasn’t until a smart friend told me to replace news consumption with reading books, that things changed.

Digging deeper than the often superficial social media posts will increase your understanding of the world. And it will also help you become a better writer.

By avoiding mediocre content and consuming the greatest inspirational resources, you’ll find yourself writing better articles. Because what goes in will come out.

How to apply this:

Which content are you regularly consuming that’s not adding value to your life? Replace it with better stuff.

Go beyond the content everyone else is reading. There are Goodreads, Gatesnotes, and so many other best-selling lists that suggest what you should be reading. Most of these lists contain books from authors with the best marketing strategy or the broadest social media reach.

If you look at human history, the chances are small that the greatest books were created in the past decade. The fundamental human problems seem to be the same in all ages: Justice, love, virtue, stability, and change itself.

Search, for example, through the appendix of Mortimer J. Adler’s classic How to Read a book. Alternatively, ask the smartest and most inspiring people you know which type of newsletters, books, or online articles they read and listen to.

I asked my students at the Writing Online Accelerator to add their most-inspiring resources to an inspiration board. (Click here to get the full board free).

Source: Screenshot from the Writing Online Accelerator Module 1

2) How to program your mind to come up with ideas

There’s a crucial thing to keep in mind when it comes to ideas: Don’t scare them away.

Be gentle on how you treat your ideas and monitor your thoughts.

If you label your ideas as ‘bad’ without noting them down, you hinder your ideation process. You don’t give your mind the safe space for the ‘good’ ideas to arise.

There’s no such thing as a ‘bad idea’. Here’s how to transform your thinking.

My idea is worthless =► Every idea is valuable.

Don’t judge your ideas while writing them down. Ideas are like raw diamonds, and you don’t know how they’ll turn out until you’ve written the article.

This has been written before. =► This has not been done by me.

Yes, your idea exists in some form on the internet. Unless you’re doing ground-breaking scientific research, many people have written about your idea. But don’t let that hold you back. You’re the best at living your life. You can add your unique perspective to the conversation.

I don’t have enough ideas. =► I have plenty of ideas.

In the beginning, you won’t have an abundance of ideas. But if you let yourself be inspired and treat your ideas well, they’ll arise. The more you create, the more creative you become. The best ideas and connections will arise once you flow into the writing process.

How to apply this:

Say yes to any idea that strikes your mind. Stop worrying whether other people have written about a topic.

You’ve not written about it yet, and that’s the only thing that matters. Don’t be scared to write about the same idea twice or thrice.

You’ll become more specific every time you write about it. Lastly, trust the process. You’ll have more ideas with every article you write.

“Most things have been done, but they have not yet been done by you.”

— Elizabeth Gilbert

3) Have one tool to capture your ideas

Once you’re aware of the ideation process, it’s time to capture and store your ideas.

There’s an insane amount of tools you can choose from. At the beginning of my journey, I used Trello. Then I switched to Notion and I experimented with an excel sheet. For a while, I settled for Milanote. Milanote was visually appealing to me, I could use it via my phone as well, and it is searchable.

In April 2022 I discovered xTiles. The platform combines all features I was looking for. It’s a mixture of note-taking and a whiteboard — as if Milanote and Notion had a baby.

My current idea board xTiles (Screenshot by author).

How to apply this:

Experiment, and choose a tool that feels good to you, and where you really going to capture all the ideas. It can be a google sheet, a journal, xTiles, Notion, or any other tool you like.

When choosing your tool, think about: Do you know how to use it? Do you like how it looks and feels? Will you use it every day?”

When you write down your ideas you communicate to your brain that it’s worthy to generate more ideas. If you have ideas and don’t follow them, you teach your brain you’re not doing anything with them. You’ll doubt your ideas more and more. So say yes to all ideas that come to my mind and capture them in a single place

Remember the essence

To never run out of ideas, you’ll need to:

  • Consume inspirational content
  • Treat your ideas well: there aren’t any bad ideas
  • Capture your thoughts: every time an idea comes to your mind, save it on your idea board

Ideas are the magical place where your writing starts. Steal my three-step process to always start in idea abundance.

Ready to accelerate your writing journey and build an online audience?

Subscribe for a free 5-day course on how you can set up the single most important thing writers usually forget to attract a large audience online. With a total time investment of only 20 minutes.

How Change Starts Within Yourself

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Personal transformation is systemic transformation.

Eva Keiffenheim and Romana Shaikh / Credits: Dominic Regester

Last month, I had the privilege to interview Romana Shaikh at Salzburg Global Seminar — Education Futures: Shaping A New Education Story.

Romana Shaikh is the Chief Programming Officer for Kizazi, which partners with local NGOs who work with government schools to design, implement, and codify breakthrough school models for a deeper purpose of education. Romana is committed to creating and enabling a thriving life for every child.

My questions build upon insights from the global research A New Education Story — Three Drivers to Transform Education Systems. Romana’s perspective connects to the three drivers, purpose, power, and practice, and sheds light on the mindset shifts and actions needed so that all children can thrive.

In your work as an educator and leadership developer, what have you learned about power as a lever for system change?

All systemic oppressions that exist on the outside have an impact on each of us on the inside. Even though I was a speaker at this global conference, able to talk about what I wanted to talk about, I am aware of being the minority in the room — as an Indian Muslim Woman.

A few months ago, at home, in India, “indianmuslimgenocide” was a trending hashtag on Twitter. The increasing violence against Muslims, the increasing felt sense of hate and otherness, has created a sense of powerlessness, of feeling like a victim. There is a fear in my mind, in my body. If I express my voice, what is going to be at stake? Am I going to get attacked for this? Will my family get attacked? Will I lose friends?

Even though my work has afforded me many privileges and so much power, there is this part that continues to feel powerless. Do I really have power and agency in a system that sees me through a single lens of being Muslim? A system that discriminates against this one part of my identity? That fails to see me in my wholeness.

Whatever you do in life, if some parts of your identity are those that are not the majority, you are always looked at differently. The system treats you differently.

That’s why to understand power; you need to understand identity. I saw all these different identities or parts inside me and how different identities shape my experience of the world in a particular way. Many systemic challenges stem from how we perceive our own identity. And more so from the way, others perceive us, which gets shaped by social norms and the access we have in the system we grow up in. The personal exploration of my identities, and the impact that they’ve had on me, helped me begin to see these patterns in the world more clearly.

Before, it always felt like, “oh, this is just something that happened to me”. But what I’m experiencing is not just my experience. Every other person who shares some shades of my identity, some intersections, is probably experiencing the same thing. So, “This is not just my problem. I’m not the only one who’s gone through this” was a big insight. I’m not the only one who has to fight this fight. There are other women and Muslims who’ve experienced the world the same way i have, many have experienced worse. There’s a pattern there.

And then, once you recognise this, acknowledge this, and understand this pattern exists, you begin to question, “why is it?”

When you begin to really drill it down, at one point, you will come to more universal constructs of our identity — gender, race, religion, caste, class, and sexuality. In different parts of the world, there are different constructs. Seeing these in daily interactions in life gave me a lens that helped me to see patterns in the inequity in education.

The question is, what is the rest of the world doing about it?

Can you share an example of this shift in perception?

When I was at Teach for India, I was leading our program. I saw classrooms across urban cities in India and later some rural parts of India as well. Over the years of visiting government and low-cost private schools that were all providing an English medium instruction, I recognised patterns that enable real progress for children. But there were also some schools and classrooms that were just not making the same progress. Academically these classrooms started lower than others; there was more dysregulation or ‘acting out’ of children in the classrooms. Different teachers tried and tried but still failed.

When we started looking outside the classroom, outside the school, we began to see more patterns. The poverty was more extreme, the exposure to violence was higher, the sanitation was poorer, and often there was a larger Muslim population. All this information painted a complete picture of how things are today.

As I’ve looked at data across the country, specifically for Muslims in India, I’ve begun to understand that Muslims in India have been systematically oppressed — Only 17% of Muslims complete Grade 10 compared to a 26% national average, almost one-third (31%) of the Indian Muslims are living below the poverty line, till date, Muslims are denied housing in many parts of the country furthering the geographical segregation which in turn, leads to Muslim ghettos that then continue to have limited access to healthcare, education, or government subsidy.

More recent studies have shown that the Muslim child is most marginalised because of the added political marginalisation the community experiences. So as a Muslim child, there are fewer people around you that have benefitted from education, there is more discrimination you face on a daily basis, and more of your family has been in multi-generational poverty.

You can’t just say ‘it’s a poor person’s problem. The system has made them poor and the system is maintaining that poverty.

With this acknowledgement that so much is at play when you work with children from marginalised backgrounds, the narrative about high expectations in education is one I find quite unfair today. We’re saying to children, “I have high expectations of you; you need to get here.” But then, we’re not giving children any chance to get there. And it’s not just language, it’s the way we see the world, we keep seeing the need for students to work harder than their privileged counterparts.

Anyone who is growing up marginalised knows they have to work harder. The question is, what is the rest of the world doing about it?

Romana Shaikh — Credits: Salzburg Global Seminar/Katrin Kerschbaumer

Romana, you said acknowledging the shared parts of identity started within yourself and continued through a sense of shared experience.

When you talk about ghettoised Muslim communities, it sounds as if starting on an individual level is insufficient because of a larger systemic injustice. What do you think is needed from a systems perspective to be fairer to children in these contexts?

Yes absolutely. Rising from the personal to the systemic is very important. But you can’t have systemic change without a personal change. We have to acknowledge that it’s not right to demand and expect the same things from all children. Because no child starts at the same point.

Before you replicate any school or education system, you have to contextualise. At a systemic level, we need to ask, “What’s needed here? And how does my system need to change to serve that?” And since I’m part of the system, I would need to change for my system to change.

What’s needed here? And how does my system need to change to serve that?

So let’s ask what is needed here. Let’s acknowledge that a child brings into the school and classroom their experience of marginalisation, of poverty, of oppression. A child who works to support their family needs something different from school than a child who is bullied because of her religious identity. A child who is growing up in a single-parent household has different needs from the adults in school than a child who is raising their siblings. All the intersectionalities of their identity are part of their experience which they bring into class.

Then let’s ask how my system needs to change to serve these needs. Our education system has for far too long been a “one size fits all” that focuses very narrowly on a cognitive kind of education — one that’s all about knowledge acquisition and retention. Our children need and deserve more than that. They deserve to be seen and responded to as whole human beings. So when a child doesn’t complete their homework or falls asleep in class or struggles to retain information or doesn’t believe education is important for them, we have to pause and remember everything that contributes to the life this child experiences.

And then, we will realise how the design of schools with their grading systems, their rules of discipline, the rigidity of curriculum and their notion of success need to shift to truly honour and empower each child. This requires us, as adults in the system today, to redefine the values and structures of the school system itself.

It’s acknowledging that an education system is not separate from other systems; we are human, we are whole, and we carry our whole experience with us everywhere. We learn what’s socially acceptable and how to express ourselves in school. So even education needs to see itself in relation to the whole system, in relation to the social system and to the economic system. Then you begin to see the bigger picture and what needs to shift. But this process is not easy.

It’s acknowledging that an education system is not separate from other systems, we are human, we are whole, we carry our whole experience with us everywhere.

Apart from your experience in teaching and school development, you’re also a trained psychotherapist. Based on your insights in trauma work, where do you see the need for a shift on a practice level in the classroom?

My biggest realization during trauma work is that if there’s one thing that’s universal, it’s trauma. It needs the least contextualization. I get goosebumps thinking about it.

The events that traumatize us are different across cultures — but we’re all human and how we experience trauma is very similar. What makes you sad and what makes me sad, maybe different. But sadness for you and sadness for me, feels the same. Because that’s how the body works. And the body is, again, something that’s so fundamental, which none of us learn to take care of. In most education systems — and in what I’ve seen across Africa, Armenia, and India, — you’re taught biology, but you’re not actually learning your own biology.

Our education systems need to create space for us to learn about our own human-ness. How our body works, how our mind works and how we can take care of ourselves and each other.

Trauma happens inside our bodies. It stays there and gets triggered by different incidents in our daily life. We see it playing out in our classrooms every day in the bodies and faces of teachers and children. Every time a child (or an adult) reacts in a way that feels disproportionate, or gets too confused or too scared, that is a sign for us to know there’s more going on in the body-mind than what we can see.

The high-stakes nature of examinations, the achievement orientation, the vast syllabi — we all have a childhood memory of school that has shaped some belief in our personality. At a fundamental level, the way we see children and in turn, treat children needs to shift. We need to see them as whole human beings, each unique in how they will grow and each bringing in a unique story of stress, strength and resilience. And this work needs to start with the adults in the system. They too, carry their own intersectionalities and stress, strength and resilience into the school.

Trauma is a much more prevalent experience than we’ve acknowledged in education.

Our education systems need to create space for us to learn about our own human-ness. How our body works, how our mind works and how we can take care of ourselves and each other.

So would you say a shift in practice towards more social-emotional learning can be a way to bring this knowledge about our own biology into classrooms?

Yes, and no. Much of our systemic injustice is rooted in a lack of social and emotional capacities. And while it’s great that social-emotional learning is becoming the new big thing, I worry it will be compromised into our existing assessment and curriculum structure.

Our generation today and our elders had so much trauma. They didn’t learn to love, to live, and to be healthy — They experienced war, conflict, fights for independence, fights for social justice. And those fights have not ended. We’ve inherited that trauma, it’s in our collective consciousness. There’s a reason we are so scared to share, to trust, to love freely. There’s a reason we’re asking about the cost of returns on feeding a child. No parent would do that. We are biologically wired to nurture. Something has gone terribly wrong.

Social-emotional learning and trauma informed teaching can be a part of healing and working with it. But we have to be mindful of how to integrate it.

How can we meaningfully integrate social-emotional learning into practice?

We must recognize social-emotional learning is not a subject, but a way of life. It’s not a means to an end. Education is about the present and it’s about all of us, young people and adults.

If I’m a teacher, coming to school in the morning, and having a fight with my family at home, and carrying that with me, do I have to pretend everything is fine or do I get a morning meeting to check-in?

In Seroond schools in Armenia, we’ve seen how conversations have changed. There’s no pretending anymore. Teachers take 15 minutes in the morning and start their day with a check-in: “Hey, how’s everyone doing? Let’s check in with each other and with ourselves.” We need to give ourselves that permission to be human.

