This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Let us talk today about the field of education, or specifically the field of pedagogical theory, which is a fancy way of just saying education or learning, how do you learn? Now the field of pedagogical theory is full of constant research methods and debates, lots of stuff that we have learned in recent years, as well as perhaps a few concepts that might be timeless, relatively timeless, let's say. Now we know that people learn in different ways. Like you might prefer the medium of audio, for example. But it's also true that there are ways to improve how you learn, regardless of your personality or preferences.
So in fact, improving your learning, like if you can improve how you learn, you can learn more or learn it faster, no matter who you are, no matter how you like to learn. Welcome to Side Hustle School, my name is Chris Guillebeau, and this topic of applied learning, that's what today's listener is interested in, how to help people learn more actively, which all sounds good, but how can this be a product or service? That's what our focus is here, how can you make money? How can you create an income generating project using something that you know about? So we're gonna talk about that.
How to create a product or should you create a product? What is the next step? If you want to help people with applied learning. This listener's question is coming right up after this shout out to our sponsor, stay tuned. [Music]
Hi Chris, this is Dave from Orlando, and I've been listening to the show since the beginning, and I've really been enjoying the new format.
I'd like to help people learn, but not learn any specific topic like coding or drawing or whatever, but to improve their skill of learning itself. If you can learn at a faster rate or just more effectively, you'll ultimately be able to learn a lot more. However, even though the benefit seems clear and valuable, I'm not sure how to translate this benefit into a specific product. Should it be some kind of course or maybe a book or something else? Thanks and keep up the great work.
[Music]
Hey Dave, thanks so much for the call. Glad you're enjoying the show. Yeah, this is an interesting idea. I think this is gonna serve as a really good model for lots of other listeners who have similar questions. Okay, so let's think about how to answer this question, not just about this particular idea, but for anybody out there who's like, I've got this idea, but what is the best format?
Is it a good idea in the first place? So here's what you do. First things first, in a situation like this, when you're not sure what to do is you go out and you look for anyone else who's doing something like this. So you're doing some preliminary research and often what you'll find and what I think Dave will find is that, there are people that are doing something like it. And in this specific example, there are a lot of resources to help people improve their skill of learning.
It doesn't mean there's not room for Dave, but it would be helpful to just kind of survey the landscape because like he's wondering about an online course or a book or something. Well, there are a number of online courses and books, all about this topic. There are also a number of apps designed to help people learn more effectively, often through games or mental challenges. And then just to go back to the content side, like the book, there are also many blogs, there are videos, there are podcasts all about learning and the revenue model for the people running those things, they do tend to be courses or memberships or maybe just one-off products. Okay, so there's a wide range of application there.
What I would suggest is, Dave, take a look at those things, see what you find appealing and unappealing, see what you think is done well, see where you think you might be able to do something better, just a little bit different. What model do you like the most in terms of the format, in terms of the course versus the app versus the something else? Also as part of that, what would you definitely not want to do? Now, lastly, I don't think this is impossible, just to focus on the specific idea here. I don't think it's impossible at all, but I would just note that it's a little higher level conceptually than trying to teach people a specific skill or transfer specific knowledge.
It's often easier to communicate the benefit behind a specific skill or knowledge than it is to say, I'm gonna show you how to learn better. Even if you could argue that being able to learn better is ultimately more useful, like I wouldn't disagree with that, but I'm just saying that to communicate this benefit, it's often simpler to say, hey, I'm gonna show you, here's how you do needle point or here's how you improve. I don't know, whatever the skill or knowledge is, than it is to say, I'm gonna show you how to learn better so that you can then learn and apply this to lots of different ways. So just consider that a bit. If you're good at helping people learn, do you want to do that, like focus broad from that top-down perspective, or might you also find it interesting to teach one of the many things you have learned along the way?
Because presumably if you're good at helping people learn, then you have also learned a fair amount. So a couple different options there. I hope that is helpful for Dave and anybody else out there. All right, thank you so much listeners. If you've got a question of your own, come to sidehustleschool.com/questions.
We will continue to feature them throughout the rest of the year. It's wonderful to hear from people and know what you're up to, what your ideas are, what questions you have, challenges, et cetera. I'm always happy to hear from you. So thank you so much again. Be sure you're subscribed because much more is coming up.
My name is Chris Guillebeau, this is Side Hustle School. [Music]
From the Onward Project.
