Should You Learn New Skills or Master Old Ones?

A recent meme in the life-advice world is that anyone can make themselves an expert. Malcolm Gladwell suggested that 10,000 hours  of practice were the key to becoming world class. Anders Ericsson’s research backs this up—if you want to be good, deliberate practice is key.

A bigger question is, what’s the best way to spend those 10,000 hours? Even if you accept that the success can be gained in many fields by dedicated learning, it’s less clear exactly how you should be spending that time.

Much of the original research on deliberate practice focuses on easily measurable skills, Ericsson used professional typists in one study. As a researcher, this has an obvious advantage, gains in skill are clear, measurable and objective. Most of the follow-up research seems to similarly focus on concrete skills, like musical virtuosity or athleticism.

This makes sense—practicing layups is likely an important part of becoming an excellent basketball player. But for a programmer, writer or entrepreneur, what exactly is their layup?

Can You Be Too Focused?

I recently spoke with Cal Newport about his efforts to become distinguished in computer science. He shared with me his recent observation that the best researchers in his field had the distinction of being quick to learn new methods.

This suggests a rather different conclusion than 10,000 hours of hyper focus seems to imply. Perhaps instead of repetitively mastering a single skill, true expertise means building a cluster of tightly related skills, so that most time is spent learning new ideas instead of practicing old ones.

Maybe repetitive practice is slightly overvalued? Sure, doing the one-millionth layup might perfect that shot, but in fields that reward creativity, not just mechanical excellence, perhaps it’s more useful to continually gain new tools, instead of simply becoming the best at only one.

The Cluster Method

The cluster method is to build expertise, not through repetitive mastery, but by aggressively learning a cluster of related skills. The difference between this and the method implied by 10,000 hours is that you spend most your time as a beginner, not as an expert.

Running a business, this approach has served me well. My gains rarely come from making 3% tweaks, but from learning a new tool which allows me to create a 300% improvement.

I feel the cluster method is also reflected in my MIT Challenge. Instead of trying to go slowly and “master” each class, I try to learn as many from the cluster as possible.

The question isn’t whether, in one year, I’ve learned as much as someone with the same aptitude who studied for four years. Instead, the question is whether, in one year, I’ve learned more than someone who has only finished the first year of a four year program.

The difference between real life and a college degree is that there is no stopping point to the curriculum. There are always new things you can learn that can improve your abilities. The true benefits of rapid learning aren’t in school, but in your professional life.

Neither Hedgehog, Nor Fox

In Good to Great , Jim Collins discusses the parable of the fox and the hedgehog. The fox is said to be good at many things, whereas the hedgehog is said to be master of one. Following this, he argues that it’s better to be a hedgehog than a fox.

Clustering is a method somewhat in between. It recognizes the importance of specialization. I doubt mastering French or judo would make Cal a significantly better computer scientist. Dabbling is fun, but let’s not mistake what makes for interesting recreation as being important to your work.

But it’s also claims that expertise is mostly found in learning new things. Being an expert, then, has less to do with mastery of a specific idea, but aggressively picking up new ones.

Ultralearning

As my life as a student reaches an end, I’ve become more interested in the idea of professional learning. How do you learn, not to pass tests, but to become the best at what you do—allowing you to earn more money and demand better lifestyle privileges than your peers?

We recognize that learning is different in school than in the real world. But the concept of clustering may mean the skills for learning faster aren’t radically different from both.

Unfortunately, however, my career learning is somewhat limited by the career I already have—as a writer and entrepreneur. So I’d like to call on your diverse experience, for the readers who’ve already begun their careers:

How important is learning to your career? Has learning ever made a big difference in your career opportunities, and if so, what was it?

Please share your voice in the comments. I’d love to know what role learning plays in your lives after school, and what the biggest challenges and successes it has created for you.

The DIY Degree: Using Self-Education to Earn a Bachelor’s Degree in 1 Year

“What’s the point of learning, if you don’t get a degree after?”

This has been the biggest criticism of my MIT Challenge, and honestly, it’s not an easy one to avoid. Even if weirdos like me are willing to learn a degree outside of school, the truth is the world still values that piece of paper. Unfortunately, until recently I’ve had little answer to this complaint–it seems if you want the degree, you have to suffer through an often slow and expensive process.

That was before I met Jay Cross. Jay in many ways did a project similar to mine–he completed a bachelor’s degree in less time, mostly through self-study. The only difference? Jay got a real degree for his efforts.

I asked Jay to write a guest post to share his method with you. Not only does it work, but it gets results in the real world as well. Jay has already had career opportunities that would be the envy of a lot of college grads, having staff writing positions for major publications and entrepreneurial ventures. Jay demonstrates that not only can self-education work, it can be a true alternative for many students hesitant about college.

The DIY Degree, by Jay Cross

Today, I’m going to show you a totally new twist on self-education.

