Creator Institute is the future of education
Part I. The academic machine
Like many first-generation Americans who hail from India, I was raised to be an academic machine. Put me in a classroom and I’ll figure out my best path to getting an A. Let me pick my classes and I’ll figure out my best path to a great GPA. I know when talent can get me there and I know when I need to just put in the hard work. I’m not complaining about this, I’m just providing context.
This machine has led to high-level academic success, made me highly employable, and led me to a life that is really wonderful. Yet, the cultivation of such a machine has its issues – the biggest one is that this mindset deeply embedded a notion in me that external markers of success are critical. The teacher giving me an A. The university choosing to accept me, give me a diploma, put me on the honor roll. All forms of external validation. As you move on in life, I’ve come to realize that is a very challenging notion to maintain alongside a deeply fulfilling life.
Why? Because life outside of school is not quite the same as our education system. There are still external markers of success, don’t get me wrong. Your salary, your job title, your performance review, your promotion, your house, your relationships. These are all external markers of success in the various ‘classes’ of life. In the real-world classroom, however, there are two important differences:
You get to pick which classes you want to try and take.
You get to decide what jobs to apply for, what relationships to seek, what salary to ask for. Of course, you can get rejected for the class. But no one can make you take any class you don’t want to.
Any grade you get is of your own choosing.
External markers of success can’t give you a grade, they can only give you a pass / fail. A performance review can lead to you getting fired from a job (failing), but it can’t say that you were a C or D student. If you pass (i.e. not fired), only you can decide what any external marker of success means in terms of your ‘grade’.
This was a profound realization for me. Once I realized in the real world, you choose your grade and the world is merely pass / fail, it was like putting on glasses and seeing the world as it is for the first time in all its glorious detail. I now know the salary number that’s an A for how I want to support my lifestyle and family. I now know the time I want to spend on different things that will be an A for me. I now know the quality of work I am doing that represents an A to me.
I’ve made different career choices and different life choices as a result. I’m not going to say it’s perfect – the academic tiger in me can never be destroyed at this point, it can only be tamed and consistently watched. This long preamble is just to say – the future of education needs to acknowledge that there is more to education than creating a machine. Developing our minds and our capacity to think is an inherently beautiful task and requires no external markers of success.
Part II. Writing a novel
One more thing before we get to Creator Institute. (I hope my novel ends up getting to the point faster than this). Look, I’m a person that’s easily awestruck (I think it’s one of my greatest strengths). I’m prone to hyperbole about things like this. But, to me, novels are the closest thing to magic I’ve experienced in life. Words on a page somehow transporting me to different worlds (the world of Harry Potter forever changed me). A story forcing me to question my beliefs (the hedonist arguments in The Picture of Dorian Gray). An ending making me feel emotions as deeply as I’ve ever felt them (crying at the end of Of Mice and Men).
I’m what most people would describe as an avid reader (another side note: the education system very nearly stamped that fire out of me…the light faded but luckily never went out, but that’s another story for another time). Naturally, as someone this passionate about novels, it’s no surprise I’ve always dreamed of writing a novel. The bold idea of attempting to create my own version of magic.
But in life, writing a book is one of the hardest classes to take. By traditional external markers of success, you are almost certainly going to get a terrible grade and probably fail. Most people never finish their books once they start. Many people who finish a book can never get it published. Most people who publish a book never make money off it. And for many people who make money off books, it’s not a lot of money relative to other occupations. A murderers’ row of obstacles in your path to external validation. You can see why, for the ‘academic tiger’ mind, writing a book stays as a permanent ‘cool idea’ that never actually happens. I’ve had a ‘cool idea’ for a book for four years but never actually sat down to write it. Marla Daniels explains this in The Wire, “You cannot lose if you do not play.” Why take the class if you know it’s impossible to get an A?
But then I finally remembered –
Any grade you get is of your own choosing. External markers of success can’t give you a grade, they can only give you a pass / fail.
There’s a famous saying, “What would you do if you knew you could not fail?”
My version of this is - What would you do if you knew there was no grade? What would you do if all you had to do was pass?
The only way to fail at writing a book is to not write the book. If I complete the process of writing a book, I’ve already passed. I get to decide if I need it to be published to give myself an A. I get to decide if I need it to sell to give myself an A. Most importantly, I can give myself an A if I just complete the book and no one ever reads it. I can’t tell you how empowering it is to realize that.
Part III. Creator Institute.
Now, we get to Creator Institute. Creator Institute, in its own words, is a program to “help you learn-by-doing – enabling you to discover our passion, develop your expertise and establish your credibility through the creation and launch of your very own book….instead of a grade, you’ll have a book in your hands that proves to the world you have learned.”
