What is this post?

This is the culmination of ages long work towards empowering the self-learning autodidact. I wrote this back in 2018, and I presume for a college admission essay or something along those lines.

In the first section I am going to simply copy the paper itself, and then afterwards I will add on my more recent take on the matter.

In this world there is a plethora of knowledge pools, with such vast differences between many of them it is hard to discover what is best for you. I cannot say which is best for most people, but what I can say is that having the skills to expand your mind and learn are a top priority.

You might perceive that statement to be common sense, however it isn't always the case. Many people go throughout their lives not learning how to learn, it is not properly taught in schools, and it overall doesn’t make it to people’s mindsets. It’s my hope that in this essay I can clarify the thought process behind learning, and the systems behind any absorption of skill knowledge.

Learning is a mechanism for the creation of new neural pathways in the brain, exciting the dendrites, and thickening the myelin (fatty substance on neurons that help communication). When this occurs it creates and/or strengthens a particular pathway in the brain allowing for that connection to form. That is what our memory entails at a fundamental level, and with repetition it increases the myelin, and at some points even creates new pathways. Such as when you are learning to play piano, but you try playing on an electronic keyboard instead. It all goes towards that musical ability, but it takes a slightly different learning to understand both. When you are educating yourself, then you have to understand the science behind it to maximize your studies. There is a topic in psychology called interleaving, which even my knowledge on it still needs improving, and the basic explanation of it is mixing the learning topic every so often. Doing this allows for the information to stick without you losing focus. We can only focus on one thing for so long, although there are methods of increasing that focus.

Focus is something sought after by many people, especially in such a competitive world. I actually trained as a lifeguard for my first job, which compared to most first jobs is a high precedent for building your attention span. One moment that you are not focusing could lead to someone getting hurt, or worse. We rotated our location in the pool every thirty minutes, with rest about every hour and a half. Well in that mindset let's talk about methods of increasing focus. Here are just a few: you can take advantage of the Mozart effect (which has various studies stating its validity, while others the opposite), which takes music you enjoy quietly in the background. Combining that with Binaural beats, which help induce a particular brain wave state, and you can have a powerful combination (Note I am listening to both as I write this essay). You can also have particular supplements, if those are your preference, that can help blood flow to the brain (Ginkgo Biloba), support choline usage (huperzine-a), and various others that can all improve focus and cognition. 

Finally other than using particular brain-waves, or nootropics (mental supplements), you can also have various study methods that help with retention and organization. I think it is worthy to note that most people would normally put this paragraph in first, yet I chose it to be last because of the way it can encompass all of the above. One particular method that is commonly used is the “Feynman Technique” (Named after Richard Feynman, theoretical physicist), in which you write down all of the things you know about a topic. Promptly thereafter you write down the topics you do not know enough about. This is extremely important, as it concludes to yourself that you do not know the topic well enough. I actually tried using it the other day when discovering that WGU takes into account the APA format for writing essays. I was honestly surprised that I didn't have to for this particular essay! There are other methods of studying such as Cornell notes, but at this point someone reading this who would want to apply anything here will have a massive amount of self-development ahead of them.

One thing to keep in mind is that I have pursued self-development fully for the past five years. This is not to say people all over don’t do similar approaches, but instead of pursuing school at that time I chose to learn skills that would help me directly in life. One more thing I will say about the subject matter today is the highly scientifically and metaphysically backed notion of meditation. It is essentially a workout for the brain, and can greatly improve mental performance. All of this can be assumed to be of common sense, but I think that is the beauty of learning. The common sense of self-learning helps you understand more things about the world around you.

I believe this was an application for Western Governor's University, but I would have written it really for any school more than likely. However given the self-paced methodology of the school this essay makes more sense.

Honestly in life I have always strived to maximize my mental power, and even physical power. It doesn't necessarily have to do with genetics, as those only go so far. Truly they can make a difference sure, but you need to adapt and develop yourself even beyond that.

What I found from learning, which around this time was the height of my 🎓 Self-Education endeavor the Modular Degree, is that we must constantly stimulate our brains/bodies.

Never letting ourselves slow down for even a second, lest we lose that compound interest we have developed. Although of course breaks are needed, and sometimes a reset is required.

I've spent a lot of time thinking about my Modegree lately (Nov 2025), and I hope that people around the world can benefit from the frameworks I share.

The advent of this essay/post is just a marker on my journey, one I felt was worth sharing, and perhaps the knowledge imparted will inspire you to go look into the methods I shared. I.e. the binaural beats, nootropics, etc.

Be safe, be mindful, and be ever curious!!