We’ve long been told that learning is an “either/or” decision. You can either spend four years in college and earn a degree…OR study on your own with no degree to show for it. But what if you could have the best of both: the credential employers crave, with the speed, personalization and low cost of self-study?

You can.

Using the “degree-by-examination” approach, you can earn a bachelor’s degree by taking tests instead of classes. It works no matter where you live, lets you graduate in one year instead of four, and costs roughly 1/20th the price of a regular degree…with the exact same legitimacy and earning power.

The problem: society DOES still value degrees

Some jobs require degrees no matter how smart you are. Even in more flexible professions (like programming) there’s always one or two “By-The-Book Bob” types who reject non-grads on principle.

This concerned me, even with all I had accomplished already. If there was any way to graduate for minimal time and cost—and eliminate this potential obstacle—it seemed worthwhile to try. Of all the different approaches I researched and read about, degree-by-examination was the college shortcut that actually worked.

Before I explain, allow me to share the struggles that led me to this discovery in the first place.

My Struggle with the Traditional College System

Lots of people ask how I discovered the degree-by-examination approach I teach on my website, The Do-It-Yourself Degree.

The truth is, it was all an accident. If my college had not been so awful, I would’ve happily paid their fees and graduated the standard way. Instead, it was a classic “necessity is the mother of invention” scenario where circumstances forced me to think differently.

As a transfer student at the University of Connecticut, I needed 12 more classes to finish my degree. “I’ll be done in no time”, I thought. Boy, was I wrong! I soon discovered that UConn, for whatever reason, didn’t offer required classes for semesters at a time…with no notice of when they would return.

Confused and discouraged, I was left with only the hope of “someday” taking that Principles of Finance or Business Law class I needed. I was frozen in place: wanting to progress, but completely unable to. As someone who loves plans and schedules, it crushed my enthusiasm and made it very difficult to stay motivated.

Worse yet, UConn was expensive. I had been debt-free up until now and I wanted to keep it that way.

Each night, on my hour-long commute to school, I pressed myself: “what am I going to do about this?”

Sometimes it was too demoralizing to think about.  I went through brief episodes of denial, telling myself I would “somehow” be able to pay without borrowing or “somehow” take the courses UConn wasn’t offering. It was all I could do for a few moments of relief in a hopeless situation.

The Solution: Degree-by-Examination

But when I came to my senses, I knew that was total BS. There was no “somehow.” Either I could afford it or I couldn’t. Either the classes were available or they weren’t. The gods of wish fulfillment were not going to munificently protect me from hard numbers or school policy. It was time to be brutally honest with myself. If I stayed at UConn, I’d pay a ton of money and probably wait two more years to graduate. What I needed was a solution: a realistic plan that acknowledged these obstacles and overcame them.

All options were on the table: alternative degree programs, different schools, even a new major, if that would help.

My quest started out pretty aimlessly. I Googled things like “get my degree faster” and “faster ways to get college credit”—anything that seemed relevant.

Most of what I found was totally worthless. Scams, diploma mills, shady online colleges and all the usual garbage that discouraged me from looking into this sooner. But persistence paid off, and a few weeks later I found an article by Josh Kaufman, author of The Personal MBA.

Having read his excellent articles on entrepreneurship, I knew Josh wouldn’t even be writing without practical, real-world advice to share.

I was right.

What Josh explained is that you can “test out” of a degree just like you can test out of a class. Most schools won’t force you through a semester of College Algebra, for example, if a placement test says you’re ready for Pre-Calculus. It’s a great time-saver, but schools aren’t eager to tell you about it. They would rather you take College Algebra anyway, because you stay longer and spend more.

By using the approach Josh outlined, you can literally earn an entire degree this way. Instead of attending dozens of courses, you study on your own and take an exam for each subject. Rather than taking English 101, for instance, you take a 3-hour exam covering an entire semester of English material. Same goes for psychology, accounting, and the other required courses in your degree program.

No homework, no class attendance, no school bureaucracy or BS. My frustration melted away, replaced by surging confidence and the knowledge that a solution was at hand.

The exams are affordable—between $80-$200 apiece—and can be taken at virtually any college or testing center in the country. Study materials are available at websites like Free CLEP Prep and InstantCert Academy.

Each exam is worth 3-12 credits (depending on the subject.) Once you pass enough exams to obtain a degree—typically 120 credits for a bachelor’s—you transfer them all to a distance learning school like Excelsior College. Although not famous, Excelsior is a legitimate, regionally accredited college, just like any state school or private university.

(Not everyone can accept the trade-off of saving years/tens of thousands of dollars by attending an unremarkable college. If you are one of them, check out my guest post on I Will Teach You To Be Rich. It covers the psychology of putting effectiveness before ego—a core concept I teach my readers. And it just might change your mind!)

After paying Excelsior’s admissions/graduation fees, you become a graduate of that school and receive a genuine bachelor’s degree to proudly display on your resume.

