“What I hear, I forget; What I see, I remember; What I do, I understand.” – Chinese proverb
Ultimately, learning isn’t just about consuming—it’s also about producing.
The best way to learn something is to teach it. When you can help others begin their own learning journeys, you are taking the final steps of your own.
There are two ways to complete this challenge:
- Create a curated resource list
- Create a how-to video
Option 1: Curate
Finding information online is easy; finding the best information is hard.
Information used to be scarce. For hundreds of years, we relied upon a small number of people to tell us what was worth reading. Then the internet came along and exploded everything. Now we have more sources of information than we know what to do with.
This is why curation is more important than ever today. A curator is someone who knows a lot about a certain topic—like, let’s say, dog training methods—and uses that knowledge to figure out which of the thousands of dog training blogs, books, podcasts, etc, are the most reputable. Curators help people save time by highlighting the best resources out there. (Think of a class “Top 10” list: that’s curation.)
Your challenge is to become a curator. Choose a topic that you know well, and think of most influential and high-quality sources of information that you’ve come across. These might include:
- Websites
- Blogs
- Podcasts
- Discussion forums
- YouTube channels
- E-mail newsletters
- Instagram accounts
- Pinterest boards
Compile these resources and publish a brief guide to learning about your topic on your portfolio. This can be a simple as a “Top 10” list or a detailed walk-through of your favorite thing on earth. Have fun with it, and create something that makes you proud.
Portfolio: Publish your guide / list on your website.
Examples:
Option 2: How-to Video
If curating a list doesn’t appeal to you, then contribute to the body of human knowledge by creating your own how-to video. This is your chance to share your expertise with the world, no matter how weird or niche.
There are infinite ways to complete this challenge, but here’s one suggestion. Choose a topic that you know well, and then think of a small problem that you can solve, or question you can answer, for other people who are learning, practicing, or exploring the same topic.
Let’s say that you live in a big city that lots of tourists visit, and you know where to find the best Thai food—create a short video that shares your three favorite restaurants. You can record this video with a smartphone and piece it together with free software—it’s not hard.
Or let’s say you know a lot about a specific computer game. Maybe there’s one part of the game that gave you a lot of trouble, but you eventually figured it out. Use Screencast-o-Matic to record a 5-minute walk-through that shows others how to get past that part.
Don’t worry if someone else already create a how-to video similar to your idea; there’s no bonus for originality here. The point is for you to get out of your comfort zone and share something you care about with the world, which will prompt you to learn more about it than you would if you had no audience.
Portfolio: Publish your how-to video on YouTube or Vimeo, and add it to your website.
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