To include social-emotional learning in pedagogy and practice, it has to be done together and for everyone. In India, the Simple Education Foundation learned this quickly during the pandemic. They started wellbeing circles for their teachers and their families. In a regular virtual gathering, each person shared how they are and give and receive support from each other. The teachers didn’t need training on how to care for children. They needed the space to receive care for themselves.

In Sierra Leone, one of the most important things our local partner National Youth Awareness Forum has done is bringing families to the school. There are school management committees with families to co-determine the purpose and practice of schools. They’ve asked families “What do you want the school to do?”They’ve shared responsibilities of managing the school with families.

Initiating a dialogue within communities is a powerful lever for change. Because we’re in this together. We’re all doing this for our space. This is our planet, our country, whatever that unit is. And so social-emotional learning is about really integrating it into the way we live, into the way we relate.

You’re the chief program officer at Kizazi and you work with local partners around the world to catalyze innovation in school design to increase opportunities for all children. In addition to India, Armenia and Sierra Leone, where do you see community-inclusive education transformation?

One really good example is the Aspire Connect Transform microschools from Egypt. The school’s founders created a network of microschools that strives to create young ACTors throughout the continent who transform their communities for the better.

They have a very strong inclusion policy. Moreover, they’ve broken age barriers and taught in a small group, multi-age, and in multigrade settings. Curriculums are designed around cultural and national identities and a sense of belonging. Another example in this school in the US that has redesigned itself around the whole child. –

Another excellent example is Dream a Dream, an organisation that empowers children and young people from vulnerable backgrounds to overcome adversity and thrive in a fast-changing world.

In India, an organisation that focuses on social — emotional learning in government schools — Apni Shaala and supports teachers, families as well as children in developing practices that support wellbeing. There is a school network — Akanksha Schools that has a holistic vision for children, it puts values and character education at the heart of their work.

There’s work that I haven’t seen myself, but I’m aware of through the trauma studies that can be a real resource for us to begin to integrate into our work with teachers and families — Some excellent networks offer resources and trainings for parents & educators — The Attachment and Trauma Network, for example, places a great focus on the role of attachment and the quality of relationships a child experiences with the adults in their lives.

Touch the future, though created for parents, has great resources and insights for educators. Especially the resources that talk about the critical role of play in a child’s development.

Thank you, Romana, for taking the time and for sharing your perspective.

How You Can Write with the Right Mindset to Fuel Sustainable Growth

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And create a solid base for your online writing journey

Credits: Salzburg Global Seminar/Katrin Kerschbaumer

When I started writing in March 2020, I felt like quitting all the time.

I had no idea how to write stuff people want to read. I didn’t know how to write articles on a consistent basis, and I tried and tested a lot before I got into a solid writing habit. It was a real roller-coaster ride.

The reason why I still pushed through when nothing seemed to work was my mindset. In the following lines, I’ll share every thought that can help you stick through on your creative journey.

Since March 2020, more than 2M people have read my work and I’ve supported more than 40 people in my learner-centric, cohort-based writing courses, the Writing Online Accelerator.

This is how my mindset created a solid base for my writing journey. And how to make it work for you as well.

Why do you write?

To build a consistent writing habit you want to know your why. What’s the reason for your becoming a writer?

Do you write to make more money? To learn something new every day? To have a hobby you enjoy? For growing an audience and building an online business? Is it making an impact on people’s lives by sharing what you know?

While there are no wrong answers, knowing your why can be your fuel.

When I started, I had several whys. I wanted to learn a new skill. I wanted to clarify my thinking. And I wanted to have a voice. My whys changed during the years. Now I write because I love to learn. I love the fuzzy feeling I get when I enter the writing flow states. I love the freedom to work from anywhere. And I love the opportunities writing has created for me.

Now you

What are your best answers to the questions below?

  • Why do you write?
  • What’s the underlying reason for your journey?
  • How does writing fit into your life?
  • What’s your long-term goal with writing?

Your why will likely change. But knowing the reason why you want to take the time to write can be your biggest asset.

Success in writing isn’t linear

I worked with Sinem Günel as a writing coach and one of the most helpful lessons she shared with me was the following: Success in writing isn’t linear but exponential. You have to write up to 100 articles without expecting anything in return.

Most writers give up too early before they experience exponential growth.

Don’t expect to go viral after your third article. It took me 40 pieces to reach 100,000 people. Exponential growth will surprise you when you keep improving. Writing isn’t a sprint: it’s a marathon. Don’t expect overnight success, but build a solid habit you can stick with.

I feel you.

It’s soul-draining to write in the void until you experience exponential growth.

You’ll feel lonesome in the vastness of the online world. You won’t get any external feedback because no one will care about your writing. For a while, no one will even click on your work. You’ll be one more person who creates noise in the already crowded parts of the internet.

Then very slowly, people will start to come. They’ll comment and reach out to you and actually read your words.

But until then, writing online is damn difficult.

Hang in there. If you’re committed to writing consistently, readers will notice you.

Source: Screenshot from the Writing Online Accelerator Module 1

Now you

A specific, measurable, time-bound, and realistic plan can help you stick through.

To create a plan, answer the following questions:

  • How many articles will you publish in the next 6 weeks?
  • When and where will you write?
  • When do you enjoy writing the most?
  • When are you most productive? What might prevent you from publishing consistently?
  • What are your strategies to overcome your barriers?
  • If you stop publishing consistently, what will you do to get back to the habit quickly?

Prepare for an emotional roller-coaster ride

The journey of writing can feel like riding an emotional roller coaster.

Sometimes your writing flows; sometimes it flops. Sometimes your best articles won’t get any traction, and your worst pieces will be read by thousands of people. Sometimes you’ll be able to finish an article in one sit, while other times, you’ll struggle to put a single paragraph onto your screen.

You’ll feel your ideas are great. Then you’ll think they’re terrible. It’s all part of the journey. Your feelings are valid.

Make peace with the hard times and have a clear goal that keeps you on track when writing doesn’t feel easy.

What to Keep in Mind

90% of the people don’t stick to writing. They give up too early and expect overnight success when in reality, writing isn’t a sprint but a marathon.

To stick through until you’ve achieved your personal “why”, these are the four mindset snippets that can keep you on track

  • Know your why
  • Make a plan to stick through until you’ve reached exponential success
  • Know that all creators go through a shared emotional roller-coaster ride
Ready to accelerate your writing journey and build an online audience?

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How to Never Run Out of Writing Ideas

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Creativity is a choice once you manage your ideas.

Photo by Mika Baumeister on Unsplash

When I started writing, I felt I had nothing worthy to say and that I’d soon run out of ideas. Two years and 300 articles later, I know I was wrong about both.

Everybody has something worthy to share.

And creativity is a choice.

The following lines reveal how you can have endless ideas and what to do with them.

“Most things have been done, but they have not yet been done by you.”

— Elizabeth Gilbert

How to Train Your Brain to Have Endless Ideas

After I had published my first three articles, I had no ideas left. I faced most writers’ biggest fear — a blank page.

Luckily, I soon learned how to always have ideas at your fingertips. These are the two creativity principles I’ve used ever since.

Don’t kill your baby ideas…

In the beginning, almost all ideas are shit. They lack substance, examples, research, or anecdotes.

That’s why new writers judge and discard their ideas very early. In fact, too early. Ideas need time to mature.

If you kill your ideas when they’re still at the baby stage, you’ll never know how they might have turned out.

And, even worse: you tell your brain your ideas are worthless. It will soon stop generating new ones.

What you want to do is to be neutral towards any idea that crosses your mind. Acknowledge it’s too early to know whether the idea is good and continue with step two.

…but capture them.

Every idea is worth capturing. Because you’re now telling your brain, it’s worth generating new ones. Your brain will become your best idea supplier.

The challenge?

Ideas come when you don’t expect them.

Most of my ideas come while I write another article, meditate, go for a run, or have a conversation with friends. That’s why you want to have a clear workflow for idea capturing.

How to Pick Your Idea Management Tool

When you look for a tool to capture your ideas, you want it to fulfil three key criteria: Do you know how to use it? Do you like how it looks and feels? Will you use it every day?

Source: Writing Online Accelerator

In the beginning, I spent hours looking for the best tool. But comparing tools can distract you from actually doing the work.

Let me save you some time by demonstrating what worked and what didn’t work for me. My idea boards evolved from an unhandy Trello to a still unhandy Notion, to a more flexible Milanote, to xTiles.

My idea board on Trello: March 2020 — July 2020. With every new idea, it felt more chaotic. (Screenshot by author).
My idea board on Notion: August 2020 — December 2020. I had the same “growth” problem as with Trello: endless vertical scrolling. (Screenshot by author).
My idea board on Milanote: Jan 2021 — March 2022. I loved the flexible organization. But the search function was painful, and I missed Notion’s formatting tools (Screenshot by author).
My current idea board xTiles (Screenshot by author).

xTiles combines all features I was looking for. It’s a mixture of note-taking and a whiteboard — as if Milanote and Notion had a baby.

It’s not as rigid as Notion and Trello, I can visually organize information. And yet, it has a level of organization I missed in Milanote. Here are two examples:

You can add new cards anywhere and move the content around. (Screen recording by author).
You can expand and close cards as you need them so things don’t get messy. (Screen recording by author).

What to Keep in Mind

Your life is full of inspiration once you start looking for it. You can find ideas in conversations, books, movies, podcasts, and even in architecture or relationships.

But ideas arise when you don’t expect them. So the most important part is to have a tool to store them.

Once something strikes your mind, add the idea to your idea board. Add any helpful context, such as videos or next steps, to explore the concept even further:

Add to-dos and video links

Once you capture every idea, you’ll swim in a sea of idea abundance. And the more you create, the more creative you become.

3 Things I Learned from the Country with Europe’s Best Schools

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You’ll marvel at Estonia’s education system.

Tallinn, Estonia’s capital. (Source: Jaanus Jagomägi on Unsplash)

“At our schools, we don’t have homework,” 11-year old Ulvar told me during a school visit to Tallinn. I chuckled.

Estonian students outperform all other European countries in PISA results — by not having homework?

Ulvar wasn’t joking.

Compared to other PISA participating countries, Estonian students have short school days and spend little time on homework or 1-on-1 tutoring.

While many other high-performing PISA countries, like Singapore or Korea, achieve high learning outcomes through volume, Estonian students learn a lot in little time.

Productivity = Learning gains per hour of instruction. (Source: Andreas Schleicher, OECD)

And learning productivity is just one of the impressive things about Estonian schools.

Thanks to Teach For Austria alumni and very welcoming Teach For Estonia staff, I spent four days in Tallinn to learn more about the Estonian education system.

This article distils the key lessons I learned from students, teachers, school principals, Teach For Estonia, the University of Tallinn, NGOs, and the Estonian Ministry of Education.

After reading this article, you’ll have a system overview and know what contributes to Estonia’s education excellence.

Estonia’s Education System at a Glance

“Estonia has become a successful role model in education worldwide. According to PISA 2018 Estonian general education is 1st in Europe and among the best in the world.”

— Government of Estonia

Three-year-old children can attend pre-school. At age seven, children start basic school and finish at age 16. Students then take a standardised examination and choose between high school and vocational school.

What’s interesting: While early childhood education is not compulsory, 95% of three to seven-year-olds attend it. Parents have the right to affordable childcare and education starting at three years old. There’s a national curriculum for early childhood education that includes reading, mathematical, and motor skills.

How education is organised in Estonia. (Source: Education Estonia)

Estonia’s education system is known for its excellent PISA scores: 1st in the world of financial literacy, 1st in digital learning, 4th in science, 5th in reading, and 8th in Math.

And when you dive deeper into OECD’s report, you find more exciting facts:

  1. Educational equity: Students’ socio-economic background has the lowest impact on reading performance in the OECD.
  2. System efficiency: Estonia outperforms other countries in overall PISA performance despite relatively low expenditure on education.
  3. Mindset: Estonian students rank first in growth mindset — the belief that success comes from effort instead of inherited intelligence.

But what contributes to these outcomes? Let’s take a look at three powerful factors of high-performing education systems.

1) Data Transparency and Feedback Loops

“Missing feedback is one of the most common causes of a system malfunction.”

— Donella Meadows

Data is power. Who does and who doesn’t have access to it makes all the difference. Neither parents nor teachers nor policymakers can make well-informed decisions without data.

Yet, most countries don’t offer access to education data. System thinker Donella Meadows reveals why:

“There is a systematic tendency on the part of human beings to avoid accountability for their own decisions. That’s why there are so many missing feedback loops — and why this kind of leverage point is so often popular with the masses, unpopular with the powers that be, and effective if you can get the powers that be to permit it to happen (or go around them and make it happen anyway).”

Estonian power-holders embrace transparency and accountability.

The state uses internal and external evaluations to offer the publically available Education Statistics Portal, which compiles information on basic, general, secondary, vocational and higher education.

For each school, you can find data about student satisfaction, bullying rates, sick days, high-stakes testing results, government spending per student, and much more.

Example of Estonia’s data transparency: Government spending per student from 2015 to 2022. (Source: Education Statistics Portal)

In addition to this dashboard, the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research publishes an annual review.

The government uses the analysis for developing policies through an evidence-based approach (something even enshrined in their 2035 strategy).

But what happens to low-performing schools?

Neither finger-pointing nor closure.

The Ministry of Education and schools collaborate for improvement.

Specific support programs offer guidance, chief analyst Sandra Fomotškin from the Education Ministry of Education told us. And as the next section will reveal, principals have a scope of action to transform their schools.

2) Agency for Teachers and School Principals

“Agency is defined as the capacity to set a goal, reflect and act responsibly to effect change. It is about acting rather than being acted upon; shaping rather than being shaped; and making responsible decisions and choices rather than accepting those determined by others.”

— OECD

Agency for learners and educators is the greatest opportunity to transform learning institutions. And Estonian schools have the autonomy to affect change.

For example, school principals have decision-power about:

  • Assessments (many schools don’t grade their students until the age of 12 but provide qualitative feedback as a guide and motivational tool for learning).
  • Staffing decisions (headteachers can hire and fire teachers).
  • The school’s curriculum (within the learning goals of a national curriculum).
  • Teacher’s role and salary (while there is a fixed based, there’s to up it by 17% depending on teachers’ responsibility, e.g. as math coordinator or school developer).
  • The lesson length (e.g., having fewer but longer lessons).
  • The distribution between presence and home learning (e.g. kids spend four days at school and have one independent learning day at home).

