Hey Team,

Two weeks ago I shared that I was a mentor for an online cohort-based writing course. It's been fun and incredibly rewarding. Let me see if I can do it justice.

Mentoring for Transformation

Online courses have existed for a decade. The idea is simple: secure the best instructor, create great content, and make the course available to thousands of people. Quality goes up and cost per student goes down. Today, you can pay $10 to learn how to code or speak in public.

But online courses have limitations. Students complain about lecture fatigue. Student-to-student interactions and student-teacher interactions are minimal. As a result, self-paced online course completion rates are low.

There's a new form of online learning, and it's the cohort-based course (CBC).

Write of Passage

I signed up last September for Write of Passage, a 5-week CBC teaching you to write online. At $4,000, it's the gold standard and it attracts a highly-educated crowd.

The course promises students that do the work, a personal website, five essays, and a newsletter.

Students receive 10X more, but they don't know it yet.

A week before the course starts, students create an online profile to introduce themselves in a private online community. They watch a few videos in advance. Many interact with one another.

When it's time to start the first live session, 300 people from 35 countries log into Zoom. David Perell, the course founder starts talking about why people want to write online:

• Ability to exchange ideas across the globe
• Channel one's ambitions, e.g. create digital products or services
• Attract like-minded people by writing in public

But then something very different happens. David stops the lecture, and asks students why did they sign up? He's doesn't want a few students to raise their hand and answer the question. He wants each person to share their answer in a casual conversation.

Breakout rooms

Will Mannon, David's course director who co-hosts, creates 100 breakout rooms of 3-people each. For the next 10 minutes, three strangers share their motivations. Some give confident answers. Some share information never voiced before. Others will feel too vulnerable to give more than the standard answer.

Over the five-week course, there will be many breakout sessions where strangers-at-first, becoming friends, exchange ideas around prompts.

It's an endless supply of short conversations with very smart, motivated, and interesting people.

Writing as revelation

The real magic comes from the writing. For five weeks, each week students receive a writing prompt. They post their draft in a private online community where it awaits peer feedback.

The course teaches students how to give and receive very specific, multi-dimensional, and always honest feedback. Big egos take a hit. Writers lacking confidence discover fans. The feedback changes your perception of yourself.

Students rewrite the essays, and the last step is to publish to a personal website for the world to see. Any self-conscious student will agonize for hours before hitting publish. I agonized for weeks unsure why I was doing it and speculating about potential downstream consequences.

Eventually most publish their imperfect writing on their imperfect personal website. And this tiny step is the most critical moment on the journey of becoming an online writer.

Mentor sessions

Do you remember your professor directing you to the teaching assistant when you needed help? Mentors are that and more.

A dozen mentors hold weekly sessions covering a range of related tactical topics. Directly or indirectly, mentors help students overcome mental obstacles and understand their why for writing. And there are breakout sessions.

A Community of Writers

By the end of the five weeks, the course has transformed a large group of total strangers into a trusted, supportive community. The friendships and helping spirit forged during the intense five weeks continue beyond the course via the private community software, Zoom, and in a few cases, in-person meetings.

Several of my cohort mates are close friends at this point. I have never met any of them in person.

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Tipping Over

I try to keep things positive here, but I gotta get something off my chest. Please feel free to skip past this section. Or laugh at me. But I just gotta say it.

Every now and then I detect in myself an increasing pattern of silent groans and eventually quiet but audible rants that include many 4-letter words.

It happened, for example, when my daughters were in club soccer. Every evening and weekend I felt like I was at a soccer field. It felt absurd and excessive. I felt trapped.

On my bad days, I blamed the coaches who wanted to make a living teaching soccer and pay the head of the club $250,000/year. On my good days, I rationalized this more professional coaching approach raised the level of US competitiveness. Thankfully, when my kids' soccer careers ended, the mental gymnast in me also retired.

But the gymnast is back. For the past 2 to 3 years, I groan every time I go to a self-service counter at a restaurant. I know I will be given the option to choose 15%, 20%, and 25% tip options despite no waiter being involved. I wince when I see new business categories ask for tips or assess services charges.

I am tired of asking myself several times a week if I am lighting money on fire or being cheap.

The workers deserve a fair wage. The owners needs to make a profit. But how can I solve my small annoyance?

I recalled this guide Tim Urban created in 2014.
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Alas, he hasn't updated it to address the counter-service and new home delivery tipping models.

I'd love for the US to move to the Europen model of building tips into the price.

Until then, I will recognize that I can choose my attitude, take deep breaths, and go with the flow.

Or move to Canada.

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Troubleshooting

If your next flight is late, it could be for any of the following reasons listed in this graphic. I was created by a Vancouver-based 787 pilot for Air Canada. He and this graphic are good explainers.

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Things are turning green outside. May this be a sign of good fortunes to come.

I appreciate all of you for reading and indulging my mini-rant.

I hope you have a great Sunday.

-Michael

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