He is the protagonist of today's story, Scott H Young.
Perhaps you've never heard the name before, but he is quite famous in foreign intellectual circles. Scott is Canadian, and what propelled him to fame was doing one thing—he finished all 33 courses of linear algebra in 10 days. But his TEDx talk truly turned him into an internet sensation—he self-studied the entire 4-year MIT computer science curriculum in 1 year.
In his speech, Scott mentioned that students were protesting because the government had cut educational grants, which led him to propose the "order à la carte" approach to learning. He studied business in college, but was also very interested in computer science. So he decided to self-study all 33 MIT computer science courses.
Scott likened going to college to dining at a Michelin five-star restaurant. He believes that spending money on college is like going to a restaurant, where you interact with intelligent predecessors in class, obtain research opportunities and certificates from elite institutions—this system is undeniably useful. "But just as you don't always want to go to a five-star restaurant every time you're hungry, you may not always want to go back to school every time you want to learn something."
For the success of the MIT self-study computer science challenge, Scott credited the "time log." "A time log works like this: you record the start and end time for everything you do. I mean everything, including what time you get up in the morning and when you take out the trash." And this is often overlooked by most people. From another perspective, "time log" represents learning efficiency.
"I quickly realized that I had been lying to myself about the question 'what do I spend my time on?' I had thought I worked 60 hours a week, but it was far from that. I thought I spent hours washing dishes, but it was actually only a few minutes. A large portion of the time, I was just wandering around online or at home, not really knowing what to do."
"The vast majority of time students spend is not on studying, but on commuting to class, copying notes at Starbucks, or trying not to fall asleep in lectures." Scott says, "When I need to listen to an MIT lecture or a course, I listen at 1.5x speed." So he would compress four months of coursework into two days. Additionally, Scott would do his homework with the answer key in hand; he felt there was no need to waste weeks struggling over one concept.
In the end, Scott completed MIT's four-year computer science curriculum using this learning method.
Ten years ago, Scott was just an ordinary high school student who also liked to write his own stories online like a "chuunibyou" teenager. But instead of simply recording trivial matters, he shared his learning methods and insights on his blog. Now he is a full-time blogger with hundreds of thousands of followers.
"I do this because blogging has given me so much and I want to give back."
Since high school, he has been very interested in people's learning abilities. When he was in university, he spent at most 2 hours a day studying, and the rest of the time he did whatever he wanted—and he still got straight A's.
The motivation for Scott to start writing was to practice his writing skills; he was working on an interactive software at the time, a necessary skill for interactive programming software.
In fact, the software failed, but Scott succeeded with his blog.
Later, he wrote a 5-part series of articles on changing habits and sent them to Lifehacker, and from then on he became incredibly popular.
Scott has published four books: "Learn More, Study Less," "Think Outside the Cubicle," "How to Change A Habit," and "The Little Book of Productivity," and each one has sold well.
His astonishing learning ability is a major factor in attracting followers, and he always has many ideas. Many people follow his blog to learn something, and they also wonder what he'll do next. This amazing guy even learned to paint portraits in 30 days.
On October 1, 2011, he made a decision—
To self-study the entire 4-year computer science curriculum of MIT in one year, without attending any university classes.
He would update all his learning progress on his blog, upload his exam papers and grades for each subject, and if he failed, he would also share the reasons. But clearly, he excellently completed every course.
When asked about the significance of this challenge, he said he had always been very interested in MIT CS, but he "didn't want to invest 4 years and hundreds of thousands of dollars to learn it."
"I wanted to prove that learning doesn't have to involve committee selections, SAT exams, thousands of dollars in fees, or even the 4 years most students imagine it takes to study a subject."
After completing the MIT challenge, he started a new project—"The Year Without English."
He spent one year traveling to four countries and learned four foreign languages, including Chinese, Korean, Spanish, and Portuguese. During that year, he did not speak English. And his secret to learning foreign languages was—learning in context.
"At first I knew nothing, but after arriving locally, I would find someone and have them chat with me in the local language, without speaking English. We kept talking, and I quickly learned how a word is used in different situations. Soon, I could understand more and more."
After Scott went to China, he shared his experiences in China and his insights on learning Chinese on his blog.
Scott lived the life he wanted, and the life most people wish for. Learning never represented pain in his life; for him, learning was truly joyful.
Browsing Scott's blog, you'll find that he is a very interesting person, traveling everywhere, taking on challenges, and sharing his experiences with readers. Someone asked if he really loved learning so much that he could quickly throw himself into a new challenge and tirelessly summarize experiences. He replied, "Not really; I just want to use myself as an experiment to make people rethink learning efficiency."
And you can see that he is by no means reckless. Perhaps his starting point is fun, but he always finds a direction for self-improvement during the learning process and never gets lost in a learning project. For example, some thought that since he learned four languages in a year, he would surely continue learning other languages the same way. Surprisingly, he said, "That might disappoint people, but I won't."