We witnessed in two schools how these levels of autonomy translate into action.

At Pelgulinna Gümnaasium the school initiated and implemented a CBAM change process for implementing a learner-centric approach. Teachers see themselves as lifelong learners. “Students are not learning” translates to teachers being required (and supported) to improve their teaching.

Another example of autonomy is Avatud Kool, which was founded to bring the best pedagogical practices, such as language immersion, into schools. The school accepts 50% Russian-Speaking and 50% Estonian-speaking students, and both groups are taught in Russian, Estonian, and English.

“It is imperative to allow autonomy at every level in the education system to change it from an administrative institution to a learning institution.”

— Nadiem Makarim

3) Evidence-based Teaching and Learning

“When one looks at the scientific evidence about how the brain learns and at the design of our education system, one is forced to conclude that the system actively retards education”

— Daisy Christodoulou

Most teachers nor students across the globe know how to learn. While learning science offers clear guidance, people continue to use ineffective teaching and learning techniques.

For example, students often continue to reread or highlight, even though we know it’s a fruitless strategy.

The problem? A missing link between research and teaching practice. Most teacher-training programs are not informed by evidence.

And if teachers don’t learn how to learn, how can we expect them to teach it to their students?

Estonia has recognised the potential of integrating learning science for a long time. As a result, metacognition and learning are enshrined in teaching curricula and applied in praxis.

For example, Pelgulinna Gümnaasium’s key goal is that every student becomes a self-directed learner. There’s a subject called “learning how to learn”, where students learn how to set goals, plan time, as well as strategies for reading, memorising, and writing.

Learning about Estonia’s education system. (Source: Mona Mägi Soomer)

Key Challenges & Caveats

While Estonia does a lot of things right, some challenges remain:

  • Teacher recruitment and retention. There’s a teacher shortage, and every fourth teacher quits school after the first year.
  • Segregation between Russian- and Estonian-speaking schools. Russian-speaking students are often disadvantaged compared to their peers.
  • Drop-out rates. 17% drop out of the system after nine years of compulsory education.

Moreover, there are two important caveats to keep in mind.

Estonia is a small country with 1.33 inhabitants. In one of the conversations, I heard the Minister of Education is Facebook friends with most school principals — which decreases friction and enables direct and open communication but is challenging to scale.

Plus, Estonia has a relatively homogenous student body. For example, in 2017, there were only 59 refugees in Estonia. In contrast, in my class as a middle school teacher in Vienna, there were 25 students from 13 different nationalities (and mother tongues).

Final Thoughts

Education is the most powerful tool to change our societies for the better, something Estonia has realised for a very long time.

The country is a forerunner on the students, institution and system level by enabling data-driven decision making, equipping educators with agency, and including science-based principles in teaching and learning.

If there’s one thing I learned, it’s that education systems are not fixed. They can be redesigned and transformed for the better by all of us.

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A Podcast Listening Strategy for Learning

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Three steps to make the most of your podcast time

Source: Canva

Podcasts are an excellent way to acquire new knowledge. Hosts boil hours of research down to digestible content.

Yet, while podcasts are growing into one of the largest knowledge libraries on our planet, many people are not as strategic about their listening practice.

Listening to podcasts doesn’t make you smarter per se — it’s what you pick and do with it that will make all the difference.

The following lines will give you three quick ways to make the most of any value-packed podcast you listen to.

1) Find high quality podcasts

The friction to publishing podcasts is lower than it is for publishing books. You don’t need a publisher. Anyone with a phone and internet connection can become a podcast host.

Hence the quality of podcasts varies, and most podcasts are not worth your time. But some are. Instead of choosing a podcast based on the thumbnail and title, make a short effort to find the best one for you.

You can check out charts in the category “education,” search by keyword and podcast (e.g., best podcasts for language learning), or look at a podcast curation site.

Here are three of my favorite value-packed podcasts for learning:

Huberman Lab
Dr. Andrew Huberman, a tenured professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at the Stanford University School of Medicine, discusses science and science-based tools for everyday life.

Philosophize This!
Stephen West shares ideas that shaped our world. It’s for anyone interested in an educational podcast about philosophy where you don’t need to be a graduate-level philosopher to understand it.

NPR: It’s an independent, nonprofit media organization founded on a mission to create a more informed public. NPR has many great podcasts, but my favorites are Radio Ambulante (in Spanish) and TED Radio Hour.

2) Use apps that help you remember more

You won’t remember much from a podcast if you only listen to it. Your brain needs repetition and elaboration to make new knowledge stick.

Unlike books, you can’t highlight audio — or can you?

I listen to my podcasts while biking or walking. Hence, an extremely uncomfortable situation to open a notepad or Roam Research whenever I hear an interesting idea.

But two applications have transformed how I listen to podcasts: Snipd and Airr. Both are audio highlighting tools.

When you hear something you want to remember, you tap a button. In Snipd, this creates a snippet that includes a descriptive title with optimized start- and end-points to capture the context, a summary of your snip, and the full transcript.

Source: Snipd

Airr is very similar to Snipd. The app allows me to tap on my AirPod and pin a conversation so that I can reread it whenever I need it. I no longer need to scan back through an entire episode to find a snippet or thought I can’t quite remember.

I sync Airr with a service called Readwise, which extracts all my audio snippets to Roam and Obsidian.

Source: Airr on the App Store

I haven’t fully tried Snipd yet, but I like Airr (mainly because of the AirPod feature). However, an advantage of Snipd is that it works for Android as well as iOS. Snipd also offers you a direct integration to Obsidian, which makes the monthly Readwise subscription obsolete. You should be able to export markdown with Airr as well, but I haven’t managed to do this.

3) Become a teacher by learning in public

Have you ever read a book only to forget the quintessence three weeks later?

You don’t have a bad memory. Forgetting is natural and actually even essential for learning.

But to make information stick, you’ll want to interrupt this forgetting, ideally, through a meaningful learning practice.

All great books on learning that I have read agree on the effectiveness of teaching newly learned things to others.

In ‘How We Learn’, Benedict Carey writes,

“Many teachers have said that you don’t really know a topic until you have to teach it, until you have to make it clear to someone else.”

The attempt to communicate what you’ve learned to your family, friends or any online audience is a very effective learning technique. Carey again:

“These apparently simple attempts to communicate what you’ve learned, to yourself or others, are not merely a form of self-testing, in the conventional sense, but studying — the high-octane kind, 20 to 30 per cent more powerful than if you continue sitting on your butt, staring at that outline. Better yet, those exercises will dispel the fluency illusion. They’ll expose what you don’t know, where you’re confused, and what you’ve forgotten — and fast.”

Carey is not the only one who recommends teaching what you’ve learned to other people. In ‘A Mind for Numbers’, Dr. Barbara Oakley provides another powerful example:

“The legendary Charles Darwin would do much the same thing. When trying to explain a concept, he imagined someone had just walked into his study. He would put his pen down and try to explain the idea in the simplest terms. That helped him figure out how he would describe the concept in print. Along those lines, the website Reddit.com has a section called ‘Explain Like I’m 5’ where anyone can make a post asking for a simple explanation of a complex topic.”

You don’t have to be an expert on the topic you just listened to on the podcast. Having some knowledge gaps can even benefit your learning practice.

Oakley again:

“You may think you really have to understand something in order to explain it. But observe what happens when you are talking to other people about what you are studying. You’ll be surprised to see how often understanding arises as a consequence of attempts to explain to others and yourself, rather than the explanation arising out of your previous understanding. This is why teachers often say that the first time they ever really understood the material was when they had to teach it.”

So the next time you listen to an episode you want to remember, explain it to your flatmate in a blog post or a short video clip. You will be surprised by how much this practice improves your learning.

My free weekly Learn Letter will give you tools and resources to accelerate your learning. If you’d like to accelerate your online writing, register here.

This Mind-Changing Principle Shows It’s Never Too Late to Become a Better Self

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How you can change your habits for good.

Created by the author via Canva.

Which parts of your identity do you believe to be fixed?

The older we get, the more we tend to see our thoughts and actions as predetermined.

I’m a procrastinator. I can’t lose weight. I’m not a runner. That’s just how I am.

But nothing could be further from the truth. Your brain’s neuronal structure isn’t fixed once you cross a certain age.

No matter how long you’ve been telling yourself you can’t — you can always unlearn, relearn, and, as a result, change.

In recent years, researchers have better understood how our brains work. You’ll understand the science behind it and how you can change for good.

The Reason Why You Can Always Change

Neuroplasticity is your brain’s ability to change throughout life based on what you think, do, and experience.

“When you think or do something repeatedly, your brain actually changes its physical structure,” Shad Helmstetter writes in ‘The Power of Neuroplasticity.’

New thoughts and skills carve out new neural pathways. Every time you think, feel, or do something, you strengthen this pathway, and that’s how you form a habit. In other words: learning rewires your brain.

Traditionally, research associated brain plasticity with childhood. But now, it’s generally accepted that adults brains change as a result of learning.

But what exactly changes when you learn?

In a recent study, neuroscientists used magnetic resonance imaging to observe the brain’s structure while learning.

Your brain consists of gray and white matter. It’s white because it contains billions of axons that are coated with a fatty substance called myelin.

Gray matter vs. White Matter (Source).

These myelin-coated axons play a critical role in learning: they connect the neurons in the gray matter into circuits. The myelin works like electrical insulation and, as researchers write, boosts the speed of transmission by 50 to 100 times.

Hence, myelin (the fatty white substance around the axons) is a critical factor for learning as it determines your brain’s information transmission speed. Myelin makes signals faster, stronger, and more precise.

And here’s where learning and practice come into play: Every time you repeat a practice, the myelin layer thickens. The more you practice a specific skill, the better insulated the circuit becomes. In return, your thoughts and behaviour become faster and more precise.

The authors of ‘Make it Stick’, one of my favourite education science books, write: “The thickness of the myelin coating correlates with ability, and research strongly suggests that increased practice builds greater myelin along the related pathways, improving the strength and speed of the electrical signals and, as a result, performance.”

How to Change Your Self-Beliefs Habits

Your brain’s innate ability to adapt enables change. Yet, before you dive into the self-help part of this piece, keep in mind that you are magnificent without self-optimization.

You can live a happy, fulfilled life without running a marathon, meditating every morning, or climbing up a corporate ladder.

Many of us constantly fight an inner battle between how we are and how we would want to be. Political scientist Minna Salami sees the root in our conditioning: “It is a tenet of Europatriarchal Knowledge that nonmales, nonwhites, and nonelites live lives of constant dissatisfaction.”

Before you focus on identity or habit change, ask yourself why you think the goal is worth pursuing. Is it because of your own wants or because of societies expectations?

Don’t use self-improvement to live up to societies expectations.

If you still want to develop the habit, the following can help. I applied the strategies to write and publish consistently, meditate almost every morning for six years, and spend an average then less than 1 hour on my phone.

1) Be Clear About Your Why

Why do you want to attain the specific habit? What will change as a result? Write your reason(s) on a piece of paper and place it at a place you look at every day.

When I started meditating, I wrote down, “I meditate every day because I want my mind to experience life with clarity and presence.” I placed the note next to my bed so I would see it every day when I woke up.

2) Make it Incredibly Easy to Start With

No matter how big your habit, start thinking small. When you start building a new habit, focus on micro-steps.

“Make it easy to start, and the rest will follow,” James Clear writes, “you have to standardize before you can optimize.”

The more you internalize the beginning of a process, the likelier you are to show up consistently. The goal is to make it so easy you can’t say no.

  • Run five miles → tie your running shoes and go for a walk
  • Eat healthy → google one new recipe and add items to your grocery list
  • Become a writer → write down one idea and a potential headline for it

3) Build a Habit Stack

Tie the new habit you want to form an existing habit you already have.

Every morning, after I brush my teeth, I drink a glass of water. When I started meditating, I decided to combine the existing habit with a new one: “After drinking a glass of water, I sit down on my meditation pillow.”

4) Utilize Your Physical Environment

Prepare whatever you need for making your habit. Pack your gym bag and place it next to your door.

When I started building a writing habit, I ensured to put my phone into flight mode and away from my desk and bed the evening before. I wanted to start writing with a clear mind. I closed all tabs on my computer and opened nothing but my idea board.

Removing friction for starting your habit can help you dive right into it.

5) Be Kind to Yourself

Reward yourself when you’ve met a specific streak, but also be kind to yourself when you miss a day.

The best athletes make mistakes just like we do. But they get back on track as fast as possible.

James Clear writes: “Research has shown that missing your habit once, no matter when it occurs, has no measurable impact on your long-term progress. Rather than trying to be perfect, abandon your all-or-nothing mentality.”

Don’t expect to fail, but make a plan for failure. What can you learn from it? How will you get yourself back on track?

Building self-efficacy through being consistent is more important than the intensity of your habit.

In Conclusion

The most important lesson to remember is: whatever you do repetitively has a lasting effect on your brain. If you want to manifest new thought patterns or habits, don’t quit too early. Your brain needs repetition to coat neurons with myelin.

Practice until your new neuronal pathways replace the old. You will soon realize your brain never stops changing in response to learning.

If you want to change, you can change. But keep in mind that whether you build new habits or not — you’re enough by just being.

Take genuine pleasure in being alive.

Want to feel inspired and improve your learning?

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A Quick Manual to Turn You Into an Effective Learner for Life

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It’s not what you’ve learned at uni.

Photo by Michael Dziedzic on Unsplash

I took ownership of my learning 16 months ago.

I produced 93 podcast episodes, wrote 33 newsletters, published 250 articles, created 13 websites, and hosted 27 workshops.

In the process, I learned more than in the five years of my Bachelor’s and Master’s studies.

Schools and unis work towards a purpose of education that was created a century ago. Most of them aren’t built on the insights from neuroscience. Students mostly move at the same pace, using the same means.

Effective learning doesn’t happen while you listen to a lecturer.

Effective learning requires a different state of mind.

Don’t wait for education systems to change.

You can take charge of your own learning.

This article will give you a lens to look at learning and five actionable ideas to get you started today.

