I started college in 1994. After a few weeks on campus, I realized there were quite a few words and phrases that were in common usage that I was going to start using simply by being around them. While most of them were benign, there were several that I was a bit unsure whether I wanted to adopt or not. I’m not talking about obscenities. I’m talking about things like:

• Crap – Often used as an expletive, adjective or adverb.
• Sucks – Used to describe an undesirable state or occurrence, often in the phrase “that sucks”.
• Hey – Used instead of “hello” or “hi”.
• Legit – Used to express a desirable state or approval, often in the phrase “That’s legit” or as an adjective and sometimes and adverb.

When I caught myself using these words as described above, I had to stop and decide if that was the vocabulary I wanted to use. (I never used “legit” in that manner–it always sounded stupid to me.) I came to the conclusion that “crap” and “sucks” expressed concepts that I could probably better express using other words. Furthermore, there were some situations where those terms would be highly offensive, and I didn’t want to run the risk of having something ingrained into my vocabulary that might get me into trouble.

I did succumb to saying “hey” instead of “hello” or “hi”. I didn’t really like it, but it felt much too formal to say “hello” when someone said “hey” and waved.  After a while, I was saying “hey” with the best of them.

I have cousins who grew up in Chile speaking both Spanish and English. Even as a child, I was always impressed with how precise their language was. In particular, I noticed how they said “yes” instead of “yeah” or “uh huh.” Now that I have kids, my wife and I have been trying to teach them to say “yes” and “yes sir”/”yes ma’am.” The difficult part is trying to retrain ourselves to stop saying “yeah.”

At a recent doctor visit, the nurse asked our two year old a question. She replied “yes.” The nurse stood up, looked at us, and said “I just love it when kids say ‘yes’ instead of ‘yeah’.”

People do notice how you speak. Other than your physical appearance, your vocabulary is the next biggest component of the first impression you make. People form all kinds of initial opinions about your intelligence and education from the first few sentences you speak. As important as first impressions are, it is worth spending a little bit of time examining your own vocabulary to see what type of impression you may be making with the words you do and don’t use.

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For example, let’s say that you were fired from a job. (Feel free to substitute your own big failure for this scenario.) When you think about being fired, your mind will focus on the emotional part of it–the being fired part, cleaning out your desk, walking out of the building, looking for a new job, etc. These are the things that are strongly branded in your brain because they contained the most emotion. Unfortunately, they don’t tell you anything about the events leading up to getting fired, and in the context of learning from mistakes, those are the events you should be looking at.

Even if you look at the cause for getting fired, you are unlikely to see the whole picture. If your boss said you were being fired for X, you’ll probably focus a lot of mental effort on that reason–even though it may be minor compared to everything else that was involved. Let’s say you were let go because of the economy. That doesn’t give you a whole lot to go on, but it is likely to become your focus instead of really digging deep and understanding the other reasons–reasons that you may have had some control over.

While you might have been let go because of the economy, if other people were retained, there were probably other reasons involved. Here are some potential reasons:

1. Your boss sees you as a threat.
2. Your performance isn’t as good as others’.
3. Based on some of your comments, your boss thinks you are likely to leave anyway.
4. You are a higher maintenance employee than others.
5. Your boss has a romantic interest at work and you are standing in the way of that.
6. You never built a relationship with your boss, so you were the easiest person to fire with the least amount of emotional pain.

The list could go on and on. Some things may be your fault, others may not be. Regardless, you can learn from the experience and do a better job of managing your relationships in your next position. However, your natural response is not to notice these things because it isn’t where your memory is fixated because it isn’t where the emotion occurred.

Here are some strategies for learning from mistakes and failures. Not everything will apply in every situation, but they all have their place and can be very useful.

1. Think about failures well in the past

Things that occurred a long time ago probably have lessened in their emotional sting and you may be able to better analyze things now It is going to be easier to see your faults in a high school relationship than in a breakup that occurred last week.

2. Ask others for help in understanding

Don’t do this unless you really want their input. For example, if you have a good friend at a job you were fired from who is familiar with the situation, ask if there are things you did or didn’t do that they can see that contributed to your failure. It may be hard to get this information from them, because they will probably assume you don’t really want to hear it.

Once they tell you, don’t argue. If you disagree, keep it to yourself. They are doing you a huge favor by breaking social norms and being honest with you. If you don’t think their perspective is valid, just set it aside. What may seem irrelevant today might be very useful a year from now.

This is a good strategy for smaller failures as well. If you got passed up for a promotion, sitting down with your boss and asking what you could have done differently might not be a bad idea. If you fail to sign a client for a deal, a call asking if there is anything you could have done better might yield some useful information.

3. Fail on your own terms

If you know something is going to fail and are certain you can’t prevent it, get out on your own so you don’t have to deal with the emotions of someone else telling you that you have failed. This will put you in a better mindset to analyze what went wrong.

