Learning in Depth

For parents and students 11+

Boredom, begone!

Break through boredom to find the wonder hidden in anything.

The secrets of making things matter

People can learn anything once it matters to them. We’ll show you how to connect feeling to thinking to power all your learning and teaching.

Rediscover the joy

A lot of us got into homeschooling because we loved going deep. It’s possible to lose that — LiD will show you how to bring it back.

Unlock the potential of AI

ChatGPT: not just for cheating! Used right, it multiplies learning. You’ll learn how to bring out its true power by making it work with books instead of replacing them.

When?

30 whole weeks in 2024–25
October 7 – May 16
(taking off the weeks of Christmas and New Years)

Where?

We “meet” online, mostly in the comments section of a blog (but occasionally in optional live Zoom events).

How much?

$120/month for one family member, $135/month for two, and $150/month for three or more… with eight months in all.

If you’d like to pay up front, $800 for one family member, $900 for two, and $1000 for three or more.

Is there a discount?

The first 20 families to sign up will get either the last two months free (or $300 off if you pay all at once).

1: You get a TOPIC

On October 6, we’ll randomly* assign you one from this list:

After that, you’ll take it wherever you want.

2: You get your POKES

Twice a week you’ll get “pokes” — goofy little challenges to help you see your topic differently. They each take 30–60 minutes to do, and’ll be shared the next day.

3: You go on QUESTS

Once every five weeks you’ll get a “quest” — a big creative challenge to create something (a song, a script, a commercial…) awesome.

4: You complete a MASTERPIECE

At the very end you’ll create a giant masterpiece that ties together some of the greatest things you’ve learned in the form of “a hyper-interactive TED talk”… aka a Science is WEIRD lesson.

* to have some control over the randomness, see the Q&A below.

Our LiD cohort is designed to forever change the way you learn. (We wish we could have taken this in college.)

Devour nonfiction

You’ll become a library power user. You’ll learn how to taste-test a book, x-ray it, speed-read it, and slow-read it.

Become a Wiki-warrior

Wikipedia contains hidden depths: you’ll spelunk to the bottom, and turn its info dump into rich understanding.

Understand through art

You’ll see how paintings, sculptures, poems, and songs aren’t just frills — they can help you feel your topic.

Actually use academic journals

Scholars speak in journal articles that are deathly boring (to keep out the riffraff). You’ll practice hunting for them, understanding them, and actually finding them fascinating.

Connect with real researchers

We’ll teach you how to send emails to cutting-edge experts that actually get responses.

Make AI work for you

Used naively, an AI like ChatGPT is shallow and error-strewn. Used wisely, it’s the greatest learning tool humans have ever built. You’ll understand how it works, how to minimize error, and how to make it fit with your mind… rather than the other way around.

“Pokes” sound unpleasant! Can you give us some examples?

You’ll shrink down to see your topic better, and blow up. You’ll craft jokes, become a superhero, find the extremes, time travel, make maps, and follow the money. You’ll learn to do Fermi estimates. At one point you will become your topic, and return to tell us what it was like.

And that’s just for starters…

Human beings! This is powered by “the lost tools of learning” — the original human toolkit. A few kinds of people, though, might find it especially up their alley…

The focus-challenged

Our pokes give specific (if sometimes bonkers) things to work on.

Autonomy-seekers

Each topic is a portal to the whole world. Inside it, you can steer your research in whatever direction you want.

Oversharers

We’ll help you share what you know in a way that grabs others’ brains — instead of pushing them away.

Real learning is epic: full of confusions and exultations, dark nights of the soul and days when you bestride the world.

It’s more fun with other people.

Learning in Depth isn’t as much a course as a cohort — a bunch of travelers going on an adventure together. Some are middle schoolers, others are high schoolers, others are homeschooling parents. (A few teachers will be joining, too.)

To help, we have mentors who’ve gone through this before, and can shepherd you along.

This comes from lifetimes of learning.

Brandon Hendrickson is the founder of Science is WEIRD. (He won’t be seen in the course — he’s writing a book! — but he’ll be active behind the scenes.) He has a master’s in ed leadership and a couple bachelor’s degrees in things so unlike science it confuses people. He lives in Minnesota, USA with his wife, three kids, and their tilting towers of books.

Alessandro Gelmi is an Italian educator with a passion for philosophy and poetry. He has a master’s in philosophical sciences, a master’s in education, and is working on his PhD dissertation at the University of Bolzano. With Brandon, he crafted this course. He lives in Italy with his wife and many, many delicious pizzas.

Shelley Smith is a podcaster and homeschooling mom. She has a teaching diploma, writes science and technology textbooks, and runs a freelance copywriting business. Her true thrill is exploring topics in depth — which is why she’s excited to be a mentor in this course! She lives in South Africa with her husband and kids and, someday, her own bookmobile.

Andrew Wright is a primary school teacher teaching English overseas. He has a master’s in applied psychology and a postgrad diploma in education. He memorizes the periodic table for fun, and is currently on a quest to make learning more relevant and motivating for students of all backgrounds. He lives in Hong Kong with his wife, two sons, and infinite loop of tabletop role-playing games.

Most importantly, this all built on the idea of the recently-deceased philosopher Kieran Egan, who designed LiD to be the swiftest, strongest way to upend the educational world. He first proposed a different version of it in 2008 in an essay that’s still a blast to read.

Q: Is this for parents, or kids?

Definitely both.

Q: What ages?

We say “teenager”, but really mean 11 and up.

Q: Can I, a parent, sign up by myself?

Absolutely.

Q: Can my teen sign up by themselves?

Absolutely.

Q: Could a younger kid join?

Maybe. If you’re willing to work with them, it might be able to work. (There are a few pokes they might want to skip, and that’s okay.)

Q: Do parents and kids get different challenges?

They’ll get the same ones. Parents, though, may get an extra explanation for what’s happening under the hood — so you can learn how to use these tools in any part of your homeschooling.

Q: Could we just register one person, then share the challenges with the rest of our family?

We invite you to do that! (Especially if you want to share it with younger kids.) But each login allows another person to participate in our online community… which you probably want.

Q: Can we pay by the month?

You betcha.

Q: Is there a money-back guarantee?

Yes! If you’ve thrown yourself into this (doing 3/4 of the pokes for a month) and it doesn’t work for you, we’ll give you your money back.

Q: What counts as “works for me”?

We set a high bar. We promise that (1) your understanding of the world will be transformed, and (2) you’ll fall in love with your topic.

Q: I wish I could do this, but it’s too expensive.

If you need it, we can offer a discount.

Do you offer this for credit?

Alas, no. (We’re not a school.) But if you homeschool, you can probably count this for science or social studies credit.

Q: How can I use this for science or social studies?

As you study, steer your topic toward science or human stuff.

We can make it easier: when you sign up, pick any two of the columns from our 126 Dull Topics (Animals, Plants, Nature, Culture, Technology — download the PDF here). When we randomly draw your topics the day before the course starts, we’ll pull from just those.

Q: Could my whole family do one topic?

Whoa — we’re curious to see how this goes! If you’d like to do this, just sign up as one person (you’ll pay less), and let that person be the official communicator with the rest of the cohort. (Then tell us!)

Q: Any additional costs?

We highly recommend adding on a $20/month subscription to ChatGPT+ or Claude Pro, if you don’t already. This gives you unlimited access to the most advanced models. We strongly suspect you’ll want to keep it after the cohort ends.

(Also you may find you really want to purchase some books that you fall in love with!)