How You Can Conquer the Pyramid’s Peak

When you read through educational theories, a couple of concepts plop up again and again: Piaget’s constructivism, Skinner’s behaviorism, Gardener’s theory of multiple intelligences.

But there’s one theory I keep coming back to — Bloom’s taxonomy.

Around 1956, educational psychologist Bloom and his colleagues did a couple of studies. Their goal was to determine factors that affect how students learn.

Teachers’ ability to individualize instruction was among the key factors they found.

Bloom and his research friends wanted to help teachers individualize learning. They came up with a so-called taxonomy.

This taxonomy is a hierarchical model that ranks learning objectives. On the bottom, you find the simple ones, on top the most complex goals.

Revision of Bloom’s taxonomy. (Source: Eva Keiffenheim based on Krathwohl and Anderson et al.)

A quick caveat: There are a couple of things flawed with this theory. When you look at the pyramid, you might think that you need to climb each step to reach the top. But nothing could be further from the truth.

Learning is no linear process.

You don’t start at the bottom to move to the top.

The levels mentioned are interdependent, and you can start right at the top.

For example, the generation effect shows you remember information better once you create your own version of the material (according to this meta-analysis across 86 studies).

You don’t have to remember before you can create. You can remember because you create. While you create, you’ll also continue to analyze, apply, and understand.

27 Prompts to Become a More Effective Learner

Bloom’s theory got one thing right most schools and universities still haven’t: Learning is best when it’s active.

Creation is the essence of effective learning.

Instead of highlighting or taking notes, it’s much more effective to write, animate, draw, build, blog, or produce your own material.

“We have to apply and create in order to understand. The creation process is where we construct deep understanding,” educator Ron Berger writes.

“When I was a classroom teacher and my students were unusually successful, people often asked me what made my classroom different. One difference was basic: my students spent much of the day making things, not sitting and listening.”

Create your version of whatever you want to learn, and you’ll steepen your learning curve. Here’s the pyramid’s top with 21st-century creation prompts I created for you:

Source: Created by the author.

To make the most of what you consume, you want to become a creator.

Here’s an example from a student that created her own interpretation of Bloom’s taxonomy against Harry Potter movies (yes, it’s meta)./media/a243f4088d3d2ee82425a7748610e431

Four Actionable Ideas to Accelerate Your Learning

Whenever you tackle your next task, remember your learning is most effective when you create things.

Here are a couple of actionable things you can do to accelerate your learning:

  1. Sign-up to Convertkit (or any other e-mail provider) and start a bi-weekly newsletter about a topic you want to learn. Take the readers with you on your learning journey.
  2. Pick up your phone (or any other recording device) and record a 30-day video vlog about the habit you’re building. Sprinkle in some self-researched background information once in a while.
  3. Sign-up to Buzzsprout (or any other hosting platform) and run your learning podcast. Do monthly interviews with thought leaders within your niche. Podcasts are the best excuse to book time with people you look up to.
  4. Create a Medium account and publish twice a month. Write about what you’ve learned from books you read, conversations you had, or things you learned in your job.

Whatever you do, keep in mind learning is no static pyramid.

It’s the fuel that enables you to live the life of your dreams.

Even if you have the best mentors and teachers — they can only offer you the tools and a system. You are responsible for effective learning. Start today.

Want to feel inspired and improve your learning?

Subscribe free to The Learn Letter. I read a book and 50 articles a week, and each Wednesday, you’ll receive the best in your inbox. This newsletter will make you find tools and resources that help you on your path to health, wealth, and wisdom.

Most Online Courses Are a Waste of Your Time — Here’s How You Know

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A quick guide that helps you find the worthy ones.

Picture bought by the author via Canva.

This year I spent around $5000 on online courses.

Warren Buffet said, “the best investment you can make is an investment in yourself. The more you learn, the more you’ll earn.”

But his statement is flawed.

Not all learning investments are created equal. People who’ve excelled at their craft are often not the best teachers. Likewise, creators who write the best sales copy don’t offer the most value.

Here’s precisely how you can spot bad online courses so that you won’t waste your time and money.

1) They Tell But Don’t Show

Most online courses are useless because they focus on the why and what instead of the how.

In a Medium writer’s online course, for example, the instructors spend 90% of the time exploring what writing consists of. They have an hour-long conversation about the importance of consistency. Yet, they don’t show the students how they can write consistently.

The medium star could’ve talked about the roadblocks and how he overcame them. He could’ve shared his calendar or accountability system. He could’ve shared strategies for when you’re struggling to get started. But he didn’t. For me, the course felt like a time-waster.

“Never tell us a thing if you can show us, instead.”

— Steven King

What to look out for instead:

Look for how material instead of endless talks on the why and what. Valuable things often include templates, tutorials, spreadsheets, and screen-sharings.

Here are some examples, so you know how to tell the difference:

Source: Created by Eva Keiffenheim.

2) Instructors Teach in One Direction

“Active learning works, and social learning works,” said Anant Agarwal, founder and chief executive of edX, in an interview with the New York Times. To back this up, a recent study suggests social learning helps you complete online courses.

Yet, most online course creators choose alow-maintenance model. They pre-record videos so you can watch them at your own pace.

But what’s scalable for the instructors isn’t the best for you. Data from Harvard University and MIT shows only three to four percent complete self-paced online courses.

To increase your chances of success, you need a community.

I love Cam Houser’s comment in a joint Slack channel: “People don’t take courses for information. That’s what google and youtube are for. They take courses for outcomes, accountability, process, community.”

What to look out for instead:

A slack channel or Facebook group isn’t enough. Great courses offer structured space for social learning. You have an accountability group, comment on each other’s work, and have regular live touchpoints with your instructors or coaches.

Source: Created by Eva Keiffenheim.

3) They Ignore the Principle of Directness

Online courses are often distant from the actual application. You watch videos about your desired skill, but you never actually practice.

Let’s consider one of my favorite examples.

Imagine you’re a frequent flier. Before every start, you watch the video of a flight attendant putting on the life vest. You watch the video again and again.

But as this study shows, actually putting on the inflatable life vest a single time would be more valuable than repeatedly watching another person doing it. You acquire true mastery by performing the procedure yourself.

The author of ‘Ultralearning’ calls this principle directness. It is essential for mastering any skill. Yet, most online courses teach skills far from direct.

What to look out for instead:

You don’t learn by watching things. You learn by doing them. So the more you engage with the content, the likelier it will stick with you.

What’s your desired outcome behind taking the course? Check whether you have assignments that are directly linked to your desired skill. Pick a class as close to your end goal as possible.

If you take a course on e-mail newsletters, write your e-mail and ask for feedback. If you take a drawing class, do your first drawing. If you take a course on online writing, write your first article.

Just like the minimum viable product, find a minimum viable action. What is the simplest thing you can do based on what you’ve just learned?

Foster a bias towards action. You learn best when you do the work.

“Just keep working at it, and you’ll get there is wrong. The right sort of practice carried out over a sufficient period of time leads to improvement. Nothing else.”

— Anders Ericsson

4) They Don’t Understand the Science of Learning

Masters might not be the best teachers. More likely, they’re beginners when it comes to instructional design and the science of learning.

Most online courses are built on the assumption that our brains work like recording devices. But students don’t acquire their desired skills by consuming content. Instead, learning is at least a three-step process — we acquire, encode, and retrieve.

Learning scientist Roediger writes: “Learning that’s easy is like writing in sand, here today and gone tomorrow. Learning is deeper and more durable when it’s effortful.”

Learning through passive content consumption isn’t effortful. That’s why most online courses are a mere form of entertainment.

What to look out for instead:

Look out for active learning elements. Check whether the course uses evidence-based learning strategies such as:

  • retrieval practice ⇾ recall something you’ve learned in the past from your memory
  • spaced repetition ⇾ repeat the same piece of information across increasing intervals
  • interleaving ⇾ alternating before each practice is complete
  • elaboration ⇾ rephrasing new knowledge and connecting it with existing insights
  • reflection ⇾ synthesize, abstract, and articulate key lessons taught by experience
  • self-testing & calibration ⇾ answer a question or solve a problem before looking at the answer and identify knowledge gaps

“Mastery, especially of complex ideas, skills and processes, is a quest. Don’t assume you’re doing something wrong if learning feels hard.”

— Roediger et al.

Conclusion

Most online courses don’t help you reach your desired outcome. You can spend thousands of dollars and hours without learning anything at all.

Learning doesn’t help you per se — it’s taking the right courses that can make all the difference:

  • Check whether the course curriculum goes beyond why and what and teaches the how to do stuff.
  • Evaluate whether you’ve got regular touchpoints with your instructor and learning opportunities with fellow students.
  • Understand whether you’ll practice your desired skill.
  • Look out for evidence-based learning elements such as spacing, retrieval, or reflection.

I’m building a course on how to write online based on evidence-based practices to make the most of your time. You won’t sit in front of pre-recorded videos and struggle to stick with them. If you’re interested in joining a group of 25 people, you can pre-register here.

A Mind Hack You Can Use to Boost the Way You Learn

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Make metacognition work for you and become a learner for life.

Observe your thinking. (Source: Created by the author via Canva).

Do you ever feel like you’re not learning fast enough?

If you ever worry you’re learning slower than you should, it might be because you’re missing out on one of the most effective thinking tools.

You’re not alone here. Most people use countless hours diving into a task without using metacognition.

In the following 5 minutes, you’ll learn what metacognition is and how you can use it to level up your learning.

Once you make it a habit to use this skill, you’ll never wonder whether you’re progressing fast enough.

The Power of Metacognition

“Metacognition is essential to successful learning because it enables individuals to manage their cognitive skills better and to determine weaknesses that can be corrected by constructing new cognitive skills,” educational psychologist Schraw writes.

Metacognition means noticing and understanding the way you think. Most people describe it as thinking about thinking, knowing about knowing, or becoming aware of your awareness.

Nancy Chick, Teaching Assistant Director at Vanderbilt University, says: “It refers to the processes used to plan, monitor, and assess one’s understanding and performance.”

But metacognition is more than that.

Your own experience is used to regulate and improve future learning behavior. You self-monitor and self-regulate. Thereby, you steepen the learning curve towards your desired goals.

A large body of research in educational sciences testifies the importance of metacognition in learning. Different studies show high performers have better metacognitive skills than low performers across various disciplines.

“The best performers observe themselves closely. They are in effect able to step outside themselves, monitor what is happening in their own minds, and ask how it’s going.”

— Geoff Clovin in “Talent is Overrated”

How You Can Unlock This Learning Superpower

You can rely on this skill when you clean your apartment, study for an exam, or learn any new skill. Here’s the process you need to include metacognition in your thinking.

According to research, three steps are necessary for unlocking your metacognition:

Applying metacognition to tasks and learning (Source: Created by Eva Keiffenheim based on Schraw).

Before you start a task or learning endeavor, you plan. You think about your desired goal. You consider how you’ll use your time and which strategies you’ll apply.

Second, you use self-monitoring to remain aware of your progress. You question the steps you take and reevaluate whether you’re following your planned path.

Finally, you reflect on your performance. You evaluate what went well and what you can do better next time you approach the task or learning chunk.

While you might think reflecting on a task will slow you down, it will save you time and energy.

Here’s a personal story.

July 2009. It’s the first day of my summer holidays, and I open the door to my dad’s workshop. I see black dust and inhale the smell of welding. My dad is a blacksmith, and I’m about to work as a metalworker for the next four weeks.

The task is mundane, but I get paid on piecework. I treat the job like a game. The more parts I can perforate in a day, the more I earn. I can’t wait to get started. I push the parts into the punching machine, one hour after another.

A few days in, my dad asks me, “Haven’t you thought about how to make this easier for you?”

I looked around. I had no clue what he meant.

He then moved the table with the punches closer to the machine. The difference looked like this:

My dad’s smart move. (Source: Created by the author).

His improvement saved me two steps per task which gave me a precious extra hour a day.

More importantly, he taught me a lesson I will never forget: Before you work on anything, think about the best way to do it.

In Conclusion

Metacognition is one of the most important skills to become an effective lifelong learner. Evidence suggests you can learn and improve it, even long after adolescence.

Before your next task or learning endeavor, make sure to:

  1. Plan. Say it out loud. Be explicit about the way you approach a task.
  2. Monitor. Stay aware of whether you’re doing it right.
  3. Evaluate. Reflect on how well you’ve done.

Don’t stress too much about the speed of learning. You set the tempo of your life. If you find yourself worrying, remember this short poem by Rupi Kaur:

if you tried
and didn’t end up 
where you wanted to
that’s still progress

Want to feel inspired and improve your learning?

Subscribe free to the weekly The Learn Letter. I read a book and 50 articles a week, and you’ll receive the best in your inbox. This evidence-based newsletter will make you find tools and resources that help you become a lifelong learner.

This Trap Prevents Most People From Clear Thinking

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How to stop clouding your judgment.

Photo by Niloofar Kanani on Unsplash

In his book ‘Stillness is Key,’ Ryan Holiday wrote:

“Wisdom is […] the ability to rise above the biases, the traps that catch lazier thinkers.”

I disagree.

Mental traps not only catch the lazy thinkers — they snag all of us. Because cognitive laziness is how our brains save energy.

Among the most common pitfalls is our tendency to stick to what we believe. Warren Buffett said:

“What the human being is best at doing is interpreting all new information so that their prior conclusions remain intact.”

Cognitive psychologists call this confirmation bias. It means we select and favor information aligned with our beliefs and values.

We can’t eradicate this thinking trap. But this article will equip you with tools that help you think better.

The Bias That Clouds Your Thinking

“Many startups fail because founders disagree,” my professor said. It was June 2017, and I listened to one of my last business lectures.

He continued explaining the specifics, but I had already stopped listening.

I just founded my first company and thought, “This doesn’t apply to us. We chose the right people.” I continued daydreaming.

Little did I know that wishful thinking would cost me loads of money and energy. Yet, I’m not alone in this. Many others tend to ignore disconfirming evidence.

In 1979, three researchers at Standford divided study participants based on their opinion on death penalties. One group included all believers, the other all skeptics.

Both groups read articles with evidence on death penalties. Half of the people in both groups read studies that disproved the death penalty efficiency. The other half read conforming studies.

Did the evidence influence the participants thinking?

