One of the people in technology that I admire is Mark Zuckerberg. He not only founded Facebook at a young age, but he seems to be a great techie and from the feedback we get about him, also a very mature manager.
One of the fascinating things he does is to do something different every year- a new year’s resolution that he sees through the whole year. One year, his resolution was to be a vegetarian and to only eat animals he had personally killed. One year, it was to wear a tie everyday. Another year was to meet one new person who doesn’t work at Facebook everyday. There was one year where he resolved to write a personal note of thanks everyday to a person who has made the world a better place. Last year, it was to learn Mandarin and he exhibited his skills during his visit to China where he delivered almost a half-hour presentation and a Q&A, all in Chinese.
This year, it was to read a new book every other week, with emphasis on books about cultures, beliefs, histories and technologies. Everybody is fascinated with his new year’s resolution. In 2014, he reportedly got suggestions from over 50,000 people on what it should be.
For people who are curious, the first book he is going to read this year is “The End of Power” by Moisés Naím. And just like the book titles suggested by Oprah Winfrey, Naim’s book reportedly sold out within a few hours when Zuckerberg said he would read it.
It is really a great thing to have a new year’s resolution that you see through the year, or to never stop learning. I try to maintain my habit of at least reading a few books every month – a habit that I built up since I was in high school.
I also try to keep up in other ways. If you are interested, you should check out MOOCs or massive open online courses. This trend started around 2011, when MIT and Stanford started putting their courses online for free. Of course, you don’t get a diploma, but then suddenly you have access to the best professors delivering their courses online.
Since then, most universities in various countries from Australia to China, to Europe have followed suit. Right now, there are over a hundred universities offering thousands of courses online, almost all of them for free. The top sites are uDx, Apple University, Coursera, Udemy, Udacity, and scores of others.
The last few months, especially over Christmas, I have been actively learning. So far, I have gone through free courses from Peking University, National Taiwan University, Berklee School of Music and Stanford University, taking up various courses ranging from Chinese history, artificial intelligence, music theory, the history of the Beatles, marketing and entrepreneurship.
These are from the world’s top educators and all are for free! Why not give it a try?
wilson@ngkhai.com
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