I had a job where I was clashing a lot with the people above me. I tried to make some improvements, but eventually quit. While I doubt if I would have been fired, looking back now, I see some specific areas where I wasn’t recognizing the political game as well as I should have. Whether I decided to play along or not would have been my decision, but not recognizing what was going on was a huge failure on my part, and something I’m much more aware of now.

4. Look at the numbers

Where possible, look at actual data and numbers. It is easy to weight the causes for a failure based on where we felt the most emotional instead of on what really caused the failure. If you have numbers and statistics that you can analyze, it will help you see things in terms of objective truth rather than just how you feel about it.

No one likes to fail, but good can come from a failure where you learn something. Going through all the pain of a failure while learning nothing is the ultimate tragedy.

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Business is not rocket science. A lot of what you need to know is just a matter of learning to pay attention, and learning how to apply others’ mistakes and successes to help you make better decisions.  The free MBA approach we discuss here takes advantage of what you are already doing and helps you focus on learning from your experiences.

Learn from good leaders and managers

Many MBA programs use case studies that describe a situation, the actions taken, and then discuss the outcome and other possible alternatives. As far as case studies go, it is hard to beat real experience. Your job can be one big case study if you are willing to invest the time in systematically analyzing events.

When you encounter a situation where you feel a manager did a good job, take the time to write down what happened and why that manager’s actions were good. Consider what you would have done in their situation and (given the benefit of hindsight) what the results of your actions would have been.

Writing it down is important because it helps you clarify exactly what happened and gives you a way to come back and examine it later. Repercussions from certain actions may not be apparent for some time. Your written record gives you a way to go back and examine causes and effects in much greater detail than just relying on your memory.

Analyze mistakes

When you see a manager do something bad, take the time to examine what happened. Think about why the manager made that decision and how things looked from his/her point of view. Give special thought to how his/her actions were perceived by others and how those perceptions influenced their behavior. Put yourself in the manager’s place and think about how you would have acted. It isn’t enough to just notice that they did something wrong. You might do the same thing in their situation. Spend time trying to understand at what point the failure occurred. Did the manager’s ego get in the way of making a better decision? Did they forget to consult with key people? Did they miscalculate staff buy-in for a particular change? Describe a course of action that would have had a better result and how you, given your style and strengths, would have behaved to achieve an ideal outcome.

Your goal is to teach yourself to avoid making the same mistake. This doesn’t happen on its own. Learning from others’ mistakes requires a significant amount of effort on your part. Writing is one of the best ways to go through this effort and put yourself in the best position to learn. It may not be wise to keep your records at work. A documented list of your manager’s failures isn’t exactly the type of thing you want to have someone find.

This type of real world experience is what can make your self taught free MBA even more valuable than some of the formal MBA programs. Your free MBA focuses on what is actually happening.

Hone your intuition

When a business decision is made by management, take the time to record the decision along with your prediction of what will happen and why. For example, if your company is going to open a new office on the other side of town, explain why you think it will or will not be successful.

This exercise will help you gauge your intuition without risking anything. Be very detailed in your predictions and the come back and see if you were right or wrong. Analyze the results of your predictions and make sure you understand where you were wrong. Write it all down. You should end up with a lot of statements like, “I thought X would happen, but it turned out Y occurred. It appears that I underestimated the value of Z in this situation.”

Accounting experience

Getting a good grasp on the basics of accounting is a very important part of your on-the-job free MBA, but if you don’t work in the accounting department, it can be a bit more difficult to get hands-on experience. Obviously you should take any opportunity to work on projects that involve accounting, but you may need to go outside to get a better range of experience.

There are few things that will help you better understand accounting than keeping track of the finances for a small business or non-profit using a double entry accounting system. You might be able to volunteer to help keep track of finances at your church or another organization. Most of the time, you’ll be using a piece of software to help you. However, you can do the necessary accounting using a pencil, calculator and ledger paper.

Look up “double entry accounting” and you will find lots of examples and tutorials to help give you a foundation. Taking an accounting class from your community college is another way to gain skills in this area. Often your company will pay for it as a business course.

Taxes and corporate structures

You need to be at least familiar with how corporations work. This can be tricky to get on the job, because your company probably has only one corporate structure. You’d be amazed at how much you can learn on this topic by spending several hours doing searches on Google. Picking up a book on “how to incorporate your business” can also be a good place to start.

Take what you learn in your research and use it to better understand how your company operates. What type of corporate structure does it use? Is it a C Corporation, an LLC or a partnership? Who are the shareholders or owners? Who are the directors? What types of taxes does the company pay? If your company is a publicly traded entity you may be able to find a lot of information in its public financial statements.

Business language

In any degree program, a very large portion of what you learn is a specialized vocabulary. If you have been at your job for a while, you’ve probably already picked up on the vocabulary necessary to describe your line of business. However, we want to develop a generic business vocabulary that isn’t tied to one particular company or market.

For this, I would recommend subscribing to the Wall Street Journal and setting aside significant time to read it each day. Make sure you don’t only read the articles you understand. You want exposure to topics that you might not just pick up to read on your own. In addition to developing your business vocabulary, the Wall Street Journal will help reinforce the other learning areas.

