Below is from a side panel from Anya Kamenetz Fast Co article Guide to Generation Flux College Degree, linked to in previous post on her.

Here are some key strategies used by the independent learners who took part in Kio Stark’s NYU study.

1. Learn by doing. It makes a lot of sense to organize your learning around a real-world project. This could be starting a business. Or building a robot. Or for Benjamen Walker, whose passion is philosophy, it was starting aphilosophy podcast so he’d have a reason to read major works and interview the big thinkers on the subject.

1. Find your tribe. “One of the main themes is that learning is a very social act,” says Stark. “One of the main benefits of traditional school that people cited is that they jump into ready-made learning communities. If you go it alone, you have to make that for yourself.” Molly Danielsson‘s passion was composting toilets. So she moved to Portland, where a lot of other people shared the interest and started a salon called Talking Sh*t to convene a community that was interested in the legal and scientific questions.

1. Focus on the process. Pursuing independent learning isn’t easy–not if you’re doing it right. There are detours, opportunity costs, and uncomprehending family members to contend with. The bonus, says Stark, is that independent learners emerge with a “real feeling of mastery,” a sense of earned confidence that is, not incidentally, invaluable when talking to employers. “Everything about our workplaces is changing,” she notes. “In some ways, being an independent learner is the best qualification you can have. It shows your ability to be flexible and learn on the job. Those are increasingly important qualifications for any job.”