The case for learning out loud
Two years of teaching online taught me that the students who shipped weren't the smartest — they were the ones who refused to study alone.
When we launched the first writing cohort out of a borrowed office in Bogotá, I assumed people wanted lectures. Polished video, a tidy syllabus, a certificate at the end. We built all of that. Almost nobody finished it.
The second time around we changed one rule: every assignment had to be posted where the rest of the group could see it. No private drafts, no quiet failure. The completion rate tripled in a single quarter, and the students kept showing up long after the eight weeks were over.
Shipping beats studying
I spent the following winter rereading every transcript we had. The pattern was blunt — learners who published a rough draft on a Tuesday outpaced learners who waited for the perfect one. Visibility turned a solitary grind into a standing appointment with people who noticed when you went missing.
You don't learn a craft in private. You learn it in front of people who are slightly ahead of you and patient enough to say where it breaks.