It did. But not in the way you might imagine.

Evidence reinforced preexisting beliefs. No matter which of the two studies they read — both groups were more convinced of their initial opinion.

We do not change our opinion based on research. Instead, we interpret the facts in a way to supports our values and beliefs.

“ In an attempt to simplify the world and make it conform to our expectations, we have been blessed with the gift of cognitive biases.” — Sia Mohajer

How to Rise Above the Confirmation Bias

“Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government,” Thomas Jefferson stated in 1789. But he was wrong.

Facts don’t make humans better thinkers or citizens. Often, they make us more ignorant.

“What we believe depends on what we want to believe,” Adam Grant said. “We favor the comfort of conviction over the discomfort of doubt.”

Here are four strategies that help you see what you don’t want to see so you can think clearer.

1) Seek Contradicting Evidence

Test your hypothesis. If you read a book, use red post-its to highlight contradictions to your worldview.

Juvoni Beckford says: “If you read a book and there are very few red flags, then there’s no real reason to keep on reading the book. If you understand everything, why are you reading the book?”

2) Dare to be wrong

The enemy of learning is not ignorance but the illusion of knowledge — the things you think you know.

When you’re convinced to know something, learning something new means you have to change your mind. Overcoming your ego is one of the big challenges for better thinking.

The further you’re in your career, the stronger you’re desire to be right. But this desire prevents you from seeing the truth. Embrace intellectual humility. Dare to be wrong.

3) Ask open-ended questions

If you google “Is Green tea better for my body than coffee?” you will see results that highlight the advantages of yoga. If you phrase the question in the other way, “Is coffee better for my body than green tea?” you will see the opposite tendency.

The search engine will show you what you asked for. By using open-ended questions (“Which beverage is best for my body?”), you’ll get closer to an objective answer.

4) Become a critical thinker

At age 21, Franklin gathered smart people in his city to form a mutual improvement club. Each Friday evening, the club’s members brought an interesting conversation topic. Once every three months, the members wrote essays on the topics they discussed.

Learning researcher Anders Ericsson writes about it: “By creating the club Franklin not only ensured himself regular access to some of the most interesting people in the city, but he was giving himself extra motivation (as if he needed any) to delve into these topics himself.”

As research shows, accountability increases your motivation to think critically. If people around you ask you to justify your thinking, you’re likelier to overcome confirmation bias.

Evaluating your worldview is exhausting. It requires mental energy. Even if you’re not lazy, your brain likes to take shortcuts.

Yet, confirmation biases can harm us in the form of misjudgments and bad decision-making.

The best recipe against unconscious biases is self-awareness. Now that you’re aware of our collective mental laziness, you’ll have an easier time overcoming the mental trap. Step by step, you’ll be able to think better.

Want to feel inspired and improve your learning?

Subscribe free to the weekly The Learn Letter. I read a book and 50 articles a week, and you’ll receive the best in your inbox. This evidence-based newsletter will make you find tools and resources that help you become a lifelong learner.

Understand This Rarely Mentioned Concept and You Will Never Stop Learning

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Everything you know has an expiration date.

An old advertisement showing a doctor recommending cigarettes.
Country Gentleman, 1946 (Source)

From the 1930s to the 1950s, doctors recommended smoking.

People who believed cigarettes were good for you weren’t stupid. They followed the tenor of their times.

Much of what we believe today will be wrong 50 years from now. Here’s the reason why and what you can do about it. Knowing the following concept will help you keep an open mind so you can become a lifelong learner.

The Half-Life of Knowledge

Half-life is the time it takes for a certain quantity to halve in value. Nobel Prize winner Ernest Rutherford discovered the concept in his work on radioactivity, but it also applies to everyday life.

The biological half-life of caffeine is around 6 hours. So when you drink a cup of coffee with 200 mg caffeine at 6 AM, you’ll still have 100 mg in your system around lunchtime. Another six hours later, and you’ll have 50 mg in your blood (which is why sleep scientists recommend not drinking coffee after lunch).

The half-life of knowledge works similarly: it measures the amount of time before half of the knowledge in one area is outdated or proven untrue.

As a med student, my fiancé takes hour-long multiple-choice exams every year. Yet, the box marked correct in the last year might not be correct in the next.

The half-life of medical knowledge is 18–24 months. Half of what doctors believe to be true today will be outdated in less than two years from now.

This iteration is not only true in medicine but in other academic disciplines.

Scientist Rong Tang explored 750 scholarly monographs to determine the half-life of knowledge. Here’s what he found:

Adapted by Eva Keiffenheim based on Rong Tang (2008).

Can we derive history has a knowledge half-life of 7 years? No. Tang’s research hasn’t been replicated, and he solely focused on books.

But there’s one thing to learn here: knowledge isn’t permanent. Most of what we consider truth today decays within a decade from now.

“We laugh at people who still use Windows 95, yet we still cling to opinions that we formed in 1995.”

— Adam Grant

What Most People Ignore For Too Long

Philosopher Bertrand Russell wrote almost a century ago, “the fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.”

Changing your opinion when presented with conflicting evidence is one of the most valuable skills of the 21st century.

Psychologist and researcher Adam Grant dedicated an entire book to rethinking. One line stayed with me long after reading: “The purpose of learning isn’t to affirm our beliefs; it’s to evolve our beliefs.”

If Pulitzer Prize winner Kathryn Schulz read this statement, she would agree.

In ‘Being Wrong,’ she writes: “This is the pivotal insight of the Scientific Revolution: that the advancement of knowledge depends on current theories collapsing in the face of new insights and discoveries. In this model of progress, errors do not lead us away from the truth. Instead, they edge us incrementally toward it.”

Everything you know has an expiration date. But this change is nothing to be afraid of — it’s how you learn and progress.

Smoke a fresh cigarette. R.J. Reynolds, 1931, SRITA. (Source)

“Facts change in regular and mathematically understandable ways.”

― Samuel Arbesman

How You Can Benefit from This Concept

In 470 B.C. Philosopher Anaxagoras said, “Thunder was produced by the collision of the clouds, and lightning by the rubbing together of the clouds.”

We might laugh about ancient philosophers’ theories as they attempted to make sense of their world — but what are some of our current beliefs that will seem crazy in 50 years’ time?

Understanding that facts have a half-life helps you on many levels:

  • You don’t cling to outdated beliefs. You keep an open mind and can make better sense of the world.
  • You understand truth as an asymptote. We can never reach the absolute truth. But constant questioning and a curious mind lead to better approximations.
  • You ask yourself: What do I believe that might be proven wrong soon? Looking for evidence that contradicts your worldview is how you become a lifelong learner.

In Summary

Just because you read something in a study doesn’t mean it remains true. Many scientific studies are cited long after they’ve been proven wrong.

Consider Howard Gardner’s ‘Theory of Multiple Intelligences.’ According to it, all students have learning styles: linguistic, musical, kinaesthetic, and spatial. The theory was published in the 80s, proven wrong in the 90s, and, as Alex Beard writes, “enshrined in teacher-training syllabuses in the 2010s.”

Question what you read. Change is the only constant in knowledge.

It’s impossible to know everything. Even if you do nothing but reading tons of papers on your subject, you can barely keep up with new knowledge.

Here’s what to keep in mind:

  • update your beliefs when presented with evidence and new arguments
  • remain aware of what you don’t know
  • never stop learning

Because learning is the most valuable skill of our time.

“If knowledge is power, knowing what we don’t know is wisdom.”

— Adam Grant

Want to feel inspired and improve your learning?

Subscribe free to The Learn Letter. I read a book and 50 articles a week, and each Wednesday, you’ll receive the best in your inbox. This newsletter will make you find tools and resources that help you on your path to health, wealth, and wisdom.

3 Specific Ways to Benefit from the Zeigarnik Effect

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How interrupting your tasks can boost your creativity.

Photo by Robert Katzki on Unsplash

Have you ever felt guilty about not finishing a task?

My parents used to tell me “Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.” (German: Was du heute kannst besorgen, das verschiebe nicht auf morgen.)

I grew up in the mindset believing anything that can be done today should be done today. Whenever I procrastinated on a thing, I felt bad.

But not finishing can be a good thing. Here’s a brief explanation of the Zeigarnik effect and four ways to reap the benefits in everyday life.

A brief explanation of the Zeigarnik effect

In the 1920s, soviet researcher Bluma Zeigarnik discovered people remember interrupted or uncompleted activities better than completed ones.

She observed the effect in waiters. They remembered orders only so long as the order was open and forgot it as soon as it was served.

As a scientist, Zeigarnik started experiments to test her observation. She asked probands to complete 15 to 22 tasks such as solving a puzzle, stringing beads, folding paper, or counting backward.

She let half of the participants complete all of their tasks while she interrupted the other half before they finished.

Zeigarnik then tested how many unfinished tasks the participants would remember. The experiment’s results were significant. Participants were twice as likely to remember incomplete tasks than complete ones.

You likely know this effect from earworms. When you stop listening to a song halfway through, your brain will start the song repeatedly to complete it. The music will be stuck in your head.

The Zeigarnik effect has also been explored more recently by two researchers from Florida State University. Baumeister and Masicampo discovered people did worse on a task when they were interrupted finishing a warm-up activity — because it is still stuck in their working memory.

created by Eva Keiffenheim vie Canva

How to use the Zeigarnik effect for you

Luckily, the Zeigarnik effect also comes with upsides. You can use it to improve your creativity, memory, and much more.

1) Better recall through interleaving

Learning scientists agree unfinished things stay longer in your memory. If you interrupt a learning session and resume later, you’ll likely remember more of the content.

Researchers call this learning strategy interleaving: “In interleaving, you don’t move from a complete practice set of one topic to go to another. You switch before each practice is complete. If learners spread out their study of a topic, returning to it periodically over time, they remember it better.”

So the next time you’re trying to remember information, schedule strategic breaks in the middle of your learning session.

2) Boost your creativity with this trick

Creativity doesn’t work with willpower. You can’t sit down and force your best ideas to come to your consciousness. Creativity works better in your brain’s diffused mode.

This mode feels like daydreaming and enables new neural connections. When you let your mind wander without actively thinking about the problem, you likely come up with a solution you hadn’t thought about.

Adam Grant writes in his book Originals: “When you’re generating new ideas, deliberately stop when your progress is incomplete. By taking a break in the middle of the process, you’re more likely to engage in divergent thinking and give ideas time to incubate.”

The Zeigarnik effect can help unlock your best ideas. Start thinking about a topic or an unsolved problem. Write the question down and bring it to your mind. But then, do something unrelated where you can let your mind wander, e.g., washing the dishes, cleaning the apartment, going for a phone-free walk.

“These were all situations which occurred to me-while showering, while driving, while taking my daily walk and which I eventually turned into books.”

— Steven King

3) Get people’s attention with cliffhangers

Ever binge-watched a series? Likely, every episode finished unfinished with a story thread that hadn’t been resolved.

But even if you don’t write a playscript, you can increase people’s interest with informational teasers.

When you give presentations, for example, the Zeigarnik effect can help you retain your audience’s attention. Tease a piece of important information early on, but don’t reveal it until the end.

The next time you feel guilty about not finishing a task, remember the Zeigarnik effect — a strategic break can actually help you be more creative, improve your recall, or get people’s attention.

Want to feel inspired and improve your learning?

Subscribe free to The Learn Letter. I read a book and 50 articles a week, and each Wednesday, you’ll receive the best in your inbox. This newsletter will make you find tools and resources that help you on your path to health, wealth, and wisdom.

How Cohort Based Courses Can Help You Master Any Skill You Want

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MOOCs are dead. Here’s what’s next.

Photo by Joshua Sortino on Unsplash

Having access to content is not enough to master a subject. Learners ace a skill via direct practice of the skill they’re trying to master.

In 2011, people believed massive open online courses, so-called MOOCs, would revolutionize online learning.

Yet, data from Harvard University and MIT revealed three devastating data points against these courses:

  1. Completion rates. Only three to four percent complete MOOCs — a rate that hasn’t improved in the past six years.
  2. Retention. Only seven percent of MOOC learners start another course after their first year.
  3. Accessibility. While MOOCs promised to bring high-quality education to all corners of the world, only 1.43 percent come from countries classified as “low” in the Human Development Index.

As a result, the future of education doesn’t belong to MOOCs any longer. Instead, a new model emerged. Whether you’re a content creator or a lifelong learner — here’s how Cohort-Based Courses can help you master any skill.

What are Cohort-Based Courses?

In Cohort Based Courses, so-called CBCs, a student group moves at the same pace through the same curriculum. Typically, CBCs include a mix of life lessons, remote assignments, and peer learning.

If you ever attended school, you’re familiar with cohort-based education. Schools and universities rely on cohort learning models — students take the same lecture, assignments, and tests simultaneously.

Both have in common that you don’t pay for the content’s quality. Studying with free videos can teach you as much as attending universities or CBCs. What you pay for is the likelihood of completing the learning track and achieving the desired outcome (e.g., land a job or acquire a specific skill).

Why CBCs Are Better Than MOOCs

Socrates tutored two learners at a time; a MOOC scaled learning up to 100,000. With CBCs, the teacher-student ratio increases, and relationships are at the core of the learning process again.

If you want to master a skill, access to instructors will help you stick with the course.

A study found interaction with instructors affects MOOC learner retention directly. CBCs use online tools like Zoom or Slack to give feedback and help students complete the course.

“Active learning works, and social learning works,” said Anant Agarwal, founder, and chief executive of edX, in an interview with the New York Times.

Seth Godin’s altMBA, a cohort-based online MBA, supports this fact with a completion rate of 96%. Other CBCs report, the completion rate is up to 85%.

Building relationships with instructors and peers, plus the limited time factor, is a way to force yourself to complete a course. Through more teacher-student and student-student touchpoints, you’re more likely to hold yourself accountable.

The Distinctive Learning Features

There’s more to CBCs than the tutoring and completion ratio: collaboration and community.

While you go through the course, you interact with your peers. Thus, learning is not one-directional (teacher to student) but also bi-directional (student to student).

Through regular collaboration, you form a community. You network with like-minded people from across the globe. As you follow the same learning goal, these relationships can be very powerful.

If you join a community of future data scientists, this network can give you access to opportunities and resources in the future that will enhance your career.

