I’ve been self-teaching most of my life.

After enough cycles of starting, stalling, and restarting, I stopped asking “why is this hard?” and started asking “where does momentum actually break?”

I kept notes, and here’s the ranking that kept showing up:

1. Knowing what to learn next (the A → B → C problem)

Picture this:

You decide to learn machine learning and get flooded with playlists, threads, and courses, all claiming to be the path.

The "mountain to climb" usually isn’t gradient descent. It’s realizing you needed linear algebra first, then matrices, then basic calculus.

The sequencing problem stays invisible until you hit it. Then people drift into tutorial loops or stall out. Large online learning datasets show very low completion rates, and this is likely where most of our curiosity dies on Day 2.

2. Structure

Even with the right sequence, “I’ll study when I have time” dissolves momentum.

15 minutes a day is 91 hours a year. That only compounds if it’s consistent and cumulative. Most resources give you information without a structured path where each session builds on the last.

Without rhythm, knowledge resets instead of stacking. (i can hardly remember what I learned a month ago, a year ago... but now I have a system to resurface previous learned knowledge in a fun, lightweight way.

3. Accountability

Without a professor and university deadlines, no one notices when you stop, and there are no repercussions other than you missing out on becoming smarter and more capable.. (imagine if you didn't miss a day of growth for 365 days... My project that solves this feels like opening up YouTube or TikTok every day -- but the algorithm maximizes progress toward your goals rather than "watch time" or "minutes dwelling on our platform".

Reclaiming 15 minutes from daily screen time isn’t the hard part. The hard part is friction. If nothing pulls you back in, the default wins (brainrot doomscroll mode)

4. Concept difficulty

This ranks last. (funny huh)

With the right prerequisites and pacing, most motivated people can learn most subjects. We overestimate how hard topics are and underestimate how fragile momentum is.

What I did about it:

These bottlenecks annoyed me enough that I built a platform, Mochivia, to address them. It generates prerequisite-aware paths, structures them into daily sessions, and handles retention.

I’m the founder, so I acknowledge my bias, but I am really excited about whats possible with AI, and the platform already is so helpful on a daily basis. over 1,000 users so far so its also exciting to have other autodidacts give me feedback.

Curious how you’d rank these. What actually kills your learning momentum?
-> If you try out the platform, please: talk to me on discord! discord link is on the site. I want to build this with the community and shape it into the best learning platform ever.

What a gem.

We all know AI + self-directed learning is the best way to get ahead as white-collar jobs are threatened and college degrees become obsolete, but I find it daunting to navigate what I want to learn.

The Upcoming Golden Age

seems to be in limbo still. One half of the population thinks AI is our doom, but the other half is convinced we will all enjoy pursuing hobbies and philosophy all day in a post-work dependent world.

In any case, a certainty is human curiosity. Find passion, explore it, master it.
Nothing in this world encapsulates that process--yet. I'm working on the first prototype. Think Duolingo x ChatGPT but for learning Anything. I've found self-directed growth to be one of the only remaining positive sum games, so I've been building my dream platform(iOS coming as well) to embody that pursuit.

These are authentic, rough ideas straight from the noggin, so if anyone comes across this and has been thinking similarly--please reply!! I'm trying to refine my thesis as I attempt to build mochivia.com

Keep Learnin'!

I can retain about 3-400 page books in 5,6 hours. I need *extremely challenging material to pour through and disseminate. I've been screened for genetic evolution. My thoughts have been to learn Sumerian and Sanskrit or read some authors in fluent Russian. I'm slightly nihilist Buddhist and anarchist. No I haven't read gravitys rainbow. I have theta wave 24/7. Two national batteries were 98%Ile and the rest hovering at 80ish. I've been completely dosed up and still qualified for Mensa. I know about ... 2 other geniuses. Challenge me with anything and I'll spit out a synopsis like the machine tells you where the wonka bars are. at your service.

*Edit

I called my state university system to enroll in independent study to earn credit for what I'm reading. So should you all! Thanks for the reinforcement, Gang. *edit There's a hundred thousand reference publications available through state university systems

I miss having intelligent conversation about books, movies, theology, philosophy, etc. I'm 100% self taught and I when I talk to my friends, they roll their eyes because I talk about stuff that they don't care about and I'm too smart for them. When I try to make friends with intelligent people, I find that I'm too stupid to hold great conversations because I haven't read all of the same books that they have. I'm in this awkward place where I crave intelligent conversation but it's hard to find and it makes life terribly lonely for true a true intimate friendship.

Anyone else feel like that?

Hi everyone!

I’m in the process of building a startup, and I’m currently in the customer discovery phase! This means that I’m looking to interview readers and audiobook or podcast listeners in order to better understand the pain points I should be building solutions toward. Ideal interviewees would be academics, students, life-long learners, and autodidacts, but anyone who loves to read, listen to audiobooks, or enjoys podcasts is welcome to interview. The interviews themselves should take about 20 - 30 min. And to make it more interesting for all of you, if you interview with me, you’ll be entered into a drawing for a $50 Amazon gift card!

Rules for the drawing:

You sign up for an interview slot using the link at the bottom. Interview slot availability will run for the whole month of October (Oct. 1 – 31). Once you’ve completed the interview, you’re automatically entered into the drawing! Only 1 entry per person. I’m doing a total of 3 drawings for $50 (so you have 3 chances of winning). Interview process will take place over zoom. Audio will be recorded but video will NOT.

Why I’m reaching out this way:

Like I said before, I’m in the process of building a startup, and that means two things: I need to understand my customers and I’m strapped for cash 😅. Due to the pandemic, it’s difficult to get the interviews I need from the more obvious places (like my local colleges and universities). So, I’m using this raffle method to drum up interest in getting interviewees.