Other publications that can be good to read include: Harvard Business Review, the business section of your local paper, Forbes, Economist, etc.

Human Resources

Your guide to your company’s human resource policies is usually going to be in the employee handbook. One danger here is to assume that your company is doing everything the right way. Still, you can get a lot of good information about how human resources are managed by reading through an employee handbook. Look for ways that human resource policies follow from the other things you’ve learned. For example, different corporate structures have different types of deductions for employee benefits, and you can often see how those deductions come into play in how the benefits are worded in the employee manual. It is ideal if you have the employee handbooks from several different organizations to compare and contrast.

Get in front of people

I used to write presentations for my boss. After a while she decided I could probably give sections of the talk better than she could, so I started getting pulled into board meetings. There are few things as valuable to your career as the ability to talk in front of people gracefully. You are only going to get good at public speaking by doing it. Take advantage of any opportunity to stand up and talk in front of people.

Final thoughts

The purpose of this article isn’t to put down an MBA education. There are very fine schools that offer MBA’s, and many teach skills that are very useful.  However, many people overlook the free MBA level training that is available to them in their current job. I hope this article has given you some ideas on how to get the most out of where you are right now and prepare for where you want to be in the future.

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Never Eat Alone talks about building a network of people that you can help and who can help you.  One of the constant criticisms of anyone who is seriously working on networking with people is that these types of relationships seem superficial and don’t always go very deep.  You can’t build incredibly strong relationships with 500 people–there just isn’t enough time.

Who’s Got Your Back looks at building those deeper relationships with people who are going to look out for you and your interests.  These relationships go well beyond the acquaintance level that the previous book focuses on.  These are the types of relationships where people can tell you hard truths that you probably couldn’t take from someone at the acquaintance level.

Who’s Got Your Back

In this section, Ferrazzi lays out a lot of definition of the type of relationships he is going to be discussing.  He gives several examples from his personal experience of people who helped steer him away from bad habits or mistakes by giving “tough love” type advice.

This type of deep relationship is a very good complement to the types of relationships mentioned in Never Eat Alone. Together, the two approaches offer a very balanced approach of maximizing your ability to network while still retaining a circle of very close friends/advisers.

The Four Mindsets

This section looks at the mindsets that need to be there to build a deep relationship.  They are:

1. Generosity
2. Vulnerability
3. Candor
4. Accountability

Building Your Dream Team

This section of the book covers some of the practical matters on how to build a team of advisers whom you can trust and will feel comfortable giving you candid feedback and advice.  It also looks at how to approach people about being on your team and lots of examples of how others have implemented these types of groups.

Make It Your Life

This section looks at some of the ways to integrate these types of relationships into your life.  It also talks about the “Greenlight Method” using a meeting methodology from Ferrazzi’s consulting company.

Overall, it was a decent book, but I’d still recommend reading it along with Never Eat Alone. Together, the two books give very balanced approach to maintaining good relationships. Who’s Got Your Back,by itself, isn’t quite as strong of a book as Never Eat Alone, but still well worth reading.

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It is easy to get stuck in a rut of focusing on the things that make us successful in our work, but our skills are only one part of the equation.  Our relationships with others are at least as important as our skills. Building relationships is much easier when you aren’t a one-dimensional person.  If all you do is work, you may be very good at your job, but you are drastically limiting your circle of friends. Worse still, you are limiting them to people who are very similar to yourself.

Making the effort to get outside of your comfort zone can be a very good investment.  Not only does it make you a more well rounded person, but it also impacts how people view you. I had worked with someone for a few months when I found out that he had gone hang gliding in Brazil.  Suddenly he became a much more interesting person, in my mind.  How do I know?  Because I know that I mentioned this little fact to several other people.

I’m not saying you should do stupid things just to get people to talk about you. (Depending on your point of view, hang-gliding may or may not fall into that category.) But most of us have things we’ve always wanted to do that we just never get around to doing.  Part of what holds us back is that we don’t know that these activities are “worth it.”  I am suggesting that they probably are worth it because they help make you different than the average person.

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The feeling is similar to running at your top speed and trying to go just a little bit faster. Obviously, this is very frustrating.  You can almost taste success, but it just isn’t happening.

When I find myself in this situation, I can sometimes get past it by focusing more.  This may mean getting rid of distractions, re-reading everything in an empty room where I know I won’t get interrupted or even just trying harder to understand. Usually this doesn’t work–it helps, but it doesn’t get me over the difficulty.

I have come to realize that this type of mental strain is the same thing that happens when trying to lift a weight that is just a little too heavy.  It is a matter of trying to make connections in my brain that it simply isn’t ready for. Similar to lifting weights, the best approach is to try a weight that is slightly less heavy.  For mental activities, this may mean breaking down the concept into several parts and making sure you completely understand the foundational components first.  For college classes, I’ve found it helpful to get a different textbook and read the related sections, but from the perspective of a different author. (You can tell how difficult a particular class was for me by the number of textbooks I have on the same subject.)

