After dropping some serious money on BU, I’m taking a different approach to my post-undergraduate education. I don’t regret going to an expensive private university for a second, especially since I have my girlfriend, my career and a much busier social life to show for it. However, I doubt I’ll go down that route for another degree, at least not under my current circumstances. I’ve taken an even more proactive approach in learning since I earned my degree a few years ago. I have many different sources of inspiration for this move, but two come to mind right away: Josh Kaufman, the author of The Personal MBA, and Matt Damon’s character in “Good Will Hunting.”
Over the last few weeks I’ve tried to implement more structure into what was simply a surf-and-read strategy when I found interesting blog posts, news stories or books about an industry I wanted to learn more about. As I mentioned in the previous entry, I’m curated a ton of content that has taught me a lot about the business world in one way or another, and much of it has been useful personally as I’ve tried to implement it in my own life.
To ensure I continue to expand my knowledge and also my perspective, I set up a format that encourages the use of different media for learning, a hodgepodge of sources and a few varying levels of active involvement. Here’s a sample of what I’ve done recently:
-Read printed materials (like a book I have bookmarked at page 143)
-Read online content (like the articles I shared in my last post)
-Watched training videos through services like lynda.com
-Watched TV (thanks for the business tips, Shark Tank)
-Listened to podcasts
-Listened to recorded books on Audible
-Shared ideas for different developmental stages of Quirky‘s products
-Explored online courses from “traditional” educational sources via edX and similar sites
-Performed case studies on companies & individuals, and blogged the results as part of two new series I’ve started
-Learned a new language through Babbel (or at least brushed up on my Spanish to start)
-Took courses with a new approach on learning through Skillshare or individual non-traditional teachers
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Those platforms have helped me learn a bit of the following subjects in the recent past:
-Business
-Marketing
-Social Media
-Leadership & Management
-Sales
-Psychology
-Economics
-Time Management
-Statistics
-Entrepreneurship
-Education
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I plan to analyze just how much I learn from each platform and each subject, in hopes that it can teach you and me about how people absorb, retain and share information. In fact, I might use those findings to teach a course about learning and/or teaching! I’ll keep you updated as I go…
Nick Gagalis 
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