Scott said that although he still wants to learn more languages, he worries that if he continues learning foreign languages at such a short-term high-efficiency pace, he will forget the ones he already knows. Just like we always have the highest efficiency in memorizing things the day before an exam, but quickly forget them afterward. He wants to build on the basis of mastering these four languages in a short time and study them more deeply.
Successful people never just blindly run forward; they stop and think carefully.
On May 26 this year, Scott married his best friend. Although many people call their partners their "best friend," they truly are. Before Scott and his wife's first date, they had been good friends for 8 years. Scott also updated this new milestone in his life on his blog.
Scott is very interested in Chinese culture and language. Not long ago, he even opened a WeChat public account under the name "SCOTTHYOUNG." Scott said the original intention for this account was that many Chinese netizens are also interested in learning methods but the blog is only in English, which is not easy to read. So he set up this account, hoping that Chinese netizens could also learn something from these articles.
Scott's blog ☞ https://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/
Full Transcript of the TEDx Talk
If you've been following the news recently, you may have seen photos like this. Students are protesting because the government has cut educational grants.
And the main reason for these two phenomena—government cuts to grants and students protesting—is: university education is no longer what it used to cost. So, if you graduated more than 20 years ago, you might be shocked to find that students now pay 2.5 times what you did, and we're talking about real prices here (not nominal prices), in case there are any economists in the audience.
This is not an easy problem to solve. On one hand, education costs are becoming harder to afford for both students and governments; but on the other hand, employers want an educated workforce. They need employees with complex analytical skills. What the world is short of now is not just natural resources, but also quality intellectual labor.
Yes, that is the crux of the problem.
So, how to solve it? Well, to be honest, I have absolutely no idea.
However, I want to say that perhaps we've been looking for answers in the wrong direction all along. We've been counting on schools and governments to bring change, but could it be that we ourselves need to change?
I'd like to share my own story to show that education may not need to be this expensive, and that we might be able to learn better without it.
Personally, I was quite lucky. When I was admitted to university, I managed to narrow my program choices down to two: business and computer science. I was genuinely interested in both. One allows you to build companies, and the other lets you create technology. And the two aren't mutually exclusive. After all, Bill Gates was a hacker before he built his empire. But at our school, you could only choose one program. So I did what any freshman would do: a rigorous, rational cost-benefit analysis. So I chose business, and after graduation, I have no regrets. I learned a lot and had a great time. But after finishing my university education, I always felt a longing for the path not taken.
I really wanted to learn computer science.
But going back to school didn't appeal to me; I didn't want to spend another 4 years, didn't want to face another admissions committee, didn't want to pay tuition, and didn't want to delay my life and take on a huge debt just to satisfy my curiosity.
What I wanted was an education, not school.
Then I remembered that universities like MIT, Stanford, and Harvard have a habit of putting courses online for free. I had taken a few of these classes before, and a thought suddenly struck me: if you can learn one course this way, why not just complete an entire degree?
So, the experiment began.
Is it really possible to get an MIT computer science education without going to MIT? The idea is certainly enticing, but you may have realized this is a complex matter that will draw objections from some.
Yes, going to MIT means more than just what you learn in the classroom. How could you possibly replace such a multi-dimensional experience with something else?
I think going to college is very much like dining at a Michelin five-star restaurant. You're definitely not paying that much just for the food; your money also covers the waiter's service, the elegant décor, the fine French wine.
You're buying a complex, multi-dimensional experience.
That's the same for going to college. You get to interact with intelligent peers, gain research opportunities and credentials from elite institutions. And, like a fancy restaurant, you end up with a hefty bill. The thing is, sometimes this system does work, but just as you don't always want to go to a five-star restaurant every time you're hungry, you may not always want to go back to school every time you want to learn something.
I didn't want a five-course full meal; I wanted my education to be "à la carte."
So, what was most important to me was, first, understanding the core concepts in computer science, like algorithms, artificial intelligence, encryption, and the internet; and second, applying these concepts in computer programs.
So I decided to keep this college experience simple. My goal was to pass the exams that MIT students need to pass, and to get hands-on programming.
I admit this is a simplified version. It strips away most of the experience of attending MIT.
But for what I wanted to get out of it, this was a very good simplified version.
And more importantly, this simplified version actually works.
Here's what happened: I managed to build a 33-course curriculum that was almost exactly the same as what an MIT student would use, with only a couple of slight differences.
And I built this curriculum using entirely free resources that MIT makes available online. The only expense was buying some textbooks, which meant this project cost me less than $2,000.
So, now I had both a goal and resources. The next part was the hard part: actually learning all these courses.
I'm not joking around; MIT is a tough school to graduate from, notoriously difficult even for smart students, and on top of that, I didn't have access to faculty, professors, or classmates for help. So, in theory, this project was feasible, but was it too difficult to complete?