In the end, breaking through these hard mental challenges is what springboards me forward.  I can point back to several places where things were extremely difficult for me that I finally broke through and now serve as a foundational experience for a current skill set. For example, I was once taking a computational theory class that I was finding very difficult.  I eventually dropped the class and took a discrete mathematics class before going back to the computational theory class and passing it. I found that the concepts from that class changed the way I think about solving many different types of problems–not just computational problems.  It was difficult because it required me to learn a new way of thinking–something that is much harder than just learning a bunch of facts.

Your ability to conquer difficult mental challenges is what will set you apart from the crowd and differentiate you. Find the experiences that make people give up and be the person who doesn’t.

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However, I want to suggest that if your boss is really bad, he/she can do a lot more damage to you and to your career than just being an annoyance. Let me tell you a story. The names have been changed to protect the guilty and the innocent, but the facts are real.

Acme Inc. employed about 150 people.  One of the assistants there seemed very competent.  We will call her Sally.  Sally was an above average worker, caught on to things quickly and generally seemed like the type of person who would really help the organization–and for several years she did just that.  It wasn’t like she had the Midas touch, but management gave Sally the projects that they wanted to see done with excellence and attention to detail.

Then one day Sally was “promoted”.  Instead of being a general assistant, she was made the administrative assistant for John. John was one of the vice presidents–a position he had secured by being college friends with the CEO.  His actual management skills were worse than non-existent.  He had what I would call “negative skills,” meaning that his “skill-set” usually created more problems than you’d expect with someone who had no skills at all.

At first things looked pretty good.  Dealing with John’s previous assistant had been a nightmare for much of the staff, so there was a general consensus that things would be much better now that Sally was going to be taking over the job.  For a few months, things seemed to go okay, but then everyone started noticing a change. Sally started taking on a lot of the characteristics of her predecessor.

John saw himself as a “visionary,” which in his mind meant “someone who comes up with ideas but doesn’t do any of the work.” So he’d come up with he very initial idea for a project and then berate Sally for not magically making it happen–even though he hadn’t provided her with the direction or resources to accomplish it. The only way Sally could keep her head above water was to interface with the rest of the organization the same way her boss was treating her, which over time started to involve a lot of yelling and just generally treating people poorly.

At one point, Sally was  standing in the hall screaming at another employee to get them to do something Sally had forgotten to do, herself. I wouldn’t fault her for her oversight.  She had a tremendous amount of work being dumped on her from her “visionary” boss, but her frustration was being taken out on the person who just happened to be there when she discovered her mistake.

Now here is where the story gets interesting.  After several years, John left the organization and Sally moved back into a position similar to what she had before. Most people assumed she’d return to her old self now that John was gone.  She didn’t. Instead, she continued in the habits she had picked up from working under John and when she finally quit several years later, the entire staff breathed a sigh of relief at her departure.  Over a period of about 7 years, Sally had gone from being the ideal employee that everyone loved to work with to a complete disaster that everyone was happy to see go.  What happened?  It is very simple.  Sally had a horrible boss, he ruined her skills and killed her career. It didn’t matter that he eventually left–the damage had already been done.

My personal involvement with this story?  Shortly before John left, a reorganization put me reporting to John.  My first thought was to just deal with it.  I figured I could learn a lot–even if it was what not to do. After catching myself acting like John on a few occasions, I turned in my resignation.  The risk of picking up any of his management “skills” was too great for me to justify staying at the company.

If you have a truly bad boss, don’t wait for them to ruin your career before moving on.  It is true that you may be able to resist picking up some bad habits from a bad boss over a short period of time, but if you are continually exposed to it day in and day out, it will take a toll on you. There are some things that are worth enduring through, but a boss that is going to ruin your ability to have an effective career isn’t worth it.

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I know a man whose goal is to get his GED so he can get a job and make payments on a car. I just met a girl who has a goal to finish a 9-month cosmetology program so she can work at SuperCuts in front of Wal-Mart.

When looking at your goals, make sure you understand the expectations you carry that influence the magnitude of those goals.  If no one in your family went to college, you will probably set your expectations for your education lower than someone whose parents both had graduate degrees.

When I was in second grade, a higher level student was polling everyone at the school to see if they planned to go to college.  When she asked me I said, “you mean it is optional?” Granted, that is the point of view of a second grader, but as I grew up, I never really entertained any thought of not going to college because it just wasn’t part of the mindset I was raised with.

Here are some things to ask yourself when you make a decision to help make sure you aren’t setting your goals too low:

• Why did I make this choice? Did you pick a particular option because of how you were raised or because of your parents’ experience?  It isn’t bad to do something that everyone else in your family has done, but spend a few minutes making sure that you aren’t doing things only because of peer pressure.
• Are there other options I didn’t consider? Make sure you aren’t blind to other alternatives.  Just because you don’t know anyone who has done something doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be an option for you.
• Are there options that you feel are beyond you? Don’t assume you can’t do something because other people are smarter, better looking, etc.  Just because something might be harder for you than for someone else doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try for it.

