Getting the Gears Turning Again

What we lost...and how to get it back

Thursday, May 8th, 2025

Writing to you from Denver, Colorado

12 years of schooling from kindergarten to senior year of high school draws nearly every ounce of desire out of a kid to learn. Florescent lights, a whiteboard, homework, lectures, a bell that, when it rings, tells you where to go, and endless hours sitting in a chair.

Stretch that experience out over the course of a decade and you’ve conquered the idea of what it means to learn.

Interesting and engaging? No, dull and boring.

I always hated school for those reasons. Something wasn’t right about it, it seemed like prison. And now, I can hardly recount anything I learned over all those years.

The one thing I do remember after leaving school (just before and after we moved to Uruguay) was feeling frustrated at how I had no natural interest in learning anything.

Nothing at all.

Back in 1993, Alfie Kohn had an idea for why that might be:

Grades tend to reduce students’ interest in the learning itself. One of the most well-researched findings in the field of motivational psychology is that the more people are rewarded for doing something, the more they tend to lose interest in whatever they had to do to get the reward.

-Alfie Kohn (Author and Lecturer)

If then, over the course of a decade, you are rewarded for learning in general wouldn’t you lose interest in the process of learning?

An Uncommon Education

Sir Richard Francis Burton was one of the most extraordinary men of the 19th century—a real-life adventurer. Born in 1821, he was an explorer, soldier, spy, linguist, and scholar who spoke at least 25 languages (and some say over 40 dialects).

He’s probably best known for disguising himself as a Muslim pilgrim and sneaking into Mecca—an act punishable by death if discovered. But that was just one portion in a wild life that included mapping uncharted regions of Africa, translating the Kama Sutra and Arabian Nights, and dueling more than once.

One of the most notable and intensive parts of his life was when he had to master Arabic.

Untold hours were spent learning not just the language, but the culture and customs of the Muslim people. Any slight detail that he missed - any custom, word or practice that he missed - would reveal that he was not the Afghan-born doctor he posed to be.

He dove deep into whatever he was aiming to learn.

His learning was made easier by the fact that he would typically study in short 15-30 minute bursts.

Unlike school, there was an ultimate goal to reach and the results of his efforts would appear right before his eyes. Not in the form of an A+, but by the fact that he was actively mastering a difficult language and doing so rapidly.

What’s noteworthy is that Sir Richard Francis Burton’s life was not linear.

The periods of learning that he underwent to complete a task were relatively short within the context of an entire life - allowing him to put lots of energy into the things he learned since the sooner he learned what he needed to, the better.

Not only that, but he was out in the real world doing real things.

That’s where learning is fun.

The reward was not a good grade. It was a good life.

Getting the Gears Turning Again

The Preparation is not just an alternative to college. It’s also a supplement for the past.

When I first became the beta tester for the program in August of 2023 I still had no real interest in learning anything…

Until I dove head-first into EMT school.

It was the first time in a long time that learning was fun and interesting. What I was learning (and it’s uses) wasn’t abstract, it was obviously allowing me to become more valuable to myself and the people around me.

Over time it’s become obvious to me that this is how you learn: you dedicate a short period of your time (a few months in the case of The Preparation) to learning one major skill or subject and you dive head-first into it.

Since EMT school, I’ve dove into sailing, flying, ranch work, and working on wildfires.

The program has revitalized the desire to learn that was lost through years of formal education. Going forward, it’s an alternative to extra formal education - it bypasses it towards a much more interesting life and true education.

Education is screwed up, no doubt about that.

The Preparation is the way.

P.S. Here’s a good quote I found from Sir Richard Burton about his early life: "My only friends were books, and my intense love of study saved me from utter misery... I learned more at home in six months than I ever did at school."
-Maxim Benjamin Smith