The video above talks about the “Brooklyn Brainery”, a makeshift “let’s learn together!” type-thing started up by my friend Soma and his friend Jen.
It’s a neat concept and a great way to learn things you could probably learn on your own but the learning actually happens by adding a few key elements:
1. Social interaction brings a bit of peer pressure to the learning process.
2. Payment of $25 adds a desire to get your money’s worth that you don’t get by browsing wikipedia.
3. Doing it outside the normal class structure of schools and academia adds a bit of rebellion or frontiersmanship, like a grassroots community movement thing.
Anyhow, it’s apparently going pretty well for them and now they’re trying to get a permanent space to hold classes in. They have a kickstarter account with some pretty cool rewards for those that want to support. Have a look and watch their video about it for more info.
Also, check out some of Soma’s cool data-manipulation web projects to see the kindof stuff he’s into!
