How To Become Dangerously Self-Educated

What if I told you that every single day, somebody else is deciding what you think and what you believe.

They choose what you care about and ultimately who you become.

A lot of people would probably disagree.

Most people think they’re making their own decisions, but they’re actually being programmed by algorithms and social media feeds, news, or whatever happens to show up on their phone that day.

Here’s an interesting fact about your brain:

It doesn’t care if that program is intentionally coming from you or if it’s just an accident from the things that you consume.

Your brain wires itself around what you repeatedly expose it to.

You still do have a level of control here, because you’re the one giving your brain the permission to wire itself around that thing.

That’s why if you don’t learn how to educate yourself, somebody else will without a doubt do it for you.

The first lesson I want you to take away early on from this article is this:

Your brain never stops learning. Ever.

• It’s learning when you’re scrolling

• It’s learning when you’re communicating with other people

• It’s learning when you’re watching a movie

• It’s learning when you read strangers argue in the comments section of some random social media post

It doesn’t care about the content itself. Your brain just notices repetition.

What you repeat, your brain flags as important.

Whatever you expose your mind to repeatedly will become your life.

You can see how this works when people consume literally anything.

If they watch reality TV, they create that same drama inside their own relationships.

Just like a computer that downloads files, your brain is constantly downloading information. But the question is, which information?

That’s essentially what neuroplasticity is:

Neuroplasticity: How your brain changes overtime through repetition.

Without clarity, you have nothing. What you need is clarity around what you want to learn.

Deciding which information deserves your focused attention is key.

But before figuring out what you need to learn, you need to ask yourself who it is that you wish to become.

The world is vast.

You can literally pick and choose anything.

Let me ask again, who do you want to be? Do you have even the slighest answer?

For examlple, if you want to become someone who lives life on their own terms (like myself), that means you need to expose yourself to certain information. You need to study branding, sales, persuasion, marketing, leadership, decision making.

The bigger the gap between who you want to become and what you’re feeding your mind, the more you’re working against yourself.

Get very clear on the first part.

Decide firmly on your ideal identity.

That will then tell your brain to filter out what’s important and what is not in the real world.

It’s the same with your social media feed.

A lot of people tend to separate their real life and their online life.

Quite to the contrary, I’m not the biggest fan it.

Your “for you” page reflects your current life. There’s a reason it’s for you.

In 2020, I was posting random videos trying to grow an audience on TikTok.

Just the other day I asked a cousin of mine why there were so many “how to grow an audience” videos on my FYP.

I said to him, “there was barely any 4-6 years ago when I first started”.

And he replied, “there was, it just wasn’t your FYP.”

Let me tell you this now.

My FYP on every single social media platform at the moment is all about growing an audience and making money online. Because it’s what I’m focused on in this phase of my life. If yours is the same, don’t feel guilty. Or even worse, don’t feel as if everyone is doing the same thing. Trust me, everyone’s social media feed isn’t all about making money online.

Your feed is only filled with it because that’s what you want to learn.

Everyone isn’t trying to make it. You are.

As we’re still on this topic, I want to share another personal story.

Just the other day, my girlfriend picked up my phone and went on my FYP. When she saw what was on there, this is what said (her exact words):

“I would get depressed if I had an FYP like this.”

Why did she say that? Because everything was just about business and making money.

Bear in mind, she’s a very successful person. Not in the online entrepreneur way. But she is in one of the highest paid careers (Finance).

My point is that if you believe everyone is just posting content, it’s not true.

It’s only true because that’s what you have repeatedly exposed your brain to, you see?

Back to self-education.

I don’t care if you’ve read 300 books. Have you actually changed your life?

“The only true test of intelligence is if you get what you want out of life.”

–Naval Ravikant.

Before you scream, “THAT DOESN’T APPLY TO EVERYONE!” or “not everyone can chase their dreams!”

I don’t mean that for the people who are in less developed countries.

I mean that for you.

The person who lives in a decent economy.

The person who has opportunities.

The person who has access to the internet.

I bet your mind is already creating excuses.

The first cope people go to is, “I need to save money in order to make money”.

The thing about savings is that you don’t need a lot of it.

It’s not actually what you have in your bank account that matters right this second. It’s more about where your mind is right this second as you’re reading this.

I won’t lie to you, this article won’t help you.

Reading about something isn’t going to give you that thing.

Your life changes through experience and the practical application of your knowledge, not just information.

I’ll say it again.

Your brain becomes more efficient at being whatever you repeatedly practise.

Here’s a 5-step process on how to best self-educate yourself aligned with who you want to become.

1. Don’t Consume Randomly. Research Intentionally.

Which skill would change your life over the next 6-12 months?

If you have even the slighest idea, become obsessed with learning and studying everything about it.

Maybe it’s sales.

If so, buy books and courses on sales. Maybe even get a coach.

We’re not trying to learn 5 skills. We’re trying to learn one. Get very focused on choosing one skill and creating depth around it.

I would highly recommend learning how social media works.

It doesn’t matter what you are interested in or are curious about, once you’ve decided who you want to become and in that, which information you need to learn and study, you still have to attract people to your work. Which means capturing attention. Which in this day and age means building an audience online.

Personal branding is kinda cringe. But it’s also the one thing that’s open for everyone to do.

That’s why it’s personal.

You take your interests, curiosities and expertise and simply post content about them.

Once you master content (how to attract attention on social media), you can then do whatever the f*ck you want.

Let’s be straight.