Be careful to set your goals based on what YOU really want and not based on the average of your peers.

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Put your exercise equipment in front of the TV.

Move out the sofa and chair and move in the exercise bike.  Your goal is to make it as easy as possible to exercise.  This works particularly well if you are working your way through a set of cliffhanger-type TV shows on DVD.  You still have to put effort into exercising.  Just sitting on a piece of exercise equipment won’t help you, but creating an environment where you will sit on it for 40 minutes is a good start.

Ideally, I’d like to see exercise equipment that interfaces with your television.  If you aren’t exerting yourself, the volume shuts down. If you don’t pick up the pace, it shuts itself off or switches to the country music channel or something.

Our television has two elliptical machines and a weight machine in front of it, but no couch and no chairs.  I was showing our house to a relative and he asked, “so where do you sit when you watch TV?”  I replied, “We don’t sit, we exercise.”  “Yes, but what if you want to sit and watch TV?” “We don’t, we exercise.”  He shook his head. He couldn’t understand why we wouldn’t sit in front of our television.

Park at the first parking lot space you find.

People will spend 15 minutes looking for a “great” parking space when the first one they come to is only a 2 minute walk from the store.  You aren’t going to get in great shape by walking an extra minute or two in and out of the store, but every bit helps, and in this case, it can save you some significant time.

Take the stairs.

This is another habit that can be a time-saver in addition to keeping you active. Generally, if you are going less than 3 floors, the stairs are going to be at least as fast as the elevator.  So, taking the stairs can save you time in addition to giving you some exercise.  Even if you have to go more than 3 floors, the stairs can be a great way to build some exercise into your day without adding a significant time investment.

Walk to the store.

If there is a grocery store within a mile of your house, consider walking next time you need to go buy to get a loaf of bread or gallon of milk. Obviously, this isn’t a good way to get everything you need to completely stock your pantry, but for a few items, it makes for a nice little outing and doesn’t require that much time.

Walk and talk.

If you are going to visit with friends or family, try taking a walk instead of sitting around the table or on the couch.  Most sidewalks will only accommodate two or three people where they can still talk to each other easier, but roadways in parks or walking trails are often considerably wider.

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Sites like Digg, Stumbleupon, and Reddit supply a constant stream of interesting content that often is little more than a waste of time. I’m not saying that you can’t get anything valuable off of the web. However, if most of your reading is done online the chances of it turning into a waste of time are high enough that you should consider putting some watch guards in place.

Online reading has some significant downsides:

1. Lower writing quality. While this isn’t always the case, the financial scale of many online publications often results in lower writing standards than print publications.
2. Shortened attention span. Online writing is usually designed to be read in a short period of time. This isn’t a negative thing, but you want to make sure you don’t train yourself to have a short attention span by never reading anything that takes more than5 or 10 minutes.
3. Eyestrain. Many people are using monitors that are not particularly easy on the eyes.
4. Distractions. When you buy a book, the author makes money through your purchase and then has to provide you with a good reading experience. Online, the author usually gets money when you leave the site by clicking on an advertisement. This tends to make online reading a very distracting experience with all kinds of things visually (and sometimes audibly) vying for your attention.

If over half of your reading material is on your computer screen, I would suggest it is time for a change.

Originally published May 7, 2008.

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To a certain extent, this makes sense.  If we spend time procrastinating instead of working, we’ll be more productive if we can cut out unproductive activities. However, taking an “assembly line” approach to productivity does have its limits.

Today the biggest productivity gains come from what we’ll call “leaps of imagination” rather than just doing more of the same faster.  If we are so focused on doing more and more tasks, it can prevent us from really making the huge jumps in productivity that are possible.

We can be much more productive by focusing on doing the right things instead of focusing on doing more things.  What this means, exactly, is very dependent on your particular set of circumstances, your personality, and what you are trying to accomplish, but many people will benefit by trying to spend less time doing and more time thinking.

Personally, I am not interested in working more.  I am very interested in accomplishing more.  Trying to accomplish more just by working more is the brute force “assembly line” method. It doesn’t scale.  Eventually, you will reach a point where you can’t do any more without having harmful side effects.  However, trying to do more by actually accomplishing more work with the same or less effort does scale very well.

Originally published April 4, 2007.

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In this article we are going to look at some tips and methods for both formal and informal education. It is by no means exhaustive, but it may give you a few ideas about how to continue your education that you may have overlooked in the past.

