Where Are All the Co-Learning Spaces?
When we reach the year 2025, the e-learning industry will have grown to $325 billion, tripling its value in just ten years.
That’s a bombastic figure that speaks to the explosive rise of self-directed remote learning. But what does it mean on an individual level?
It means that if I wake up tomorrow and decide to finally learn graphic design, or impressionist painting, or architectural drafting, or if I want to develop a product or learn how to launch a small business, or improve my copywriting skills, or discover how UX design impacts user behavior, I can instantly access the knowledge that can get me there. Any of us can, assuming that we’re willing to spend $20 on an online course or 30 seconds watching an ad at the start of a YouTube video.
So if creative learning is so accessible, why are so many of us still so frustrated?
Innovative thinking is at its lowest point in three decades. 3 in 4 people feel creatively unfulfilled, despite 78% believing that developing creativity makes a real difference in our lives. 2 in 3 Americans believe creative development is essential in solving social issues, and 6 in 10 CEOs list creativity as the single most important leadership quality.
Despite a high degree of interest in developing creatively, a high global demand for more creative thinkers, and more widespread access to online courses, lessons, and educational outlets than any point in history, 75% of all people feel creatively stifled.
Why?
The Cultural Myth of Self-Directed Learning
When I was a teenager, I decided I wanted to become a songwriter. I told my parents my vision, and they said, essentially: “Okay.” They bought me a nicer guitar than the cheap starter instrument I’d been using before, the one that sounded awful and made my fingers bleed. They helped me pay for some basic recording equipment and let me convert a spare room in our house into a little music studio.
Each day I would come home from school, say “Hi” to my mom, and head up to the music room to practice and write until dinner. My family would ask about how it was going, what I was working on, what progress I was making. Then I would go back up to the music room until around 11pm when it was time to sleep. I would do just enough homework on the school bus the next day to not fail my classes.
I barely graduated high school, but by the time I got my diploma I had been signed to Universal Records as a recording artist. I later released an album under Warner Bros. Records and wrote singles for Colbie Caillat and The Voice-winner Jordan Smith.
But if we look at my journey as the plucky story of a teenager who pulled himself up by his bootstraps to achieve a dream, we’ve missed the point.
I was not the X-factor in that equation. My situation was. I was privileged enough to have three key advantages at the beginning of my learning journey that most independent learners and passionate people never get to access:
· Quality tools and equipment I wouldn’t have been able to afford on my own
· A dedicated physical space for the express purpose of pursuing my passion
· A supportive group of people who took me seriously, who encouraged my obsession and trusted me enough to accept where I put my priorities
With the world’s entire network of knowledge accessible to anyone with a WIFI connection, why do 3 in 4 people still feel creatively frustrated? Most people never have access to the three key advantages I had.
“No One Will Ever Pay for This.”
Around the mid-2000s, the professional world experienced a massive cultural shift. Freelancing was no longer just a more flattering word for ‘unemployed.’ Being an entrepreneur or self-employed became culturally respected, something to aspire to and encourage on a widespread scale. Small tech businesses were taken more seriously than ever before.
Alongside this shift came renewed focus on one specific work-life value — flexibility. With internet-based businesses, people could work from anywhere. They could escape the structure of office life, free themselves from a desk, and explore the world. This idea became romanticized through the culture of #sidehustles and #4hourworkweeks, and it’s easy to see why. The image of an untethered you, earning a living from your laptop while seated under an umbrella at the beach, is a powerful one.
But then, a funny thing happened. We realized that despite our newfound professional freedom, there were things about the physical work environment we missed.The sense of community and support. The accountability that comes from people who know you, seeing your face day-to-day, wondering how things are going. A place to work that’s designed for working, that fosters creativity, innovation, and productivity. Research showed that while we had become freer, we’d also become lonelier and less productive. For the first time, professionals everywhere had a choice between structure and flexibility, and many chose a degree of structure — enough that WeWork, the world’s largest coworking company, is now valued at nearly $50B and operates over 500 locations worldwide.
Given the choice between working from their home for $0/month or working from a physical workspace for $300+/month, many of us chose the latter. Why? Environment matters.
The Next Cultural Shift
Back in 2010, a website called Udemy officially launched after struggling for years to gain funding and interest. The concept was simple — connect people eager to learn with talented instructors and content creators who could teach them valuable skills over the internet. Udemy now hosts over 100,000 online courses and has inspired a long list of e-learning companies covering the entire spectrum of interests and fields. Free content hosts like YouTube have expanded online learning even further.
Just as we became free to work from anywhere, we’re now free to learn from anywhere. This prospect has only become more attractive as student loan debt has reached all-time highs.
I’ve spent the last four years as a marketing copywriter and have lived in four different cities in that time, which means I’ve seen the inside of too many Starbucks and local cafes to count. And while they’re dependably stocked with full-time professionals on Macbooks like me, there’s another group that I’m just as likely to see spread out on tables and bars throughout the room.
Learners. They have their notepads and laptops spread out across their tiny table, their earbuds delivering a podcast or online course directly into their brains. There’s always at least one book occupying their lap or a corner of their table. Fundamentals of Design. 10 Steps to Startup. Drawing the Human Form. Troubleshooting Your Screenplay. I’ve talked to many of these people. Some are enrolled students, just as many aren’t. Some are 19 years old, others are 30, and still others are 60+. Some have specific professional goals that motivate them, others just want to learn for learning’s sake.
Why are they there? Because they’re looking for something, and this is the closest they can come to finding it. They want a place that’s physically and emotionally separate from the rest of their lives. This is where I come to learn. They want an environment where their pursuits feel legitimate, where they can take themselves seriously. They want to be surrounded by other people like them and to feel like they’re part of something. They’re all willing to pay for $7 coffee several times per month just to have a place to be.
They may not know it explicitly, but this desire is consistent with everything research tells us about what creative learners need to thrive.
Independent learning is every bit as lonely and discouraging as being a remote professional, and more. Remote professionals have communities, identities. We have names for them. Freelancer. Entrepreneur.
What do we call an independent learner who’s not a full-time student but takes their education every bit as seriously as someone who is? Where is their community? Where do they go? How many of them are abandoning their potential because it’s just too lonely, too discouraging, too expensive?
What would happen if independent learners were treated with the same cultural respect as entrepreneurs, small businesses, and freelancers, or enrolled students? They’re not tinkerers or hobbyists. They’re ongoing learners, who take their development seriously and deserve a place and culture that does the same.
A New (Old) Model for Independent Learning
Imagine the coworking model applied to independent learners. Imagine membership-based locations around the world where serious self-directed students could access high-quality tools, a clean and beautiful place to be and learn, and the in-person mentorship and support that they need to grow and stay inspired.
We romanticize the image of brilliant minds building world-altering ideas in their basements and garages. But great creations come despite subpar environments, not because of them. Otherwise, Microsoft and Apple would still be run from suburban garages rather than multi-million-dollar facilities designed by the world’s greatest architects and experts.
Imagine if we took those world-class environments and made them available to learners early in their journey towards ultimate potential, at less than the cost of their gym membership or monthly coffee budget? How many more great talents would be developed? How many more world-altering ideas would reach critical velocity rather than falling to discouragement and frustration before they could get off the ground?
How would society be transformed if we thought of developing our passions the same way we think of going to the gym — not something we do for a few years during a specific stage of our lives, but a lifelong commitment to development that’s taken seriously and encouraged by the people around us?
We need a place for passionate minds to work out together. If not, our national capacity for innovation and creative problem solving will continue to atrophy.
With the world facing growing environmental, social and economic crises that require creative solutions, that’s not a failure we can afford.
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