The Best Subject Not Taught in School: Learning How to Learn

Today I want to talk about something that isn’t on our weekly school timetable but probably has the biggest impact on our future: Self-directed learning.Over the past year, while diving into HarvardX courses or researching behavioral economics, I realized something important. The hardest part isn’t the complexity of the subject itself. The real challenge is figuring out how to manage your own brain when there’s no teacher standing over your shoulder telling you what to do or what to study for a test.

I’ve failed at this plenty of times—starting a course and leaving it halfway, or reading a 20-page research paper and realizing I didn't remember a single line. But through those "airballs," I’ve developed a strategy that actually works for me. If you’re looking to start your own project or master a new skill this year, here is my personal "Self-Learning" playbook:

1. Find Your "Game Film" (Active Learning)In basketball, we watch game films to see what we did wrong and how to improve. In learning, I do the same by using "active recall." Instead of just reading a paragraph over and over, I close the book and try to explain the concept out loud as if I’m explaining it to a teammate. If I can’t explain it simply, I haven’t truly learned it yet.

2. The "Audit" PowerOne of the best-kept secrets for students is that you can "audit" courses on platforms like Coursera or edX for free. You don’t always need a paid certificate to get the knowledge. I’ve used this to explore Finance and Decision-Making without any cost. It’s like getting a VIP pass to the world’s best universities from your own desk.

3. Embrace the "Buffering" PhaseThere’s a moment when you’re learning something new—like a complex economic theory or a new coding language—where your brain feels like it’s "buffering." Most people quit here because it feels uncomfortable. I’ve learned to embrace that frustration. Just like those extra hours in the gym when your shots aren't falling, that’s exactly when the real growth happens.

4. My Favorite Free HubsIf you want to start your own learning journey this month, here are the three tools I swear by:

• Khan Academy: The absolute best for building a solid foundation in Math and Finance.

  
  

• Google Scholar: When you want to move past general articles and see the actual research behind a topic.

  
  

• MIT OpenCourseWare: It’s basically free access to MIT’s entire curriculum. It’s challenging, but definitely worth it.

  
  

Final Thought: Being a student shouldn't just be about following a syllabus given to us. It’s about being curious enough to build our own. I’m still figuring things out, making mistakes, and hitting walls—but that’s how we improve.

What is one thing you’ve always wanted to learn but felt was "too hard" to do on your own? Drop a comment or send me a message; let’s see if we can find a resource and tackle it together.