Formal Education

1. Community College
   Many people overlook their local community college as a great source of additional education. Community colleges are often set up to work around the needs of non-traditional students. If you already have a four-year degree, don’t overlook the value of taking some additional classes to brush up on areas that you might not have studied in your previous college career. A class on statistics, technical writing, a programing language or computer security could give you a stronger foundation in areas you haven’t formally studied, but use on a regular basis.
2. Online Courses
   Many colleges offer some classes online even if they don’t offer an entire degree program to internet-based students. The beauty of online courses is that you have the ability to to select an institution anywhere in the world. Make sure you understand how the courses will be conducted. Just because a course is online doesn’t mean it will be a good fit for your learning style. Here are some of the ways courses are conducted online:
   • Online Videos – Sometimes the online course is just a different section of a course that takes place physically on campus. This is usually an ideal arrangement because it makes sure that the course isn’t being taught as an after-thought.
   • Correspondence Course – Some “online” courses are just reworked correspondence courses using the Internet instead of postal mail. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing if you like learning by reading a book and filling out a study guide or writing essays.
   • Written Lecture – This style attempts to create an online experience without mimicking an actual classroom. Teachers post a “lecture” which is often a document with many links to additional reading. Usually this type of class will require a lot of participation in message boards.
   • Message Boards - This usually requires students to comment on the topic of a lecture and then respond to other’s comments. This can be very effective if you have a highly engaged group of people–especially if they have real world experience with the topic being discussed.
   • Interactive Training - This can be very expensive to set up, but there are some colleges using it. Instead of a lecture, you go through a series of “slides” with interactive components. The idea is to make sure you are engaged in the subject. This can be done successfully but it requires a very high level of commitment from the people designing the courses.
3. Degree and Certificate Programs
   If you are looking to add a degree or certificate, you will want to make sure the educational institution offers that before signing up. A certificate is kind of like a mini-degree. It usually requires much less effort and it allows you to show people that you completed a course of study on a certain topic.When looking at degree and certificate programs, make sure you understand all the requirements. For example, Harvard’s Extension School requires one semester of residency on-site. There are also requirements as to what order you can take classes in. For the software engineering track, you have to take one of the theory-based courses as one of your first three classes. Here is a very short list of some programs worth investigating from well known schools:
   • Harvard Extension School
   • Columbia Graduate Engineering Education
   • Standford Center for Professional Development
4. Degrees for Non-Traditional Students
   A number of colleges have created degree programs that are designed with the needs of students with full-time careers. Most of the study is done remotely, but you meet with other members of your class every other weekend for 4 to 6 hours. These types of degrees usually try to get everyone to share their work experience as part of the coursework. Depending on the other people in the class, this could be extremely valuable. These types of degrees seem particularly well suited for people who didn’t finish their bachelors degrees in their early 20s and can’t afford to go back to school full time. I have heard of some MBA programs that work like this as well.
5. Online Universities
   There are several online universities that are designed around online studies. University of Phoenix is an example, although UoP has in person classes as well. Their online classes don’t usually have a live counterpart and there isn’t a central school with traditional students that you can go visit. Capella is another example of this type of school.

   Personally, I think you are better off trying to get a degree from an established school. These aren’t diploma mills, but their degrees are likely to carry less weight than something from a well known and well recognized university. If these schools charged a low tuition rate, it might make them attractive. However, last time I checked, they actually cost a bit per credit hour than the online classes from major universities. With a high cost, it is questionable why someone would choose them over an online education from a well-known, traditional institution. This has caused many people to assume that people must choose them because the classes are easier. I don’t know if that is the case, but regardless, there is a perception that the educational quality is lower.

   I know that several large companies have agreements with Capella that allow their employees to work toward PhDs. If you work for one of these companies, then this might be worth considering because of the cost savings to you. They may also be a good option when there are no other options available due to requirements at major universities (residency, etc.).

   If you have any personal experience with these types of schools, I’d love to hear your comments.

6. Diploma Mills
   These are institutions that you want to avoid. I have heard UoP and Capella referred to as diploma mills, but I don’t think that is accurate. Usually a diploma mill is not accredited by a regional accrediting association. If a university says it is accredited, but it is accredited by some organization in the Bahamas, it isn’t a good sign.

   One trick that some places do is creating two companies. One company is an online university. The other is a non-profit organization that appears to accredit academic institutions. So they are basically accrediting themselves. A good way to check for this is see what other institutions are accredited by the accrediting organization. And don’t just look for who they say they accredit–look for well known schools that say they are accredited by that organization. Another good test is to call a few state universities and ask if they will accept transfers from the school in question. Also, if a school doesn’t have a .edu extension, then it is unlikely to be accredited.

   Another warning sign is advertising that they will give you experience for “life experience”. Reputable universities kind of do this through their honorary doctorates, but it isn’t something you can pay money to get.