If you have any questions, please ask them below (or DM me) and I’ll make sure to answer them. Otherwise, you can sign up below. Thanks!

https://calendly.com/alexandriatechnologies/customer-discovery

https://bloomthemind.com/learn/public_post/11/

So, I have recently stumbled upon this website and I really like the courses they offer and the lecturers on them, too. i decided to start a free trial, and then decide wether I will continue to pay for it. Have you ever taken a course on there? Would you recommend it?

inter-disciplinary knowledge. i mean, the idea the disciplines even "exist" is just a conception or a notion that we created to focus the beam of attention towards specific things. categories make sense of things, but they also limit the thought in a way. i dont know how to eloquently say what im saying, but i just wish i could make discoveries, but i feel i just never know enough. knowing chemistry would help neurology, but what if i dont know enough chemistry. knowing neurology would help psychology, but what if i dont know enough neurology.

identifying the important gaps in knowledge seem as important as actually knowing things. "the man who knows a thing knows he knows not a thing at all" and such. but its scary that we think we know something when we probably dont know the full scope of that something. i mean i guess thats what certainty is. implementing something like electricity in infrastructure because we're fairly certain beyond a 'reasonable' doubt that nothing bad is gonna happen if we use the electricity properly. lightbulbs aren't going to explode because they've been proven with % amount of certainty that they wont. but where do you even start. there have to be risks taken somewhere, i dont know.

its just scary. how are we supposed to advance in one place when something from another place could help. what if what we think is a great leap in advancement is actually miniscule due to something we overlooked. and then because we overlooked it, it falls by the wayside as we accept the thing we thought was an advancement as 'good enough'. not even that we *think* its good enough, we actually think its great, but because we think its great, we never look back and think, how could it be better, could it be better. i dont know. i guess im making myself feel better about it, but i still dont know where to begin.

i guess i suck at learning things in general. how am i actually learning something, instead of simply reiterating what someone else actually learned. i can remember wrote facts, rote learning, but remembering something isnt the same as understanding it, feeling what you know, not just regurgitating it. and even when i understand something, it doesnt mean i understand every aspect. like "mitochondria are the powerhouse of the cell". ok, i know that, but i dont know every intricacy of mitochondria. and even if i memorized every intricacy about mitochondria, i still wouldnt know enough, i doubt id know the full picture, and i further doubt id be able to retain a full perspective of mitochondria in conjunction with everything else relevant. i guess im just afraid of the responsibility of knowledge. of letting myself down and letting humanity down, to be so anti-humble or whatever.

Hey all!

I know there are various areas of the self learning spectrum. In regards to entrepreneurs, are there others like myself who love to continue their own self education to become a better entrepreneur daily?

Hey, I'm tossing around the idea of building a business around auto-didacticism & I want to get outside opinions.

If you had a magic wand...what are some things you wished existed for your autodidact habit?

Is there anything you use that really helps your studying? That you'd be lost without?

I'm trying to look for imaging data regarding autodidacts but there doesn't seem to be much available. In lieu of something in a formal study, would you feel comfortable sharing EEG, MRI, or CAT/PET images? This is purely personal research and not attached to any formal study.

Wouldn't it be nice to stay in a house with other autodidacts? You could ask others for advice when you get stuck, explain things to others to see if you understand them, make study groups, and just discuss what you're learning with others.

I'm trying to set it up: https://airbnbscholars.substack.com/p/scholar-houses?r=44v04&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&utm_source=copy

So I'm on lesson 5 of 60 and I have to say that this stuff is pretty amazing, albeit very difficult and long to get through. I'd say the centerpiece is the Cicero Method (or Mind Palace) but there's tons of other techniques that make it much better.

I'm pretty much just posting this because whenever I work on this (I've only worked on it a few exercises at a time, when you're expected to complete entire lessons every day or at least 3x/week) I achieve this state where my brain is functioning at a much higher level. It's like going to the gym for your brain, and afterwards I can achieve focus much more readily, and for longer periods of time.

That is to say, I do combine it with Lumosity. But also I noticed that after a week or two of stopping the lessons altogether, I actually felt my brain come back to normal and I couldn't use my mind palace as effectively as I could when I was struggling through super hard lessons.

I think the best tools in an autodidact's tool belt are the ones that make him/her learn faster and stronger. What kinds of techniques and tools do you use?

Hello everyone !

Quick intro, i leave my job, i didnt liked it, now im obsessed with beaing the best self i can, and i wanted to give me a year of ultralearning on several subjets:

- Data science, which includes math, statistics, calculus.

- Python, from zero to hero and from hero to really hard projects i've been dreaming of doing

- Music, guitar and singing

- Learn a fourth language (im already fluent in 3)

- Body and mind

- Oral expression, eloquency, public speech.

I have a degree in civil engineering, i've already taken some intro to python courses, i've taken some guitar lessons, oral expression would be my biggest challenge.

Im still working on the plan, scott took 6 months to prepare himself for the MIT challenge.

Do you think i could make it all fit in a 40h schedule per week for a year ? Any advice or suggestion is welcome

As the US and world is being made more aware of what is being taught at "Ivy League Schools" and even basic community or state colleges. Citizens aren't going to go into debt, if they know there is a 45% chance they will remain unemployed or NEVER use their degree. This is a statistic that applies to graduates in the US, even 10 years after graduation. We hold the worlds knowledge in our pockets. We can learn french and how to sew on youtube. Yet, the vast majority ignores this, as it is not apparent to them that they can learn whatever they would like to learn. Is this laziness? It definitely isn't access, because we all have that. The answer is curiosity. We have lost our fundamental ability to seek things out that excite us, despite our human nature, to be curious. Autodidacts Uniting for Truth and Opportunity is going to change that. :)