Nobody hands you a syllabus.So write your own.
School gave you a timeline, a syllabus and a midterm. Out of school, “it's really up to you to hold yourself accountable and to give yourself permission to create the structure yourself.” This is the episode's pre-mini exercise — four areas of expansion — with the structure built back in.
- 1SubjectWhat do I want to learn?investing · art history · nutrition
- 2SkillHow do I want to learn?cooking · Spanish · acting · lifting
- 3TeacherWho do I want to learn from?an author · a professor · a creator
- 4RoomWhere do I want to learn?a class · a conference · a club
“So you mean who, what, where, when, why?” “Kind of.”
Four questions, asked before they share theirs
Stars score the structure, never what you chose. What you’re curious about isn’t gradeable.
Cherie’s is as far as the episode goes: acting, free audits, weekly. She never names a subject, a teacher or a time, so those stay blank. The “should” pick is ours.
- Subject
- —
- Skill
- Acting
- Teacher
- —
- Room
- Free audits at every acting studio, to find the right one
- Status
- Auditing
Choose every week and a time to put it on the grid.
- Enrolled: not yetSubject, skill, teacher, a real room
- On the timetable: not yetYour season, a weekly slot with a time
- Curious, free first: earnedCuriosity over should, a free route
Investing, art history, nutrition — anything. It is a brainstorm, not a commitment.
- Not yet: One subject to learnInvesting, art history, nutrition — anything. It is a brainstorm, not a commitment.
- Done: One skill to practise
- Not yet: One teacher to learn fromAn author, a professor, a mentor, a creator. Who is on your personal learning board of directors?
- Done: One room with people outside your bubble
- Done: You know which season you are in
- Not yet: A weekly slot, with a time on itWeekly — good. Now say when: “Tuesdays after work” beats “every week”.
- Done: Chosen because you are curious, not because you should
- Done: Tried the free version first
TIGER SISTERS UNIVERSITY — continuing student Subject — Skill Acting Teacher — Room Free audits at every acting studio, to find the right one Season: both, at once Every week Free first: a free audit or trial class and a youtube deep dive A brainstorm, not a contract. It's okay to quit.
What they got wrong first.And what they do now.
Every pair here is the sisters' own. The left side is something one of them did or was tempted to do; the right is what they took from it, in their words wherever they said it.
And if it stops being fun: you are not in school. You can drop the class.
- The path
Get my CFA, because I'm in finance.
The curriculumChoose subjects you're actually curious about, rather than only learning things you should learn.
Jean bought about $1,000 of CFA books because “I just thought it was the path.” She quit and never looked back. The after is the advice from the Harvard Medical School article on learning and brain health they cite on air.
- The path
Master all of these in the next three months.
The curriculumTreat it like a brainstorm list. Take a breath.
Their own instruction for the exercise. The four areas are there to get ideas down, not to set four deadlines.
- The path
One class, once a month.
The curriculumWeekly — a class, or sitting down with YouTube for an hour.
“It's kind of hard to take one thing once a month to build a habit.” Cherie wanted momentum on acting, so the unit is the week, and the format can flex.
- The path
Sign up at the first acting studio.
The curriculumFree audits at every studio, to find the right one.
Freemaxing. The classes are expensive and the audits are offered — and she picks up different methods from different teachers on the way.
Two more.Same term.
- Be bad at itBad beginnerSomething new, or something you used to be good at. Book the first bad attempt — and decide now when you would let yourself quit.Open
- Get in the roomIn the roomA plan for a conference or a retreat — including the one session outside your lane, which is where theirs paid off.Open