Informal Education

1. Books
   Never underestimate the value of a regular reading program. One of the biggest mistakes people make in reading is reading voraciously for 2 months and then stopping for a year, then reading like mad for 1 month and stopping for 6 months. For the best results, you need to regularly read at a sustainable pace on a consistent basis.
2. Podcasts
   The convenience of the medium allows you to listen while you to other things that you have to do anyway. Podcasts are an excellent way to turn your commute into productive learning time.
3. Hobby Projects
   Picking a hobby that will help you learn a new skill gives you a chance to learn and relax at the same time. For example, a hobby of helping out with developing open source software can give you exposure to development techniques that you might not encounter at work. A hobby of astronomy can expose you to mathematics that might improve your skills at your day job.
4. Conversations
   Learning from conversations is simple. Find smart people and talk to them. To be successful at this you may have to consciously seek out the smart people you work with and offer to take them to lunch. Don’t overlook people who may be a lot younger than you. I’ve learned a lot by taking an intern out to lunch and letting him tell me what technology he is interested in playing with.
5. Topic Groups
   Creating a group of your peers can be a very valuable way to learn. When I was the IT director for a mega-church, I contacted a number of IT directors from other large churches. We’d get together every few months and talk about the different projects we were working on. It was a simple interaction, but everyone learned a great deal from everyone else.
6. Email Lists
   Joining or starting an email list around a particular topic is a great way to learn from your peers. For example, you could start a small email group with college friends to discuss personal finance. People contribute by posting a message saying “I’m thinking about doing XYZ. What do you think?” and everyone reaps the benefits of the responses.

Originally published May 28, 2008.

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First, here is a little background about my education to give you an idea of where I’m coming from.  I have a bachelor’s and master’s degree in music composition (both taken at physical universities where I was sitting in class).  I am currently working on my thesis for a master’s focused on software engineering that I took primarily through online classes.  I am 31 years old and (apart from one semester after I got married) I have been enrolled in a college or university since graduation from high school. (My areas of interest tend to exceed what a single person can learn in one lifetime.)

This is a potential plan for getting a college education.  It is based on things that worked for me and things that I wish I had done.  It isn’t going to work for everyone, so it is probably best to read it as source for ideas–not something you should try to follow line by line.

1. Get your undergrad degree at a physical university. 90% of what you learn the first 4 years out of high school will not be in
   the classroom.  It is often painfully obvious if a 24 year old has been to college–not by their intelligence, but by their social skills.
2. Live on campus for your undergrad degree. If 90% of what you learn has to do with social life skills, living on campus is a good way to make sure you don’t miss any important lessons.  I’d also suggest living at least 2.5 hours from your home. If you are any closer, it starts becoming too easy to go home every weekend.
3. Network. Your undergraduate friends are likely to be some of the strongest friendships you’ll build.  Make an effort to meet new people and to stay in touch after college. Choose your close friends carefully because they will have a great impact on the habits and traits you develop.
4. Choose a school where people are smarter than you. If you are in the top 10% of the students at your school, it is unlikely that you will reach your full potential like you would if you were in the bottom 50%.  Professors have to tailor their courses toward the average student.  If the average student is well below what you are capable of, then you won’t get as much out of the classes.  Unfortunately, this often means going to the school that offers you the least in scholarships.  If you do go to a school where you are in the top percentile, make sure you constantly push yourself beyond what is required for an A.  Realize that getting an A may be like getting a B or C elsewhere and is not an indication of whether you really achieved your potential or not.
5. Study something you love, but find difficult. This may be controversial, but I don’t think your undergraduate degree needs to be focused on getting a job.  You will probably get more use out of a degree that made you a smarter person than a degree that prepared you for a particular industry that might be shipped to India in 4 years. Use your undergraduate degree to learn how to learn and how to think. For me, this was studying music theory. Choose a field where you can pour your whole heart into it.
6. Learn to write. Take classes that require lots of writing.  In the workforce, a lot of your co-workers are going to shy away from writing.  If you have developed your skills in this area it will help set you apart–regardless of where you are working.
7. Get a summer job. Don’t go for the job with the most money.  Choose the one where you will learn the most.  See your summer job as part of your education. Use your summer job to develop some type of skill that you can make good money at.  For me, this was working in computer networking.  If you can get a job during the school year to get more experience, that is even better.
8. After graduation, get a job. Hopefully your summer jobs will have given you a good idea of what you like doing.  Take that experience and put it to use.  Once again look for a job that will give you the best experience for the future, not just the best short-term pay. Also, look at their policy on paying for continuing education.  A job that pays less, but offers generous reimbursement for classes toward a Master’s degree, may be much more valuable than a higher paying job. Keep in mind that you are wanting more than a paycheck.  This job is a networking opportunity.  Try to build a base of people who will give you a good recommendation later on in life.  Take on projects and responsibilities to specifically fill out your resume.
9. Get a Master’s degree through distance education. If you like what you are doing, get the degree in that field.  If you don’t, choose another complementary field. Ideally, choose an area that your employer will help pay for classes.  Choose the best school possible (I have been impressed with Harvard and Stanford’s distance education setup).  Working full time and taking classes at night is hard, but it can be well worth the effort.
10. Look for your dream job. Now that you have a few years of experience and a master’s degree in a field you enjoy, you need to work
    on a plan to get your dream job.  It may take a few more years of getting additional experience, but know where you are headed.  For me, my dream job was to own my own company.  It took a number of years and a lot of hard work.  I’m still not completely where I want to be, but I’m definitely headed in the right direction.
11. Never Stop Learning. The world is not going to stay the same and neither should you.  It takes a conscious effort to acquire new skills for the rest of your life, if you want to stay on top.  Take advantage of distance education, but don’t overlook other non-classroom types of training.  Working with someone you really admire can be even more educational than spending a semester in a classroom.