I’m not telling you to do this to be like everyone else. I’m telling you to do it so that you’re not like everyone else.

I started this journey almost a decade ago. There is no other pathway that gives you so many skills at once.

You learn how to generate ideas, which as we discussed is the foundation of how your brain works.

Everything revolves around the information that you take in and give out.

The more you create (in this case digital content), the more you’re mindful of what’s going in and out of your brain.

But you also learn how to write.

You learn how to communicate.

You learn how to edit.

Those are just surface level skills.

You learn branding, persuasion, marketing.

When you eventually build an audience, you then move on to learning about sales.

Yes, you learn how to sell your own product or service.

There are so many skills that fall under the umbrella of just “posting content online”.

Charles Darwin filled notebook after notebook with observations long before The Origins Of Species existed.

One thing I noticed about genuinely self-educate people is they leave evidence everywhere.

Charles Darwin filled notebook after notebook with observations long before The Origins Of Species existed.

Social media is your notebook.

Your observations is your content.

Your social media platforms are your own personal library.

2. Reflect

You now know the one skill to “go all in on”.

Every time you finish reading a book or article or listening to a podcast or video, ask yourself one question.

“What can I apply right now?”

Journal it. Then make a plan. Put it on paper.

Reflection forces your brain to take all the information you’ve learned and organise it, instead of just storing it away.

3. Apply Knowledge Immediately

Never. And I mean never learn something without taking immediate action.

The purpose is to use your knowledge in action to develop skills.

You can learn as much as you want.

And you should.

But ultimately, there are people with 10 degrees and their life is falling apart.

Why?

Because they’ve learned a lot but haven’t took any action on the knowledge.

Knowledge combined with procrastination only makes things worse.

Don’t say you’re going to do it next week. Do it today.

4. Repeat

One action changes almost nothing. Repetition changes everything.

• One workout won’t change your life.

• Posting one piece of content won’t change your life (even if it gets 10m+ views).

• One 10-minute meditation won’t give you much clarity.

The magic is in the repetition. Repetition builds automation. Only when the automation kicks in, that’s when things start to feel natural and effortless.

5. Teach Your Knowledge

You are doing a massive disservice to the world (and to yourself) by hoarding knowledge.

If you really want to own an idea, teach it to somebody.

Teach it to your spouse.

Teach it to your parents.

Teach it to your best friend.

Again, if you have nobody to teach it to. Teach it to the entire bloody world via content.

As you post, the right people will find you.

If you’re a writer, post on Substack, X or LinkedIn.

If you aren’t shy to show yourself, teach your knowledge on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram via video.

Teaching consolidates all the information and forces your brain to organise it.

Teaching exposes gaps in your understanding.

It further deepens your understanding of the topic. It’s how you discover what you don’t know.

That’s why even billionaires are now posting content on social media.

As long as you’re alive, there’s always more to learn.

Those are the 5 steps.

Before we finish, I have a quick question for you.

What have you learned from this article? Take a few minutes to think about it.

What we’ve learned (and what I’ve learned from researching and writing on this topic) is that you can now teach yourself anything.

Absolutely anything.

But there is one caveat.

You need curiosity. You must be childlike.

My journey into work includes two trains. One overground. One underground.

And everytime I do that journey to work, I see three signs that constantly repeat in three different locations:

“Don’t grow up, it’s a trap”.

Maybe it’s a sign from the universe for me to get less serious and more childlike.

The system is designed in a way that you become less childlike as you get older.

I don’t mean childish. I mean childlike. There’s a huge difference.

And we have this problem because the education system was capable of teaching you everything, except yourself.

There was a time when parents were the only blocker, and we had to overcome their beliefs to make sense of our own ones.

But now it’s even worse.

There’s an entire algorithm of people who are trying to shape your beliefs.

It’s why when I first started social media, I promise myself one thing.

I promised myself I would only consume from 3-5 creators (mentors) online and no one else.

The problem isn’t that we just receive information from other people,

the problem is somewhere along the way information becomes belief.

Why is this important?

Because beliefs aren’t just thoughts floating around in your head. Beliefs become the filter through which you experience your life.

If I believe money is incredibly difficult to make, I’m without a doubt going to interact with opportunities more differently than someone who believes money is abundant and that they have the ability to create value.

Same goes with how two people can read the exact same book and exact same page and highlight different things on that page.

They’re experiencing the book through completely different belief systems.

This is the foundational idea that has transformed my life. Beliefs create reality.

If you outsource your beliefs, you outsource your reality.

At some point, you have to stop adding more information to your operating system and start examining the operating system itself.

The truth is expensive. It costs so much effort.

You have to read an argument from all sides.

You have to do your own research.

You might even have to notice your wrong, accept it, and take the correct course of action.

How do you know what to believe when you have access to everything? And by everything I mean unlimited information.

You know it by being firm on who you want to become.

Then understand what you need to learn and study that sh!t it like a psychopath.

And of course, ignore everything else outside of it.

You also have to see the root of things.

What do you believe about money?

Can you root back to where you formed your current beliefs around money?

How do you know it’s true?

This doesn’t only apply to money, but everything else.

Health, wealth, love and happiness.

Can you find evidence that supports it and evidence that contradicts a certain belief?

It’s not about becoming the smartest person in the room. It’s about becoming more conscious of the ideas that are creating your life.

Everything you have now is a balance of what you have believed up until this point in time.

You are the manifestation of your previous decisions in life.

If you want a different life, but always feel stuck, question your beliefs.

That’s all for this week.

I hope that was helpful.

-Serkan