For the past few months I’ve been asking myself the question: If I could learn anything in the next six months, what would it be? What follows is an outline of the six courses I created as my answer to this question.
I will be working towards the following six courses for the rest of 2018 for my new self education project, Term II. Each of these courses includes a wider ranging topic, a starting point, and a general direction. I did not develop fully fleshed-out plans for each of these courses because I am only starting to explore the topics covered in the courses and I will be wiser and have a better sense of direction as I progress through the courses than I will have in the beginning. Since my plan will be evolving as it unfolds, it will be harder to track my progress as an outsider. For this reason I am creating a live page on my website for each course (which I link to in this article). These pages will be updated with my progress as I make it. Watching these living pages you will be able to see my thoughts, understanding, and accomplishments within a course organize themselves as I learn more. At the end of the project I should have six well organized portfolios demonstrating what I learned in each course. Now that I’ve explained the structural details of the courses, let’s dive into what the courses are.
AI/Machine Learning/Data Science
Intention: Currently, I have a career in software development. Recently my work has mostly revolved around mobile web development, and UI/JavaScript work. I decided to pursue a career in software development as a part of my original Graduate Unschool project because I enjoyed programming, and I believed that an understanding of software would serve as a powerful tool for solving interesting business and scientific problems. I enjoy my work, but a major purpose for this course is to explore a side of my profession that I might enjoy more. I have chosen AI/ML in particular because although I know very little about them right now, they seem to hold a good chance of being the future of technology. I may have missed the ground floor on these emerging fields, but I still want to get ahead of the curve. AI, machine learning, and data science also appear to be more analytical and math heavy than the software I currently write, and I miss using the analytical skills I developed in college.
Initial Plan:
-
- Complete this AWS AI Udemy Course
- Build a working AI/ML portfolio
- Contribute to an AI/ML project at work, even if it is outside of my normal billable hours
- Build an awesome AI/ML/data science project to solve a problem that I am interested in
- Become a part of the AI/ML ecosystem at work, and stay connected with my AI/ML mentor
Stretch Goal:
-
- Professional AI/ML work experience
Physics
Intention: I spent four years of my life completely consumed with studying hard physical sciences and loved every second of it. Today I rarely do anything to truly engage myself with studying the topics that interest me the most. A few years ago I was incredibly close to pursing a career in physics and now I find myself envious of my college friends that are deepening their understanding of math and physics in graduate school while mine slowly fades away. The strongest reason I’m pursuing this course is because my math and physics education isn’t complete yet. I maintain an ongoing list of courses I want to take, things I want to learn, and research projects I want to contribute to, and I’m tired of waiting for the right time to start again. The purpose of this course is to explore how I can integrate studying hard science into my daily life. I also want my knowledge and understanding to stop withering and to start increasing. For that reason I have chosen to take two consecutive courses in classical mechanics, the first I took an equivalent course to in college, which should help ease this challenging topic back into my skillset and prepare me for the second, an advanced classical mechanics class that is the equivalent of an elective I wanted to take back when I was a student at the U of A, but couldn’t due to scheduling conflicts. Hopefully I will be able to walk away from this course with a reignited passion for studying physics, and the ability to solve a set of problems I couldn’t have solved at my former peak.
Initial Plan:
-
- Work through MIT’s Classical Mechanics II and III courses
- Study and complete problems from the associated text books (Landau & Lifshitz, Goldstein)
- Build a software simulation project demonstrating some of the physics knowledge I’ve picked up, connecting it with my current software development skillset
- Write synthesis of topics covered in the courses I complete, and post problem sets and solutions
Stretch Goal:
-
- Build a resume worthy physics project
Video Game & Mobile App Development
Reasons: I spent the first six months of this year learning how to develop iPhone applications. I really enjoy the process as well as the opportunity that mobile apps offer for business and creative expression. I’ve also gotten two of my friends to agree to work with me so we can turn this into a productive hobby together. Currently I know how to make apps, but I don’t know how to make apps (outside of work) that people will download and actually use, or that I can make money from. If I continue to make progress in this direction I think it will open up a lot of opportunities for me. Making a video game was on my 2018 bucket list and this course will provide the structure I need to reach that goal.
Initial Plan:
-
- Develop apps with Ryan and Alex for the next iteration of my learning club
- Release 3 apps on the App Store
- Build a video game
Side Hustle
Intention: I read The Four Hour Work Week almost 10 years ago and I still haven’t found my passive income muse. I’m not even sure that it’s possible without a bit of luck, but I want to be sure that I give it an honest shot. In the past year I’ve transitioned myself from fully relying on my full-time job as my sole source of income, to learning about financial independence, building a passive and scalable second stream of income (investment returns) and setting myself up for a potential early retirement. The process has made me feel more free and given me the courage to take more control of my career. I took a pay cut to switch fields (which has already turned into a significant net raise) and I feel like I have stable long term financial plans. I want to continue this process and start building my third stream of income this year. The intention of this course is to learn how to get paid something to do what I love on my own time.
Initial Plan:
-
- Follow the 28 day course laid out in the book Side Hustle
- Sell the apps I make in the above course on the App Store for $0.99 and see what happens
- Create a 3rd stream of income even if that doesn’t mean turning a profit from it
Stretch Goal:
-
- Create a $1000/year stream of passive income from products I’ve created
Skateboarding
Intention: I love skateboarding and I want to continue to improve. I want to get demonstrably better at skateboarding in these next six months with a clear before and after. There’s so many different techniques I want to try to break through my current plateau and I think it would be fun to communicate my skill development experiments via this blog.
Initial Plan:
-
- Experiment with different skill development approaches for improving my skating
- Learn new tricks
- Approach my skateboarding in a more scientific way
- Share these experiments on my blog
Stretch Goal:
-
- Learn the following tricks (to demonstrate my growth)
- Frontside board slide on a handrail
- Kickflip nose manual on a manny pad
- Increase consistency and length of frontside nose grinds
- Switch nose manual on a manny pad
- Consistent switch kickflips
- Learn the following tricks (to demonstrate my growth)
Blogging/Meta-Course
Intention: In this course I will continue to build out my blog, specifically around this self education project. Communicating through this blog will help me articulate my thoughts. Tracking my progress publicly will help keep me accountable and it will encourage me to make projects that I can feel proud of and can feel confident taking credit for. Most of all I’ve become disenchanted with social media recently and I’ve realized that I’d rather have my own cool piece of digital real estate on the internet instead. I want to invest more heavily in myself and I might as well improve this website in the process.
Initial Plan:
-
- Make live webpages for each course (except this one)
- Regularly write articles on ideas I have while working through this project
- Post a 50 minute article every 2 weeks to build a habit of regularly writing
- Keep the outside world fully updated with the big picture of my current state throughout the project
- Improve this website
Stretch Goal:
-
- Create an updated digital/life resume
I’ve shared with you what I want to learn in the next six months and my initial plans to do so. This is what I want my life to look like for the rest of 2018. I mostly make this website for myself, but if you’re interested you can follow along and watch this project unfold with me.
Up next: Progressive resistance training and how I’ll be measuring progress