Originally published on April 25, 2007.

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This should be a pretty terrifying prospect for anyone. However, some people would find themselves unable to function at all, while others would find themselves merely handicapped. It all depends on how much effort each individual has put into learning new things in the last two years.

Some people graduate from college with the idea that they can stop learning. They pick up some additional education in the form of on-the job-training, but the amount they learn each year is very close to zero. Others assume that learning is something that is ongoing and that the rate of change in the world forces them to be constantly learning new things.

When you think about it, a good percentage of what you learned more than two years ago is irrelevant today. The rapid pace of technology and change in general are working together to make sure that much of what you learn today will be outdated or at least less relevant in two years.

If you aren’t constantly making an effort to learn new things, you’ll quickly find your education inadequate to cope with what the world has become. This doesn’t happen overnight and many people don’t even recognize the change. In fact, many people don’t realize what has happened until they lose their job and find themselves in need of work with few current skills.

The current economic situation really demonstrates this.  There are many employers out there looking for employees to pay $60k per year.  The jobs are going unfilled because they can’t find qualified employees.

We lived in Michigan for a while, and I was amazed at how many people were making a good living without any formal education, simply operating a particular piece of machinery at an automotive plant.  I’m not saying that there was not skill involved in running the machines, but when they lost their jobs they didn’t have much of a skill set to transfer somewhere else.

The only way to stay current is to make a consistent investment in your informal (and formal) education. You can never get comfortable or feel like you have learned everything you need to know.

Originally published December 1, 2006.

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Steve Pavlina discovered that he could reduce the amount of sleep he required by an average of 90 minutes each day by getting up at 5 am 7 days per week. He only goes to bed when he is tired enough that he will immediately fall asleep. You can find more about his experience here and here.

Polyphasic sleep is a drastic method of changing your sleeping schedule. Basically, you try to train your body to enter deep sleep immediately by taking a 20 to 30 minute nap every 4 hours. In this way you only require 2 hours of sleep per day. For most people, this would translate into an extra 40 hours per week. Lifehack has some comments on an article by someone who uses this sleeping method.

Of course, even if you can get by with less sleep, there may be other harmful side effects. An article in Nutrition Action Health Letter (Jul/Aug 2005, Vol. 32 Issue 6) discusses some research from Europe into the causes of obesity in children. The researchers expected to find a link between the amount of time children spent in front of the television and obesity. Instead, they found that children who slept less weighted more. Another study in Wisconsin of middle-age government employees found a similar correlation.

Several people who are using the polyphasic sleep method mentioned that they require a lot more food. It seems reasonable that the body would need more food if it is more active, but polyphasic sleep could impede the body’s ability to regulate it’s own weight.

It is interesting to note that there seems to be very little research into polyphasic sleep. It has also been called Uberman’s sleep schedule and Dymaxion sleep. If you do a search through scientific journals, you’ll find many references to polyphasic, but very few of them are talking about fully replacing our regular sleeping pattern with 4 hour phases. Most of the time they are just referring to taking a several naps in addition to the main time you sleep.

One of the main people that has written about this type of sleep is Claudio Stampi. In particular, he wrote a book called “Why We Nap”. It sells for $155 on Amazon, so it isn’t something you can just pick up from your local bookstore. If anyone knows of some good research regarding this method of sleeping (especially how it impacts your health), please leave a comment.

Other random pieces of related info:

There was a study done on truck drivers printed in Biological Rhythm Research 2003, Vol 34, that talks about polyphasic sleep. In that research, they found evidence of a natural rhythm lending to taking several naps during a day. They also mentioned that if the naps are irregular, it could throw off the body’s sense of timing.

The November issue of Scientific American mentions unpublished research where a drug known as CX717 was able to improve the performance of sleep deprived humans. Previously the drug was given to sleep deprived monkeys. The monkeys were then given memory tests (which usually degraded with lack of sleep). With the drug, the sleepy monkeys were able to perform at the same level as well rested monkeys. However, when the drug was given to rested monkeys, they performed better on the memory tests, so the drug may be more related to improving memory than to suppressing the need for sleep.

Arshad Chowdhury of Metronaps is trying to cash in on people people who need more sleep. He invented a “sleep pod” that you can pay $14 to take a 20 minute nap. At the end of 20 minutes the pod vibrates to wake you up. The pods have a type of dome to cover your head and he has them installed in the Empire State Building and the Vancouver Airport. The Metronap pods might be the perfect thing for someone who wants to try to use the polyphasic sleep method, but don’t have an office area where they can take the required short naps during the day.

Originally published October 20, 2005.

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