How You Can Distinguish Average from Great

You don’t absorb information and knowledge by consuming content. Instead, learning is at least a three-step process — you acquire, encode, and retrieve.

Learning by doing is much more powerful than learning by watching. When you pick a course, evaluate whether the curriculum design will help you achieve your desired outcome. Here are key features to look out for:

  • Real-time feedback on learning progress.
  • Assignments that are directly linked to your desired skill.
  • Structured access to a subject-specific community.
  • Evidence-based learning design, e.g., spaced repetition features and testing mechanisms.

7 Promising Cohort-Based-Courses

Here are seven courses you might want to consider:

  1. Career Advancement
    Reforge teaches the systems and frameworks that help you take the next step in your career. CBCs include product management, marketing, and growth strategies.
  2. Writing (Beginner level)
    Ship 30 for 30 teaches online writing through active learning. You will establish a writing and publishing routine with 500+ other writers.
  3. Writing (Advanced level)
    Write of Passage helps you develop a process for cultivating ideas and distilling them into writing.
  4. Knowledge Management
    Building your Second Brain can support you in saving your best ideas, organizing your learning, and expanding your creative output.
  5. Video Creation
    Minimum Viable Video is a 5-week live cohort that helps you creating and publishing professional videos that move the needle.
  6. EdTech, NoCode, Deep Tech, Scale, and More
    In 2021 Be On Deck launches 120 cohorts of 25 programs. They attract top talent to accelerate your ideas and careers, surrounded by a world-class community.
  7. Youtube
    The Part-Time YouTuber Academy teaches you how to grow your YouTube channel from 0 to 100,000+ subscribers and transform it into a sustainable, income-generating machine while keeping your day job.

In Conclusion

In a podcast interview on the future of education, Udemy founder Gagan Biyani stated how in 2009, nobody believed in online learning. Since then, everything has changed.

Apart from MOOCs, like EdX or Coursera, other EdTech solutions emerged. Platforms like Udemy or Skillshare created marketplaces for online education. Teachers competed with keywords and content and shared their earnings with the platform.

Then followed a third iteration: direct-to-customer solutions, such as Teachable, Kajabi, and Podia. On these platforms, online educators bring their own audience while keeping most of the revenue.

The new iteration towards CBCs is more student-focused than any previous solution, and it’s one of the most effective ways to master skills online:

  • Accountability through communities and instructors helps learners follow through when things get hard.
  • Because CBCs are outcome-focused (e.g., mastering a skill, landing a job, growing an audience) instructors focus on the how instead of the why.
  • CBCs help learners build skill-relevant communities that will support them in their future endeavors.

Want to feel inspired and improve your learning?

Subscribe free to The Learn Letter. I read a book and 50 articles a week, and each Wednesday, you’ll receive the best in your inbox. This newsletter will make you find tools and resources that help you on your path to health, wealth, and wisdom.

Top 3 Ways to Discover Inspiring Content as a Creator

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All of them are free.

Source: Created by the author via Canva

With fluff-flooded feeds, finding unique content can be tricky. As a creator, you probably know how difficult that can be.

When I started writing, I wasted much research time on social platforms. In the end, I was rarely satisfied with the results.

But discovering inspiring resources doesn’t need to be complicated. There are reliable, free platforms designed for online creators.

Here are my top three sources for content inspiration. Every single one can improve your creative process.

1) Refind — the 5 most relevant links.

The site helps you find the best from all around the web, tailored to your interests, curated by experts and algorithms.

You follow your favorite topics, sites, thought leaders, and friends, and Refind puts together the most relevant new links and key takeaways for you. Every day you see 5–10 new content pieces. I use Refind as a key inspiration for my weekly newsletter.

In addition, you can also subscribe to Deep Dives. Dozens of experts introduce you to the best articles and videos from their field of expertise.

For example, I created a deep dive on ‘How to build a writing habit’ with ten time-tested articles and videos from around the web. Any creator can curate a deep dive and get boosted to an audience who would otherwise not have found them.

How you can use it:

Sign up for free here and select your favorite creators and industries. Once the platform knows your preferences, you’ll receive 5–10 relevant links each day.

Whenever you find something valuable, you can organize your links within your collections— for yourself or the web.

Screenshot of Refind.

2) Bookshlf —curation by humans.

Bookshlf is a place designed for curious learners who share their knowledge in public.

So-called shelves are curated link collections. A single Shelf can be organized by topic, mood, category, or media type, or in any other way that makes sense to you. As a result, the platform is filled with diverse content across industries.

Most curators post 20% self-created content, like their podcasts, videos, articles, and 80% resources. You can find things that alter your mindset, your understanding or get you to look at the world from a new angle.

I’ve used the platform since January 2020 to discover and organize content. I created shelves around my writing topics. On my profile, you’ll find shelves for education & learning, entrepreneurship, and creativity.

How you can use it:

You can sign up free here. Browse the Shelves and communities that trigger your interest. Subscribe to Shelves and follow your favorite curators to access exciting and relevant content easily.

You can also create your Shelves and get tipped by other users.

Screenshot of Bookshlf.

3) Feedly — smarter news reader.

Feedly is an online service that uses artificial intelligence to cut through the noise and flag specific topics and trends you care about from all the sources you trust. In essence, it’s an RSS feed aggregator.

While Refind and Bookshlf started recently, Feedly has been around since 2006. The platform is used by +15 million curious minds.

I started with Feedly in 2014 and upgraded to the premium version four months ago. For $99/year, I have all newsletters, favorite Twitter feeds, and blogs in one place.

How you can use it:

You can sign up free here. Just like Refind and Bookshlf, Feedly is free — and if you’re happy with limited functionality, it can stay free forever.

Feedly is less intuitive than Refind or Bookshlf. First, you want to find and organize the right sources. Second, train the AI assistant Leo to filter out the noise (which I haven’t managed to do yet). Then, you can read through your curated feed.

Screenshot of Feedly.

In Conclusion

Managing and discovering content doesn’t need to feel difficult. These three tools help you organize, curate, and find the content you love:

  • Refind — the 5–10 most relevant links tailored to your interest.
  • Bookshlf — a digital library from curators for curators.
  • Feedly — an RSS feed aggregator to have everything in a single place.

I rely on all three content discovery tools, but right now, Refind is my favorite (it’s free, but I like it even better than my paid Feedly).

Instead of feeling discouraged by all these ways to find new content, experiment at your own pace. Try the platforms that resonate with you, and screw the rest.

Choose one or two new content resources until you find a pattern that helps you to become a better content creator.

Want to feel inspired and improve your learning?

Subscribe free to The Learn Letter. I read a book and 50 articles a week, and each Wednesday, you’ll receive the best in your inbox. This newsletter will make you find tools and resources that help you on your path to health, wealth, and wisdom.

3 Promising Opportunities to Teach Your Kids From Home

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These organizations innovate homeschooling.

Photo by Marga Santoso on Unsplash

“What is most important and valuable about the home as a base for children’s growth into the world is not that it is a better school than the schools,” educational theorist John Holt said, “but that it isn’t a school at all.”

Holt argued schools work as oppressive environments and turned kids into compliant employees. And that’s how in the 1970s, the modern homeschooling movement began.

The debate is still ongoing, and many people argue schools enforce and prioritize compliance and consumption over critical thinking and creativity.

Learning in home education is often less formal and more personalized than school education — ranging from traditional school lessons to free forms such as unschooling.

Reasons for homeschooling vary from better educational opportunities, a healthier learning environment, special needs, or being the only option in remote areas.

Homeschooling is legal in many countries (e.g., Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the United States) but outlawed by others (e.g., Germany, Japan, Brazil).

Homeschooling legality Source: Fobos92 and Svenskbygderna

What follows are three organizations that rethink the way children learn from home.

1) Primer — A home for ambitious kids.

Primer is the world’s first community built for curious and ambitious kids to find and explore their interests together. Their goal is to “free the next generation of kids to be more ambitious, more creative, and to think for themselves.”

Unlike connected learning networks that replace core curricula, Primer is supplemental. To foster kid’s curiosity, the team offers various learning formats:

  • Clubs. Students collaborate on projects such as writing, storytelling, coding, inventing machines, music, or nature.
  • Rooms. Live audio chat spaces allow students to experiment with new ideas, solve problems, and tap into their interests (e.g., debating, writing, puzzling, coding, starting a business).
  • Journals. In journals, kids can document their projects by creating and organizing blocks of text, images, videos, and links.

There is no set schedule for a day with Primer, as all their activities happen in addition to set curricula.

After a free trial month, Primer is $49 a month for the first child and $19 a month for each additional child.

Primer was founded by Ryan Delk and Maksim Stepanenko, who both have been homeschooled. Previously, they helped build companies like SpaceX, Square, Gumroad, Lyft, and Coinbase.

“We studied the American Revolution by driving to historic locations in the original 13 colonies and crawled through cardboard tubes to learn how the digestive system works.”

— Ryan Delk, Co-Founder of Primer

Screenshot of Primer Landing Page

2) Outschool — Where kids love learning.

Outschool online marketplace of virtual classes for children aged 3–18. Outschool’s goal is to engage and inspire learning through various classes and subjects.

The platform offers kids the opportunity to explore their interests in-depth with interactive classes taught via live video by experienced, independent teachers.

Like Primer, Outschool doesn’t suggest a fully-fledged curriculum. Instead, the platform offers more than 100,000 live lessons to more than 900,000 learners in 174 countries.

Pricing starts with $10 a course, and the most expensive multi-week course I found on the platform costs about $75.

The platform was founded by Amir Nathoo, who is a former investor and holds various patents.

“If we just stick to the core curriculum, then it is very difficult for kids to develop differentiated skills. More of the school day needs to be spent on kids pursuing their interests with the benefit of increased autonomy and self-direction — with this, kids’ motivation to learn can increase. There’s going to be so much change in technology and society in the next 10 years, I think we will head in a direction of hybrid core + self-directed.”

— Amir Nathoo, Founder of Outschool

Screenshot of Outschool Landing Page

3) Synthesis — Where kids become
problem-solvers.

Synthesis started as a school spin-off from Elon Musk’s AdAstra school. As of now, it’s a weekly, 1-hour enrichment program for students who want to learn how to build the future.

They offer a simulation-based learning experience built around complex team games. Students work through case studies, simulations, and game-based challenges.

Synthesis doesn’t design simulations for content but the experience. Simulations are complex and have no right answers. For example, 18–20 kids work in groups with one facilitator. But facilitators don’t lecture. Instead, the student groups explore and learn game rules on their own.

The idea of the simulations is to change the way kids approach real-life problems and prepare them to navigate the complexity and chaos that comes with life.

While playing, kids teach themselves how to win. In the process, they learn new problem-solving skills. Here are two game examples:

  • Art for All. Students compete in an auction game for the best art exhibits. The simulation covers negotiation and covers mental models such as auction theory and the winner’s curse.
  • Fire! In this collaborative game, students fight forest fires with varying conditions. It covers mental models such as positive-sum vs. zero-sum games.

Pricing is $180 per month, and a sibling discount is available.

Synthesis is led by Chrisman Frank. On a visit to Elon Musk’s AdAstra school, he fell in love with Synthesis.

In 2020, Frank convinced the AdAstra principal and his former colleague Josh Dahn to spin-off Synthesis as a for-profit company. Frank’s vision was to scale the learning software and develop a generation of super thinkers.

“When mistakes are not penalized, people are more likely to just keep trying. And if you keep trying, then naturally, you have more chances of eventually succeeding.”

— Ana Fabrega, Chief Evangelist at Synthesis

Screenshot of Synthesis Landing Page

Want to feel inspired and improve your learning?

Subscribe free to The Learn Letter. I read a book and 50 articles a week, and each Wednesday, you’ll receive the best in your inbox. This newsletter will make you find tools and resources that help you on your path to health, wealth, and wisdom.

5 Quick Fixes for a Calmer, More Focused Life

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How to *not* be distracted all the time.

Image created by the author via Canva.

Do you ever feel time runs like sand through your fingers?

If you’re struggling to live a more present life, you likely focus on the wrong things. Improving your inner peace is about what you do less of, not more of.

Taking a moment to integrate these quick fixes can help you find an inner state of calm while staying on top of things.

None of these suggestions should take you more than three minutes to set up, but every single one will help you reach more focus and presence.

1) Change Your Social Media Passwords

Without your active consent, social media’s persuasive design tricks you into screen time with severe consequences.

Different research attests to a relation between social media usage and mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, and even suicide-related thoughts.

Not knowing your password is one of the most effective ways to spend less time on social media. I follow this technique since 2017, and it has given me weeks of time. I created a threshold that prevents me from impulsive social media checks.

How to do it:

Go to all social media you use regularly and change your password to a random combination you can’t remember.

Don’t save the new password in your browser. Instead, write it on a piece of paper. Then log off your social media platforms and place the paper in some drawer.

2) Don’t Consolidate Messaging Apps

Self-labeled productivity apps like Shift or Franz sound tempting. It seems convenient to aggregate all communication channels in one place.

Yet, these apps lead to context switching and thereby destroy your focus.

Cal Newport says: “Switching your attention — even if only for a minute or two — can significantly impede your cognitive function for a long time to follow.”

Once I deleted Slack, WhatsApp, Signal, and Franz from my desktop, I focused better on one project at a time.

How to do it:

Delete all messaging aggregators from your computer. Anytime you need a specific communication channel, open it in your browser.

Instead of being surprised by new messages, you actively decide when to open and read the messages.

3) Delete Mail from Your Phone

I used to check my email when walking up the stairs and while waiting in a line. My mind revolved around work even while I wasn’t at my desk.

But our brains need off-time. To get maximum focus during working hours, we need enough time away from work. Plus, boredom brings benefits.

How to do it:

Pick your phone and delete your Mail app. Nothing is so urgent it can’t wait until you’re back at your desk.

“Are you distracted by breaking news? Then take some leisure time to learn something good, and stop bouncing around.”

— Marcus Aurelius

4) Use Site-Blockers

Compulsive social media checks will make your thoughts bounce around like a ping-pong ball. A study from Irvine University found it takes 20 minutes to refocus after distractions.

Chamath Palihapitiya, former Facebook executive, says: “We were not evolved to get social approval being dosed upon us every 5 minutes.”

For better productivity, fix your environment. If you don’t want to get distractions, use a site-blocker.