These subject exams offer the highest ROI in all of higher education. Here’s a cost-per-credit analysis I assembled for my blog readers. The third row shows the average costs of degree-by-examination:

Sources: CollegeBoard and DIY Degree

Best of all, degree-by-examination is totally self-managed. You study for the exams you want to take and take them when you are ready. If you fail one, you can take it again in 3-6 months and take others while you wait. No guessing games or waiting for the school to offer the subjects you need.

These schools aren’t new. Busy adults have been graduating from colleges like Excelsior with online courses for more than fifteen years. What IS new is the approach of earning your degree with exams instead of coursework. Most traditional colleges allow credit-by-examination as well, but with strict limits (for example, “maximum of 20 credits earned via examination.”) These limits help colleges force you to buy credits in the more expensive “classroom” format.

Yet unlike UConn (and most other schools) Excelsior has no exam limit. I simply transferred all the credits I had earned so far, took exams for the ones I still needed, and finished my bachelor’s degree in four months instead of two years.

How Can You Do the Same?

Josh’s article on “hacking” a college degree was superb, but there’s only so much territory one article can cover. It soon dawned on me that there were lots of details which would only become clear once I clarified them:

• Which exams should I take?

• What other types of exams are there besides CLEP?

• How are those other types of exams different from CLEP?

• Which order should I take them in?

• Who do I call?

• How do I enroll?

• How do I choose a degree program? There are literally dozens.

• What subjects/credits are required for my degree?

• How do I actually schedule my exams?

• How do I know for sure that they’re going to count toward MY degree requirements?

• Are there ways to earn credits quickly OTHER than exams?

• Once I pass an exam, how do I notify my school and make sure those credits get there?

• What if I fail an exam? Can I re-take it? Should I retake it? If so, when? If not, how do I earn credit for that subject?

• What’s the difference between upper and lower-level credit?

• How do I get upper-level credit? Most CLEP exams are for lower-level credit only.

• Which exams are graded and which are pass/fail? How does that affect my GPA?

• Does my school accept [exam here] for [course requirement here]?

• What about college courses I’ve already taken? Will the school I enroll in count those credits toward my degree? How many? Which ones?

• How do I track my progress?

• How long will all of this take?

I love research more than breathing and gleefully wrestled ALL of these answers from course advisors, articles and web forums. I spent sleepless nights learning how some guy shaved three months off his degree schedule or got an edge on an exam I was studying for. I found it intellectually challenging to treat this approach like an experiment and search for ways to optimize it.

Some of the answers I discovered were surprising. For instance, most people talk about CLEP exams, but there are actually several other exam formats available: DSST, TECEP, and Excelsior College Exams, for instance. This widely expands the range of subjects you can test out of. There are also non-exam options for earning credit, such as self-paced online math courses fromALEKS. (As someone terrified of math, this was a lifesaver!)

If you fail an exam, you aren’t doomed…but you will need to wait 3-6 months before re-taking it.

Want to graduate with a high GPA? I discovered that some exams are scored with letter grades, while others are “Pass/Fail.” This offers an incredible opportunity to be strategic: taking subjects you excel in for grades and subjects you’re bad at for “Pass/Fail.”

These are just some of the possibilities for customizing your own high-speed, low-cost bachelor’s degree.

Standing Out to Employers

My favorite part of the DIY Degree (beyond the cost, classroom avoidance, and completion time) is actually how it positions you to employers.

Put yourself in a hiring manager’s shoes. He or she has seen countless students come through their office with bachelor’s degrees.

Here’s the truth: if you graduate like everyone else does…you are a commodity. Unless you have other compelling items on your resume, you will not jump off the page and grab the hiring manager’s attention like you’ve been told a college degree would do for you.

Why is that? Why are degrees so taken for granted and unimpressive today? For one thing, there’s degree inflation. More people than ever having degrees makes yours less remarkable. But it’s also because the college experience ITSELF is now associated with sloth, partying, and immaturity.

The most recent example of this came from President Barack Obama. When someone asked what he would say to all the students who are struggling with student loans, Obama essentially said “I would encourage students to look more seriously at their studies instead of treating it like a 4-year party.”

If that’s what the President thinks, can you imagine how a hiring manager feels? They’ve hired dozens (maybe HUNDREDS) of college graduates. They aren’t going to be blown away by your standard-issue degree from XYZ State University.

On the other hand, someone who not only designed their own degree program from scratch, but also scheduled, financed, and passed anywhere from 20-40 challenging tests all on their own…THAT’S someone worth interviewing. You are effectively taking what has become a standard, “check the box” credential…and re-framing it as a unique competitive advantage.

Companies want independent problem-solvers, and while anyone can say they do that, earning an expensive four-year credential in ¼ of the time backs it up.

I see the DIY Degree as a “gap solution” for career advancement. Eventually, society will stop caring about credentials and focus more on targeted portfolios of an individual’s work. Until then, degree-by-examination offers a way to graduate without mortgaging your future in the process.