“If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.” – Harvey Mackay
The internet is an amazing place.
One of the most amazing things about the internet is that we have access to more education right now than any generation before us. Just think of that for a second: Access to more education than any generation before us.
On top of that, the education can be obtained for almost free to completely free.
Why I Wrote This
Last month I attended a leadership rally where my employer’s CEO, the great Jack Salzwedal, shared some advice with the group. He encouraged us to “relearn how to learn.”
After his comments, a keynote speaker came up and shared how AI is going to change everything and how we need to prepare for the changes it will bring. Jobs will be taken, and new jobs will be created.
He encouraged us to think of ourselves as if we were a smartphone app that needs to receive updates every once in a while in order to remain at peak performance (I really liked this analogy).
Don’t know much about AI? Check out this video to see just how advanced Google’s AI is already. It’s both amazingly scary and exciting.
I left this portion of the meeting pondering, “Am I doing the things necessary now in order to improve my knowledge and provide value in the future? Am I ‘updating’ myself?”
In many ways, I know that I am. However, I wanted to see what other resources were available in order to gain even more knowledge. It’s incredible how many websites offer free to almost free education in a high quality and entertaining format.
Below are 14 of the resources that I found. Some of them I have been using for a while now. They are great!
Udemy.com
I really like this platform. Udemy is a website/app where individuals can create an online course and share it with the world on any topic. Other people can then purchase these courses (usually for about $10 per course) and learn to their hearts content. There are courses on lots of different things. The courses I have recently learned from on Udemy are business topics, airplane piloting, crypto-currency trading, and photography. As you can see, there is a large spectrum of courses on Udemy.
Udemy has a nice website as well as a smartphone app that allows you to learn whenever and wherever. The website is smart enough to know where you stopped watching a video on your laptop and will pick right back up on your smartphone. Many of the courses offer free lessons and previews. Oh, and just so you know, the courses are almost always “on sale” so don’t worry about ever having to pay the full retail price.
Lynda.com
I’m fortunate that my employer pays for my Lynda.com membership. However, if they didn’t, I’d pay for it if. I think it’s that good. On top of the hundreds of different lessons available, they also offer certification programs.
I have committed to doing 30 minutes of lessons from Lynda.com per day. I usually do this right after I hit the gym in the morning and get ready for work. Lately, I’ve been taking lessons on personal branding and content creation. The instructors have been solid and engaging.
YouTube.com
We all know about YouTube and its ability to provide mind-numbing entertainment. However, if you leverage it the right way, you can learn a lot from YouTube videos.
I have over 40 YouTube channels that I subscribe to that keep me up to speed with changes in technology, entrepreneurship, and business. These are 5 of my favorite ones MKBHD, Valuetainment, Gary Vee, Cold Fusion, L2inc.
Podcasts
Apple’s Podcast app is another great way to learn. I love it because they offer thousands of podcasts for free. I listen to them when I drive, work out, and travel.
These are some of my favorite podcasts:
Blinkist.com
I stumbled upon Blinkist several years ago as I was looking for a way to learn while working out. I knew I couldn’t lift weights and watch a video at the same time so I needed something in an audio format. That’s when I found this app.
Blinkist is great because it takes popular books and condenses them into audio files that take around 10 minutes to listen to. The audio covers the main points of the book. I have read books and then gone back to listen to the Blinkist version to see if they got most of the good parts. In most cases, they have. I strongly recommend it.
The app is free and they do have free books to listen to each day; however, I recommend the paid version which allows you to listen to any book as often and whenever you want. It usually runs around $70 per year.
Free Ivy League Courses
Did you know that there are many Ivy League schools that offer free courses? It’s true!
They are great because they are the same courses that other students are paying tens of thousands of dollars for.
The good stuff: The courses are free and provide quality education.
The bad stuff: They do not offer every course that their university students would receive. It makes sense though; they’ve got to make their money.
Here are some of the most recognizable schools and links to their free courses:
TED Ed
TED Ed offers a lot of lessons and is completely free. If you’ve ever listened to a TED talk you already know how engaging and thought provoking these lessons can be.
Codecademy.com
Sometimes it literally pays to be nerd.
Want to make six figures and be in a field that will see a lot of growth for years to come? Coding is a very great way to do that.
A survey done by SurveyList.com shows that the average senior software engineer makes $121,348 in the United States. That’s not too shabby.
Don’t know how to code? That’s fine. Codecademy can teach you. Their lessons are fun and intuitive. They offer beginner, intermediate, and advanced classes. On top of that, the classes are free.
Alison.com
Alison.com offers classes in these main categories: IT, Language, Science, Health, Humanities, Business, Math, Marketing, and Lifestyle. Pretty much everything, right?
On top of that, the courses are usually all free and they offer certifications that you can share on your social platforms. In other words, it will make you look even more impressive on your Linkedin profile.
Edx.org
Now Edx.org , hear me out, usually costs money. However, they do offer some free courses. I included this one as it also has some very prestigious universities included. For example, you can Georgetown University’s “Global Business in Practice” course. This specific course is 30 hours worth of study and upon completion you will receive a verified certificate from the school!
I’m going to start doing some of these classes soon!
My hope is that this article helps you “Relearn how to learn” and helps you get to your desired level of performance.
Are there other websites that you would recommend? If so, please leave your comments below.
Question of the Day
With all of the more economical ways to learn, why are traditional brick-and-mortar colleges and universities still a thing today?
Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.]
Featured Photo by John Schnobrich on Unsplash
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