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Forceful Spending # 1
The misconception of education
I was taught to value education. Education didn't necessarily mean you had to go to university, but that learning and upskilling were critical if you wanted to have a secure and safe future.
But when I look at how most people view education, to me it seems to be treated as a once-off task. You go to school/university, get your degree, and that's it - you're done with learning.
However, today's world requires you to be flexible enough to learn, unlearn and relearn whenever necessary.
Education is continuous. You should never stop learning.
Forceful spending
I think it's safe to say that the majority of people have been told saving money is an essential life skill. The recommended amount saved varies for everyone. Personally I grew up being told that you should save at least 10% of your salary every month. But that ideally you should save about 30% each month.
After listening to this interview by Tim Ferriss, one of the gold nuggets that stuck out was the concept of forcefully spending $10, $100, $x per month on education. You had to treat your education the same way you treat your savings.
This sort of thinking is completely aligned with the idea of continuous learning. By forcing myself to spend money on learning I'm essentially investing in myself.
So in this post I wanted to share the things I decided to spend money on. I've started with $100 as the target amount that has to be spent every month.
So here's the list of what was bought:
Udemy course on using ThreeJS to build a multiplayer game ($8 💰)
and Hands-on Three.js 3D Web Visualisations ($11.25 💰)
Game development is becoming more and more interesting to me. Particularly the ThreeJS JavaScript library. The first course was bought because it's pretty quick (2.5 hours) and looks like it should teach me enough to implement an idea I have for Kollood. The second course is a bit longer but holds some theory that looks useful. It's worth mention I consider myself a better learner from video than articles.
Your Next Five Moves by Patrick Bet-David ($16.51 💰)
I'm a fan of Patrick. You can read more about him in my previous post.
Limitless by Jim Kwik ($12.99 💰)
This book has been on my mind for quite a while. Jim speaks a lot on the topics of learning, memory training and speed reading among many others. I'm quite excited for this one!
Sleep Smarter by Shawn Stevenson ($17.24 💰)
Another person worth following, Shawn is a highly respected health expert. Particularly in the field of sleep. He's appeared on multiple podcasts and also has his own YouTube channel I recommend you follow.
Pocket Full of Do ($16.00 💰)
Chris Do is one of the best online teachers when it comes to freelancing, entrepreneurship and creative work. His work is always high quality so I have no doubt in this book.
Right now this totals at $81.99. I must say it's actually quite difficult to meet the target. I usually keep a list of things I'd like to buy but only buy them when I know I'll have time to allocate to it. Already in this first month I've gone through my entire list of things I wanted to buy. Which means next month I'll have to be on the lookout and broaden my horizons for information.
Tiny MBA ($9.99 💰)
A short read on lessons in business. The author claims this can be read in about 30 minutes, but that you can always refer back to it for practical short lessons. Sounds great!
Rosieland ($20.00/month 💰)
A weekly newsletter covering "relevant community building discussions". As I'm building my own community, I believe this will be a great resource.
And with that, I've now spent $111,98 and met the target. That being said, I still put a lot of thought into each purchase. Every resource was something I've come across and known about for at least a couple of weeks now. I'm excited to get started with all the learning. I'd like to finish all of the courses and books within this month, which I do think is doable.
If this has inspired you to invest in your learning, let me know how you've taken action!