I graduated w an English degree, minors in Music and French (basically no functional work skills). Since then, I've gotten high-paying jobs, freelanced, built a successful startup, etc.

I had help. Though not how you might think.

...I bought $17,737 of online courses

Online courses are still severely underrated as learning tools.

They're like books, except with modern compression rate of HD video, cohort-based learning, listen+watchability, etc.

Essentially, "super books" built w/o the traditional publishing constraints

Here's my graph of online ed spending

Spending by category:

- High End Video Courses: $11,200 (6 total)
- Short-form Video Courses: $2967 (14)
- eBook+: $545 (6)
- Tutorials, Edutainment: $1825 (8)
- Communities $1200 (2)
- Job Credentials: $0 - $30K (1)

Here's the typical rough price ranges of these categories and definitions

(full explanation, plus specific $ w all course names bought by category in video at END of this thread! )

My Course-Buying Framework: the 5% rule

If you're serious about improving your life through online ed, I recommend spending by a % of your annual income: 5% target for self development (try to do more if you're young!)

How this nets out by pre-tax incomes

How to determine what online courses to buy?

Pick topics that are:

1) Interesting to you
2) Build Accelerator Skills
3) Increase your income or freedom

@liminal_warmth on definition of Accelerator Skills https://twitter.com/liminal_warmth/status/1257336678211096576

Who to pick as your teacher?

Pick the teacher you TRUST. Consume their free material and have them prove it out. Go up the "chain of value" - tweets, vids, blog, newsletter, pdfs

@tobi Lutke calls this concept building a Trust Battery.
( @ShaneAParrish interview)

How to succeed at an online course you've bought?

Many struggle, fall behind, or feel like they've failed to get the most out of online courses they buy.

Most online courses are built to be comprehensive around a topic, whereas your learning point in the process is specific. You're on Step 1, or 2, or 3, and most course teach steps 0 through 20.

Strive for Just-in-Time Learning: learning that is relevant to you exactly at this moment.

Treat courses you take (and books you read) as practical tools: you can read one section, apply it, then forget the rest - until it's needed later.

Establish a next Minimum Viable Action.

Some forms of taking action: -> showing up (attendance, reading) -> synthesis (notes, sharing) -> real world application (produce). How can you break down these even further?

(for me, this is posting Twitter threads as I learn!)

Quick hits: some of my favorite investments learning online

Earn1K by Ramit Sethi @ramit .

Taught me basic solopreneur freelancing skills, marketing, closing the sale of your first client, outreach, and more.

Looks like it's been repacked in Earnable:
https://buy.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/earnable/ 

Building a Second Brain by Tiago Forte @fortelabs. Great for information synthesis, setting up your information capture system, taking better notes, and turning it into action.

More info:
https://www.buildingasecondbrain.com/ 

Part-Time YouTuber Academy by @AliAbdaal. Great live cohort program for treating YouTube as a part-time business, strategies to succeed, generate content in a systematic way.

More info here:
https://academy.aliabdaal.com/a/tvc7o 
(affiliate)

Recent 2020 highlights:
- Visualize Value: fundamentals of visual design + UX @jackbutcher @visualizevalue
- Everyone Can Build a Twitter Audience: how to grow your Twitter account from zero @dvassallo
- Doing Content Right in 2020: content marketing ebook @stephsmithio

You can watch the 16-min video breakdown of this topic here if you're interested!

I'll be writing more threads on online education, learning, and productivity - follow me if you enjoy content like this.