How to do it:

I use this free chrome extension to block LinkedIn, Facebook, and Mail from 9 PM to noon.

Block all sites that dilute your focus. You’ll be surprised how much more you can achieve in less time.

5) Charge Your Phone Outside Your Bedroom

If you charge your phone in your bedroom, you’re likely poisoning your mind with trash at the most important times of your day — before you sleep and after you wake up.

Here are the three of the most damaging effects of using your smartphone in your bedroom:

  • You lose time
  • You lose focus
  • Your sleep quantity and quality drops

By abandoning your phone from your bedroom, you can implement new bedtime and morning rituals such as reading, meditating, journaling, or letting your mind wander.

Keeping my phone out of my bedroom was the single most effective habit to read more books. Since I managed my phone habits, I have read one book a week for almost three years.

How to do it:

Get an alarm clock and stop waking up to your smartphone’s alarm. When you sleep with your phone in another room, you don’t need to exert your willpower first thing in the morning. Instead, you’ll start your days with a clear mind and ease into a distraction-free morning.

Often, anxiety and hurry are caused by distraction. These quick fixes help me live a calmer life that’s full of focus. I hope they do the same for you.

Want to feel inspired and improve your learning?

Subscribe free to The Learn Letter. I read a book and 50 articles a week, and each Wednesday, you’ll receive the best in your inbox. This newsletter will make you find tools and resources that help you on your path to health, wealth, and wisdom.

9 Influencers Worth Following That Tweet About the Future of Learning

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A curated list of inspiring edupreneurs.

Created by the author via Canva.

Anything you read, watch or listen to shapes your thoughts. Hence, it’s worth paying attention to what you consume online.

I left teaching in Summer 2020 to make education fairer and better for as many learners as possible. Parts of what I do now includes connecting and reporting about education transformation.

Here’s a selection of thinkers who inspire me through their thoughts and projects on the future of learning.

1) Salman Khan

Salman Khan is the American educator who founded Khan Academy. His online education videos have been viewed more than 1.8 billion times. On Twitter, he shares ideas about bridging the digital divide and education transformation.

“Shying away from something where you are well suited to make a positive impact — especially because it is risky or can draw criticism or unwanted attention — is just as damaging as not realizing areas where your actions are counterproductive.”

— Salman Khan

2) Alain Chuard

Alain is the Founder & CEO of Prisma, a connected learning network that fully replaces regular school. Prisma didn’t transfer the core curriculum to the online world but created its own learning framework. On Twitter, Alain shares ideas on how to create learner-centric online schools./media/4dc1ab9cd7b5e747464e2f6d1a17abea

3) Richard Culatta

Richard is the CEO of ISTE — a community of global educators who believe in the power of technology to transform teaching & learning. He recently published the book ‘Digital for Good: Raising Kids to Thrive in an Online World’ and is a popular speaker on EdTech and innovation. On Twitter, he shares opinions on the digital divine and responsible device usage.

4) Ana Lorena Fabrega

Ana Lorena left teaching in 2019 to explore alternatives to traditional education. She’s now the Chief Evangelist at Synthesis, an online program partly initiated by Elon Musk. I love her Fab Friday newsletter, where she explores the future of education./media/57742cf1e5f6d6fdf684a7ed93cf0da0

5) Jelmer Evers

Jelmer is a history teacher, author and was nominated twice for the Global Teacher Prize. He is currently building an international teacher leadership network. If you understand Dutch, you can follow him on Twitter. Alternatively, watch his TEDx talk on flipping the education system.

6) Vlad Stan

Vlad is a serial entrepreneur and co-founder of Galileo — a global learning community for 8 to 18-year-olds. At its core, Galileo strives for self-directed (the freedom to choose what you want to learn) and self-organized (the freedom to design your daily schedule) education. Vlad tweets about homeschooling and EdTech./media/90cc016a4213594bfd498a8af5345e52

7) Saku Tuominen

Saku is the founder of HundrED — a not-for-profit organization that seeks and shares innovations in K12 education. I love to be inspired through their yearly global collection. Saku isn’t very active on Twitter, so instead, you might want to explore innovations curated by his company.

8) Wes Kao

Wes co-founded Maven, a platform for cohort-based courses. While MOOCs completion rate is just 3 to 6 percent, CBCs aim to improve completion rates through active, synchronous, hands-on learning. Wes published an excellent article on a16z and tweets about learning and thinking./media/98a3c16f3957046274b53bcbe649d16d

9) Jo Boaler

Jo is a professor of Mathematics education at the Standford Graduate School of Education and co-founder of youcubed. During my two years as a full-time Math teacher, her books drastically improved my teaching. On Twitter Jo shares insights on the growth mindset and mathematics.

“A lot of scientific evidence suggests that the difference between those who succeed and those who don’t is not the brains they were born with, but their approach to life, the messages they receive about their potential, and the opportunities they have to learn.”

— Jo Boaler

Want to feel inspired and improve your learning?

Subscribe free to The Learn Letter. I read a book and 50 articles a week, and each Wednesday, you’ll receive the best in your inbox. This newsletter will make you find tools and resources that help you on your path to health, wealth, and wisdom.

How Connected Learning Networks Shape the Future of Education

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Learning innovation with Sora, Galileo, and Prisma.

Image created by Eva Keiffenheim via Canva.

Education visionary Sir Ken Robinson once said:

“Our task is to educate their (our students) whole being so they can face the future. We may not see the future, but they will and our job is to help them make something of it.”

Yet, many kids grow up in an education system that stems from the industrialized age. Most schools batch children by age and expect them to learn at the same speed with the same means.

Connected Learning Networks follow a new paradigm. The approach to learning is defined as “learning that is socially connected, interest-driven, and oriented towards educational, economic, or political opportunity.”

Here are three schools that build on Connected Learning Networks and how they might shape the future of education:

1) Sora — High school built for you

Sora is a virtual high school that aims to accelerate students toward their wildest dreams.

Teachers are no longer teachers who deliver lectures but so-called guides who challenge students, structure individual curricula, and facilitate learning.

Sora offers various learning formats:

  • Independent projects. Students follow their learning interests (e.g., computer science or 18th-century Victorian fashion) and work towards their project goal.
  • Learning expeditions. Live learning sessions (e.g., saving the coral reef and shellfish industry) happen three days a week. These expeditions have deliverables, and students are assessed based on a mastery scale.
  • Career tracks. Learning advisors help students design their school experience around their desired career track, e.g., engineering, design, or health sciences.

Here’s what a typical schedule at Sora looks like:

A Day at Sora
9:30am daily standup on discord
10:00am project work (e.g. programming a game or writing a book) 
11:00am first learning expedition (e.g. history of buddhism)
12:00pm lunch break
12:45pm second learning expedition (e.g. saving the coral reef)
3:00pm afternoon checkpoint
4:30pm 1-on-1 check-in with experts to work through questions
5:00pm virtual club (e.g. movie club, school feedback sessions)

Tuition is $3,600 to $9,600 per year with flexible tuition options for families with a non-working parent or any extenuating circumstances.

The school was founded by Wesley Samples, Indra Sofian, and Garrett Smiley. They have work experience in venture capital, content marketing, as well as financial and entrepreneurship education.

Screenshot of Sora’s landing page.

I rate this approach 2/5 — Here’s why:

I love how Sora rethought curricula and moved away from a factory schedule. Their learning design can indeed foster self-directed learning enthusiasts.

What’s also great is the mastery-based curriculum where skill levels go along with learning science (e.g., 0 for exposure, 1 for recognition and recall, 2 for elaboration, 3 for application, and 4 for transfer).

Moreover, I like is their student focus. They state: “Schools suck because they are so far removed from the students that they serve. Our students know that we hear them, and though we make mistakes, they know that we all can learn from them.”

Yet, there are a few aspects that make me question Sora schools. First, their curriculum isn’t holistic. I can’t see subjects that focus on relationships, physical education, or arts.

Their site says, “relationships are one of the most important aspects of an education.” But a virtual book club isn’t enough to reinforce social skills.

Sora also lacks a clear roadmap to physical education. There’s the subject on an exemplary grade certificate. Yet, there’s neither a sports teacher on the team list nor a subject in their curriculum.

The online school doesn’t seem to offer art classes. It’d be great to take a more open approach to career tracks. Next generations need more than engineers, designers, and health scientists.

Sora seems like is the perfect school for parents who can’t wait for their students to join the high-achieving workforce.

2) Galileo — Online self-directed global school

Galileo is a global learning community for 8 to 18-year-olds. They offer live learning experiences and online courses.

At its core, Galileo strives for self-directed (the freedom to choose what you want to learn) and self-organized (the freedom to design your daily schedule) education.

Their mission is to improve the way we learn. Here’s how they do it:

  • Clubs such as Minecraft education, history clubs, coding, or theater clubs. These are ongoing teacher-led experiences where students connect and collaborate on topics of their interest. Students may join clubs on a week-to-week basis.
  • Nanocourses such as Logo design, artificial intelligence, space exploration, food innovation, or photography. They are 1-month project-based courses where the students learn a new skill. Students present their products during the final week of the course.
  • Bootcamps on game development, anthropology, or documentary making. There are two or three-month-long project-based learning experiences to inspire and give students a jump start on topics they want to learn about.

The school states the schedule looks different for every student, but here’s an example of how it might look like:

A Day at Galileo
9:00am daily check-in
9:30am 3D modeling club
11:00am Spanish club
1:00pm psychology crash course YT
3:00pm Math Khan - decimals
5:00pm Dance ballet

Their curriculum builds on existing solutions like Khan Academy, BrainPop, CodeCombat, Coursera, CrashCourse, or Duolingo. In addition, they invite mentors for inspirational speeches.

Tuition is $300 per student per month or $2000 per student a year (with a 20% siblings discount).

Kelly Davis and Vlad Stan founded Galileo. Kelly has taught in various countries throughout Asia, and Vlad is a serial entrepreneur.

Screenshot of Galileo’s landing page.

I rate this approach 3/5 — Here’s why:

The school’s founders share a noble motivation: “ We want you to be obsessed — or at least passionate — about the topic you are teaching, no matter if your passion is related to the core curricula or it’s just something completely different you pursued on your own.”

Galileo offers a holistic curriculum that includes dancing, singing, writing, languages, coding, maths, books, science. In addition, they provide more than 70 live learning experiences that go beyond economics and business skills.

Unlike Sora, they add a personal layer to online learning. They have student-led check-ins and local dojos — small, local, in-person learning experiences. So far, these local communities exist in Romania, Japan, the USA, Kenya, and Portugal.

They give people the opportunity to individualize their kids’ curriculum, and their team shares a passion for lifelong learning.

Yet, I’m not sure whether un- and deschooling with local dojos encompass the future of education is. So, while Galileo is an interesting niche product, I can’t see how this solution would work at scale.

Galileo seems like is the perfect school for world travelers and digital nomads who want to offer their kids connected, self-directed, world-class education.

“We have to personalize education, not standardize it.”

— Sir Ken Robinson

3) Prisma — The world’s first connected learning network

Prisma is a personalized, full-time online school for 9–14-year-olds. They reinvent learning.

Their vision is to create the world’s most effective and inclusive Connected Learning Network dedicated to preparing millions of kids for life and work in the 21st century.

Prisma offers various formats to their students:

  • Peer cohorts. A group that meets daily to collaborate, socialize, and learn with.
  • Coaching. Learning coaches meet and assist with learning on a daily basis.
  • Live workshops. A selection of virtual workshops that focus on communication, collaboration, and critical thinking. According to their website, these workshops are optimized for engagement.

For students, a typical schedule looks like this:

A Day at Prisma
10:00am standup
10:30am independent learning routines (e.g. math, English, arts)
12:00pm lunch
1:00pm live workshops (e.g. debates, strategy simulation, writing)
3:00pm projects
3:30pm coach-learner 1-on-1 (once a week)

Prisma didn’t copy and paste a bricks & mortar curriculum to online videos. Instead, they’ve custom-designed their learning content.

Unlike other programs, this school places a focus on inclusion: “Each learner, regardless of disability status, develops an individualized learning plan along with their Learning Coach and family.”

They do so by adjusting individual learning plans, for example, through more structure or learning accessibility.

The school enrollment works in 6 x 5-week learning cycles per year and costs $7415 a year. In addition, Prisma offers financial support options to support 40% of learners in each cohort.

Prisma was founded by serial entrepreneurs and parents Victoria Ransom and Alain Chuard. They built Prisma as a quest to reimagine school and for their children.

Screenshot of Prisma’s landing page.

I rate this approach 4/5 — Here’s why:

Prisma mastered many aspects I missed at Sora and Galileo.

Most importantly, their curriculum is holistic. They didn’t transfer the core curriculum to the online world but created their own learning framework consisting of:

  • Foundational knowledge (language literacy, numeracy, history, technology literacy, and science principles)
  • Powers (creativity, critical thinking, communication)
  • Perspectives (global perspective, empathy & compassion, mindfulness)
  • Practices (collaboration, design thinking, reflection, discussions, self-care)
  • Mindset (self-efficacy, emotional awareness, purpose, growth mindset, ownership & self-direction, love of learning).

Prisma also mastered to include physical education in a virtual learning environment. They acknowledge the difficulty of physical online education but have found three solutions that seem to work for their students:

  1. Live dance, yoga, and fitness instructors
  2. Fitness and other off-screen breaks that encourage movement
  3. Fitness badges by joining athletic endeavors in their local community

Moreover, they relied on learning evidence and eliminated grading: “There has been considerable research showing that grades reduce kids’ intrinsic motivation and encourage them to do ‘just enough’ rather than their best.”

I’d be curious what students say about the rather big group size with 50–70 learners per cohort and 12–18 learners per coach. In an online setting, this appears to make personalization difficult.

While their site states they’re a global online school, admission is only open to anyone who can operate in US time zones. So unless parents want to mess up with their child’s sleep cycle, Prisma is instead a US online school.

Prisma is the ideal online school for US homeschoolers and kids who don’t like traditional schooling.

In Conclusion

The application of Connected Learning Networks is still very young. Sora and Galileo started in 2018, Prisma in 2020.

These three online schools point us towards the future of education — personalized, global, and student-centered.

Yet, we mustn’t forget the entry barriers. To provide fair innovative learning experiences, all students need equitable access to devices, reliable wifi, and a safe place to learn.

