Looking back on the past week, it occurred to me that right now we’re all extremely spoiled by how crazy little friction there is to learning almost any topic out there.

If there’s a topic I’m struggling to grasp from lectures or textbooks, it’s so easy to find someone online who can explain it clearly and concisely. I learn best by studying others as they work through problems. Opportunities to do that don’t always come up in lectures and it’s rare to see a textbook replicate that experience. Looking up a video though? I can learn completely at my own pace and usually understand the concept in around 10 minutes. If I don’t like the way one person online teaches, there’s so many others I can turn to. And so much of it is free!

Free online resources are so good that several of the university courses I’ve taken have relied on them pretty heavily as part of their materials, sometimes going as far as replacing traditional textbooks.

I’m really glad to be going through school when I am.