A class to write a book. It’s perfect. I’m not the only book lover out there. I’m not alone in having aspirations to write a book. For the book-writing skill, Creator Institute does three amazing things that all educators ought to do to re-imagine our education system.
Lowers the barriers to entry
Most education institutions create the wrong barriers to entry. Prove that you are the best academic machine and they will accept you, knowing that no matter what they do, you will figure out how to get an A. This creates a subtle but important shift in the education provided. The institution’s focus shifts from education to creating challenging obstacles and external markers of success instead. They don’t need to focus on education - the best academic machines (which is who they accept) will figure out how to get the grade. A curriculum is less important. Teaching is less important. Support is less important.
Not for Creator Institute. For them, the class is open to anyone who applies. You must pay $500, which goes directly to support developmental editors that help you through the process. You must prove your motivation – write about why you want to write a book and what you want to write about. But once you cross those two barriers, you’re in. No SAT score. No resume. No strenuous interviews.
Aligns incentives
Creator Institute must put their money where their mouth is. They say “Creating a book is a challenging proposition but we have figured out a way to make the process attainable for nearly anyone.” They must focus on educating me because they can’t trust that I came from Yale and have an urgent desire to get an ‘A’. Their promise is essentially ‘if you follow our curriculum, you will end up with a book.’
Because there’s no significant barrier to entry, their success and reputation depends on every person. If I engage in the program fully and don’t end up with a book, I’ll be justified in my disappointment with the course and they will likely be held accountable in their growth as a platform. Our incentives are aligned. (In fact, one way they could align incentives even further would be to refund your editor’s fee in exchange for a very small amount of equity from books that go through the program and decide to publish with them.)
If I give myself an A, I will be likely to recommend this to others. Based on how they’ve marketed the program, most people who signup will likely give themselves an A if they end up completing a book. If they want to succeed, Creator Institute better be good at helping people actually complete a book.
Creates the right set of motivations
The program understands the true purpose of education and the nature of individuals that have gone through our traditional education system. It’s designed for the academic machine, except with the external markers removed so that you are free to judge yourself by whatever standard you set. They make a tangible promise – if you follow this curriculum, you will end up with a completed book. If you decide publishing is important to you, they provide the support to help you do so but you have no obligations. It’s not a part of your grade. There are no grades. If you really want to write a book, follow this guide and you will do so.
I typically take a class and immediately look for the shortcuts I can take where I’m still likely to get an A. Not here. Here, the only promise they’ve made is that if I follow the curriculum, I will get a finished book, which is my self-defined goal. Therefore, if I don’t follow the curriculum and don’t end up finishing the book, I will have failed at achieving my own intrinsic desire and I will have no one to blame but myself. That’s motivating to try out the worksheets, join the classes, engage in the program fully.
Part IV. How has it been? My early review
I’m only a few weeks in, but it’s been amazing. I wondered if removing the barriers to entry and a purely digital program would lower the quality of peer-to-peer learning. That fear proved unfounded as I overestimated those impacts and underestimated how much the right internal motivations can improve peer-to-peer exchange. I actually want to participate and it seems like so do the others involved – every conversation with a fellow aspiring author has been amazing and fruitful.
My motivation has been an incredible engine. I always thought the excuses were real when it came to writing a book. I’m just too busy with my job. I’m just too busy with two young kids. One day it’ll happen. Now, I realize those were just excuses made because I was too afraid I wouldn’t get an A in this class. I was so worried I would fail that I didn’t even try.
Now, it’s different. I’m in the comfortable cocoon of an academic setting. I’ve done the whole school thing before. I can unleash the academic tiger that lies dormant within me. There’s a curriculum. Classes, speakers, editors, resources. A set of homework assignments that they say will give me my A (a completed book) if I follow along. They showed the stats on the number of people taking the course that end up completing a book, and they are impressive.
They said to expect ~10 hours per week, so I’m putting in the 10 hours. I’m asking questions of the professor if I don’t understand something. I’m using the tools and resources they provide. I’m not just doing the recommended assignments, I’m doing more. I’m not about to fail because I couldn’t learn the curriculum when so many others have done so previously (I told you - the academic tiger can only be tamed).
Long story short, it’s been amazing so far. I’m still early, but I feel it happening. It’s been so positive that for the first time, I’m willing to publicly acknowledge that I’m indeed writing a novel. I may not publish it. You may never see it. It may suck. But, I am now confident enough that I’m going to finish it that I’m willing to admit I’m writing it. That, in and of itself, is the most glowing review I can give you at this point. And that’s why programs like Creator Institute ought to represent the future of education.