And when I told my friends about this, when I told them I planned to self-study an entire MIT degree, they reinforced those doubts. They told me they simply couldn't imagine completing an MIT degree entirely on your own, without the support and guidance of a teaching staff it's just too hard. But that last point, it seemed to me, wasn't quite right, because when I went to university, I also attended lectures where a professor would talk to 300 students.
Sure, if I had questions I could raise my hand, but if there was something I didn't understand, ultimately I had to figure it out myself. So, the skepticism about the DIY degree probably comes more from its unusualness than from it being harder than traditional education.
And when I started the first few courses, the results I got were even more surprising. I found that learning this way was much faster than when I was in university.
As it turns out, this wasn't an obstacle; not going to MIT actually made my learning work easier. But I need to explain this last point a bit more. After all, the resources I had, MIT students have too, and they have many I don't.
How could I have an advantage over an MIT student when I have fewer resources? It's counter-intuitive.
To explain this, I need to take a slight detour and delve into some deep content on personal productivity. And what I want to talk about is a tool called the time log.
A time log works like this: you record the start time and finish time for every activity you do. I mean everything, from what time you get up in the morning to when you take out the trash.
I'm guessing most of you have never used a time log before, and you can imagine how annoying this can be.
But once you've tried it, the results will feel like discovering a new world.
The Wall Street Journal had an article recently where the reporter did exactly that.
She wrote: "I quickly realized that I had been lying to myself about where my time goes. I had thought I worked 60 hours a week, but it was far less. I thought I spent hours washing dishes, but it was only minutes. A large chunk of my time was spent idly browsing online or wandering around the house, without really knowing what to do."
And as a longtime geek, I've used time logs before, and I can tell you, it's much worse for the student population.
The vast majority of a student's time is not spent on studying, but on commuting to class, copying notes at Starbucks, or trying not to fall asleep in lectures.
If you add up the time students spend on "forming new insights" and "remembering key points"—in other words, time spent learning—you'll find it's very little.
And this is largely not the students' fault. After all, entrepreneurs often find that their productivity when they first start a business is completely different from when the company grows.
Big institutions mean bureaucracy. They mean more paperwork, meaning you have to do what your superiors tell you rather than what's truly important.
So, people like me who treat self-education as a startup have a learning advantage over those in the formal system. Lectures are a perfect example.
When I need to listen to an MIT lecture or course, I listen at 1.5x speed.
That might sound difficult, but the difference is almost imperceptible, and if it really gets too fast, you can always rewind and listen again.
Students in a classroom don't have fast-forward or rewind buttons, but I suspect they'd all like a set.
The consequences of this difference are significant. Because I can play these lectures at a slightly faster speed and watch them back-to-back, I can compress what would normally be a 4-month course into 2 days.
And then there's homework. Students do homework because someone requires them to. Yes, sometimes it helps learning, but sometimes it doesn't.
For instance, if you're struggling with a concept, why wait weeks for feedback?
When I needed to do a difficult MIT assignment, I had the answer key in hand and tackled one question at a time, because cognitive scientists say that immediate feedback is crucial for learning.
And it's not only geniuses who can apply these ideas.
The ability to replay key parts of lectures and get immediate feedback on skills—these structural advantages benefit both slow and fast learners.
So, how am I doing so far?
As of now, I have completed 20 out of the 33 computer science courses in the MIT curriculum.
By "completed," I mean I passed the final exams and finished the associated programming projects.
What's more remarkable is that, thanks to these speed-up methods I mentioned, I'm on track to compress 4 years of coursework into 12 months.
Today's theme is how technology will change educational institutions and classrooms.
But I think this proposition actually misses the point.
And I'm not alone in thinking this. There are already grassroots organizations reimagining education, not from top-down, but bottom-up.
These movements weren't orchestrated by schools or governments; they were initiated by students fed up with limited options in the existing system.
Blazing new trails in education is the new trend. That's why billionaire Peter Thiel now offers a $100,000 scholarship to students—not to those who go to school, but to those who drop out to create interesting ventures.
And when the brightest, most talented, most motivated people start leveraging their abilities by not going to school, the rest of the world takes notice.
And this isn't an either/or matter.
Jay Cross, founder of the "DIY Degree," is compiling a list that ranks universities by the number of transfer credits they accept.
This means you could go to a real university and earn a real degree while spending as little time in the classroom as possible.
I know, maybe you don't want to go to MIT or self-learn all the courses required for an MIT degree for fun—I get it.
But even if you decide to receive your education the old-fashioned way, this still matters to you.
The world is changing too fast; you can't just stop learning once you get your diploma.
The ability to self-teach complex skills and major ideas is critical to staying competitive.
So, whether you like it or not, the future of education is largely self-education.
Universities won't disappear overnight; they will continue to offer things that self-education cannot.
And going to college is a great experience, though sometimes very expensive.
Still, even so, I believe self-education is the mainstream of the future.
If someone like me can complete an MIT degree in one-fourth the time and one-hundredth the cost, why couldn't you?
Thank you.