Unless we focus on providing these resources to all students, Connected Learning Networks will further increase the digital gap among income levels.

Want to feel inspired and improve your learning?

Subscribe free to The Learn Letter. I read a book and 50 articles a week, and each Wednesday, you’ll receive the best in your inbox. This newsletter will make you find tools and resources that help you on your path to health, wealth, and wisdom.

Antilibraries Are the Better Libraries

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Here’s how they can accelerate your learning.

Photo by Pickawood on Unsplash

Do you ever feel guilty about the book staple you haven’t read? Polymath Nassim Nicholas Taleb says you shouldn’t:

“Read books are far less valuable than unread ones.”

Yes, you read it right. The pages you haven’t studied indeed add value to your life. Here’s why.

Antilibraries protect you from ignorance

When you just read a few books in your life, you’re likely aware of what you don’t know. But once you’ve read through some hundred books, you tend to become ignorant.

You might be too confident, too sure, and less aware of the things you don’t know. That’s where antilibraries come into play.

The books you haven’t read (and will never read) assemble your antilibrary.

They represent unknowledge and are the best cure for overconfidence. Nassim Nicholas Taleb writes:

“A private library is not an ego-boosting appendage but a research tool.”

Antilibraries help you overcome the biggest enemy

The illusion of knowledge — the things you think you know — is learning’s biggest enemy. The authors of the learning bible ‘Make it Stick’ write:

“The illusion of mastery is an example of poor metacognition: what we know about what we know. Being accurate in your judgment of what you know and don’t know is critical for decision making.”

Stuart Firestein, professor of Biology at Columbia University, adds an important point:

“We know a lot of stuff but of course there is more stuff that we don’t know. And not only is there more stuff that we don’t know — but the more we know, the more we increase the amount of stuff we don’t know, because there was all that stuff that we didn’t know that we didn’t know before. […]

An image I always like is of a circle of knowledge — but as the circle grows, as the diameter increases, so does the circumference that’s in contact with all that darkness outside the circle of light — that ignorance.”

When you’re convinced, you know something, learning something new means you have to change your mind.

People who don’t want to change their minds keep stuck in the same place. So overcoming our egos is one of the big learning challenges.

Antilibraries accelerate your learning

“You will never read all those books,” friends say when they look at my want-to-read list. The list grows by 2–3 books every day.

My friends are right. Even though I read 1–2 books a week, I will only get through some of them.

But that’s the point: My antilibrary is a constant reminder of what I don’t know. It helps me stay curious and humble. Psychologist Adam Grant writes:

“No matter how much brainpower you have, if you lack the motivation to change your mind, you’ll miss many occasions to think again.”

How to move forward

Don’t ever feel discouraged by the books you haven’t read. Instead, see them as a reminder to be humble and curious. Combined, they’re the essential ingredients for life-long learning.

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This Quick Mental Model Can Improve How You Navigate Life

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Understanding entropy changed the way I think.

Photo by DesignClass on Unsplash

“With every birthday, life gets more complicated,” my wise friend said last Sunday. When I asked why he replied:

“When I was a child, I thought the world made more sense the older you get. But with every year, the world becomes more complex. Life feels like a growing puzzle while you’re struggling to put the pieces into the right places.”

His words lingered with me long after the weekend. Does life get messier the older we get?

Murphy’s law says, “Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.” But once you research further, you find a deeper truth.

While pieces might just fall into the right places, most of the time, they don’t. And that’s not bad luck.

This quick read will help you regain trust and support a calmer and happier life.

What You Should Know About Entropy

According to Dan Brown entropy is just a fancy way to say things fall apart. I disagree. Entropy is more than that.

Imagine you open a big puzzle and dump the pieces on your floor. What are the chances every piece will fall into the right places?

Theoretically, it’s possible. But the likelihood is close to zero. Unless you hit the jackpot probability, the pieces won’t fall in perfect order.

There’s a single state where everything falls in order but nearly infinite states in disorder. Congrats — you just grasped entropy’s quintessence.

Entropy is a measure of disorder and randomness for even smaller units than your puzzle pieces.

Physicist Ludwig Boltzmann says entropy is a measure of the number of possible arrangements of atoms and molecules of a system, that comply with the macroscopic condition of the system.

Entropy is about probabilities. And as time moves forward, more possibilities emerge.

The second law of thermodynamics confirms what my wise friend felt: entropy will always increase over time. Life gets more chaotic when you grow older.

“The increase of disorder or entropy is what distinguishes the past from the future, giving a direction to time.”

— Stephen Hawking

Believing life gets less messy with age is a waste of energy. The English scientist Arthur Eddington said: “ If your theory is found to be against the Second Law of Thermodynamics, I can give you no hope; there is nothing for it but to collapse in deepest humiliation.”

Now you know about entropy’s existence. But what does it mean for you?

What This Universal Law Means for Your Life

You can’t go back in time. You can’t reverse entropy and reduce complexity, uncertainty, and chaos. Entropy is present in every aspect of life.

Here’s a helpful metaphor by Tom Stoppard: “When you stir your rice pudding, Septimus, the spoonful of jam spreads itself round making red trails like the picture of a meteor in my astronomical atlas. But if you stir backward, the jam will not come together again. Indeed, the pudding does not notice and continues to turn pink just as before.”

For every step you take, most scenarios won’t bring you to your desired destination. Nevertheless, you can’t go back in time and reverse it.

A tidy room gets dirty; your computer breaks, your relationship ends, you lose a piece of your life’s puzzle. In all of these cases, life isn’t against you. It’s entropy at its best.

The question isn’t how to stop entropy. It’s how you navigate through life despite its existence.

“The ultimate purpose of life, mind, and human striving: to deploy energy and information to fight back the tide of entropy and carve out refuges of beneficial order.”

— Steven Pinker

How You Can Use Entropy to Your Advantage

Adopt John Green’s mindset: “Everything that comes together falls apart. Everything. The chair I’m sitting on. It was built, and so it will fall apart. I’m going to fall apart, probably before this chair. And you’re going to fall apart.

The cells and organs and systems that make you — they came together, grew together, and so must fall apart. The Buddha knew one thing science didn’t prove for millennia after his death: Entropy increases. Things fall apart.”

Don’t expect things to stay the way they are. Don’t feel like life’s against you when things become chaotic or complex.

Any disorder or chaos isn’t your personal mistake. It’s the universe’s default. Any order is unnatural, temporary, and subject to change.

Sounds scary? When you imagine the opposite, you see it shouldn’t. In a world without entropy, everything would always stay the same. Rooms wouldn’t get dirty, things wouldn’t break and people wouldn’t change.

Life would become predictable.

In a world without entropy, creativity and innovation wouldn’t exist.

Whether you run a business, have kids, or look for meaning in life —the next time you face a problem, know that life doesn’t work against you.

Once you know disorder is the default, you can decide how and where you want to use your energy to create stability.

Use attention and care to foster your relationship, clean your house so it won’t get messier, build an emergency fund so you’re forearmed against unpleasant surprises. Use energy to create your desired state of order.

Final Thoughts

My friend was right. Things get more complicated. With every birthday, the degree of disorder and randomness increases. Statistically, more things turn out different than your version of “right.”

But life doesn’t conspire against you. It’s only entropy doing its job.

This mental model helped me reach my goals and stop being so hard on myself. I hope it does the same for you.

Want to join a community of lifelong learners? Subscribe free to The Learn Letter. Each Wednesday, you’ll receive the best in your inbox. My newsletter will make you find tools and resources that help you on your path to health, wealth, and wisdom.

Elon Musk Disliked His Kids’ Schools — So He Started His Own

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Is he quietly revolutionizing education?

Image edited by the author (Source: Duncan.Hull — CC BY-SA 4.0)

“So you want to keep your kids away from regular schools?” a reporter asked Elon Musk in an interview.

You know Musk’s mindset: If he doesn’t like something, he builds his own versions — cars, rockets, highways, energy companies.

Musk replied: “I just didn’t see the regular schools weren’t doing the things I thought should be done. I thought, let’s see what we can do. Maybe creating a school would be better.”

In 2014, Elon Musk asked Josh Dahn, a former Teach for All Fellow and his kid’s teacher at the time, if he’d start a better school with him at SpaceX. Dahn agreed. The school Ad Astra, Latin for ‘to the stars,’ was born.

Ad Astra School’s Two Core Principles

Musk reimagined education on First Principles thinking: boil things down to their fundamental truths and reason up from there instead of reasoning by analogy.

Instead of accepting the prices of rockets, Musk asked himself, “What’s a rocket made of?” He listed the components and calculated the costs. He found that raw materials were nearly 100 times cheaper. He decided to build his own rockets instead of buying some.

For education, Musk came up with these two principles.

1) Batch children by ability instead of age.

Regular schools batch children by age, assuming it’s is the most important denominator. Traditional school systems expect students of the same age to learn at the same speed. Musk disagrees with age segregation:

“Kids have different abilities at different times. It makes more sense to cater the education to match their aptitudes and abilities.”

2) Don’t teach to the tool. Teach to the problem.

Ever asked a teacher why you learn something? Most answers don’t go beyond you’ll need this..someday. If the relevance isn’t clear, learning feels irrelevant.

Learning to use tools is pointless and boring unless those tools help you solve a real problem. Listing the tools you need to take an engine apart isn’t the same as trying to disassemble the engine yourself. By doing the work, you see the tool’s relevance as you go.

This EdTech Startup Scales Musk’s Ad Astra School

A few years later, Chrisman Frank, Dahn’s former colleague at ClassDojo, visited Ad Astra. He fell in love with one part of the school — Synthesis.

In 2020, Frank convinced Dahn to spin off Synthesis as a for-profit company. Frank’s vision was to scale the learning software and develop a generation of super thinkers. Here’s how it works.

Synthesis is a simulation-based learning experience built around complex team games. Students work through case studies, simulations, and game-based challenges.

While playing, kids teach themselves how to win. In the process, they learn new problem-solving skills. Two game examples:

  • Art for All. Students compete in an auction game for the best art exhibits. The simulation covers negotiation and covers mental models such as auction theory and the winner’s curse.
  • Fire! In this collaborative game, students fight forest fires with varying conditions. It covers mental models such as positive-sum vs. zero-sum games.

In a recent podcast episode Chrisman Frank, Synthesis CEO, and Ana Fabrega, Chief Evangelist, shared details about ‘the most innovative learning experience.’

Replacing Lectures and Books with Software and Games

Lectures remain the dominant teaching method in most schools. But they don’t allow for dialogue, discussions, and disagreement. Instead of training students to become active thinkers, schools train them to become passive listeners.

Books don’t train for problem-solving. From my time as a Maths teacher, I remember ‘real-world’ textbook examples. But students knew I had the right solution in my teacher’s book. Reality is more complex than right or wrong. Most schools teach students to follow the rules as opposed to thinking for themselves.

Synthesis doesn’t design simulations for content but for the experience. Simulations are complex and have no right answers. 18–20 kids work in groups with one facilitator. But facilitators don’t lecture. The student groups explore and learn game rules on their own.

The idea of the simulations is to change the way kids approach real-life problems and prepare them to navigate the complexity and chaos that comes with life.

Students make decisions that have consequences and meaning. They have to understand trade-offs and analyze their choices where there is no binary answer — and the teacher doesn’t have it either.

Expectations Outside Students’ Comfort Zones

Fleas can jump 8 inches high, but when put in a closed jar for three days, they will never again jump higher than the lid’s height. Their offspring mimics their parents and settles on the same height.

A school system’s low expectations are like flea training. Low expectations are a glass ceiling for children and one of the fastest ways to fail them.

Synthesis claims to have in-built high expectations that make kids step outside of their comfort zone.

At Synthesis, there is no teacher to ask for the correct answer when things don’t work. The students know the teaching team trusts to solve these challenges.

Fabrega says children crave complexity. She describes after a while; kids feel comfortable with all the uncertainty. Synthesis teaches kids to feel comfortable being uncomfortable.

Using the Super Mario Effect for Faster Learning

As a teacher, I fostered my student’s growth mindset. I planned entire lessons around it and focused on praising efforts instead of outcomes. I showed my students mistakes help us learn.

Yet, the system beat me. When a kid received a bad grade, they felt demotivated. When mistakes mean you get a worse grade I can’t blame children for trying to avoid them.

The question is: How can you frame a learning process so you’re not obsessed with failure?

Mark Rober, a former NASA engineer turned Youtube star, explored this question and says games are the answer: “The focus and obsession are about beating the game, not about how dumb you might look. And as a direct result of that attitude — of learning from but not being focused on the failures — we got really good, and we learned a ton in a really short amount of time.”

Rober continues: “It feels natural to ignore the failures and try again in the same way a toddler will want to get up and try to walk again or in the same way you want to keep playing Super Mario Brothers.”

Other research attests to the power of game-based learning. Synthesis applied this insight. They reframed the learning process and created game-based learning experiences.

The result: fear of failure isn’t a problem anymore.

Fabrega says: “When mistakes are not penalized, people are more likely to just keep trying. And if you keep trying, then naturally, you have more chances of eventually succeeding.”

“The more we can gamify the process of learning, the better.” — Elon Musk

Did Elon Musk Quietly Revolutionize Education?

Elon Musk did his thing again. He saw something that didn’t work well and changed it. From being unhappy with his kid’s obsolete education, he planted a seed to innovate the education sector.

The idea that our school system was built for the industrial age and the need for a paradigm shift isn’t new. Schools teach to follow instructions when reality has changed. Yet, systemic change is slow.

Musk’s assets and influence enabled people to rethink and rebuild learning environments. Their aspiration to put students’ learning experience front and center is great. If only half of what the kids say is true, Musk’s initiative is doing a great job on this.

Ad Astra recently changed into Astra Nova. Their philosophy is honorable: student centricity, a value for individual abilities, praising curiosity, and encouraging problem-solving and critical thinking:

“What if students were taken seriously and their time well spent? Astra Nova believes in meaningful student experiences across age levels and domains.”

I couldn’t agree more — there’s no reason any child should not enjoy learning.

Want to join a community of lifelong learners? Subscribe free to The Learn Letter. Each Wednesday, you’ll receive the best in your inbox. This newsletter will make you find tools and resources that help you on your path to health, wealth, and wisdom.