Let's pick it up from the summer of 2023. ## 线索一 -- Seeking my Education I was hoping to re-dicover the UWC concept by leaving UWC Changshu (moslty Chinese-dominated and somewhat prestigious) by going to another UWC. However, this school is vastly disaapointing for me. - Government-funded public cchool --> no phone policy, super-strict attendence - In UWC Changshu China, this is a community decision -- we can do it as long as every one agrees. teachers & admin work for the government instead of for the community - Other small aspects -- residence management, classroom locked after school, gym not available - IB curriculum -- limiting - not challenging -- I learned nothing - learn better on my own - I can learn the same thing much faster on my own -- finishing the entire IB curriculm within a few months (I don't understand why I'm taking two years for this) -- teachers dragging me down - nothing important to learn -- not learning the relevant stuff to my life I tried fixing it by - talking with teachers in seek of more freedom - some work -- e.g. Physics for a period - some don't -- e.g. Econ (not even laptops are allowed) - talk with academic coordinator - he also recognizes this a systemic issue, and doesn't have too much to offer - some give me the advice saying that if you think all these are easy, kill them all easily with art and mastery -- gain time for yourself Exploring other alternative education pathways Researching alternative schools - Think Global School -- age requirement - Sudbury School, Missouri, Wourdolf, etc. - visited Sudbury School Ameersfoort - Agora community But the importance of credential -- it's like the appearance. Although not important, that's what most people see at first glance. It is just important because the value system of our soceity is so entrenched in it, and I need the diploma, it is the easiest and most secure way. Lots of friends of mine are also struggling for various reasons. Some -- curious and bright on their own, in their own specialty -- struggle to work on things they don't enjoy and meeting deadlines. Ultimately, the lesson that I earned is that most schools don't provide education -- instead of relying on some formal institutions, education is something we must create for ourselves. The market of educatino is monopolized by school institutions -- the resrouces and credentials. But this is unhealthy -- education should be decentralized, led by diverse small organizations or even individuals, and learning should be self-directed, and can only happen with the direct interactino with the world and in the local community. Education should be part of life, instead of be something different that takes up 8 hours of your day that forces you to be in a building and in different rooms at different times. ## 线索二 -- From PKM to Learning in Public Back then -- I was already preety into Personal Knowledge Management, and started taking notes and accumulating my intellectural wealth -- but I have never thought about how that might develop beyond a personal passion and to scale influence. I learn in silo and didn't really share with others. The Oddeysey, Jay gave me lots of good questions regarding how it Knowledge Managment needs not to be personal, and that it is really important as a collective practice as well -- in organizations, institutions, for academia as a whole, and even bigger, humanity as a civilization how we preserve and continue the exploration and passing down of knowledge. After the camp -- it's really important to open up to the world in seek of more impact -- learning on your own laptop is not enough. I opensourced all of my notes, more than half a millions words online; I set up my personal website, writing blogs and sharing photography; I started writing personal newsletters with my close friends, updating on my life and progress; I wrote the book. Meanwhile, I kept exploring the path of "beyond-personal" PKM -- I was considering for a long time about the idea of the next era of Google -- not for information, but for knowledge. I wish to build a knowledge infrustructure for our soceity that supercharges our ability to pass down knowledge and learn -- which is one important parts of education. However, this idea is still in progress, as it's still too lofty and doesn't have a realistic anchor or a technology yet to bring it into existence, and I'm not super lcear o how it looks like. ## How they all come together -- EdTech (OpenLearn & Larc Mini) PKM -- I have been passionate about the advent of AI -- I learned how to code myself and began building plugins for Obsidian; I began writing small apps, and introducing AI agents into my note-taking and thinking space. So that imagine having an AI over all of your contexts -- you ideas, pasts, and futrue plans -- all of which I put down to my notes daily. Based on these contexts, this AI agent will help me brainstorm ideas, find conenctions, and suggest deep insights. I found them immensely useful in thinking about questions and producing outputs. And then one day, I realized that this PKM + technology & AI thing can be linked to education -- technology as a force to empower self-directed learning. My very own experience playing with note-taking apps and AI empowers me to pursue my own learning outside school curriculum, will it empower others too? So I founded a small Company / Community of self-directed learners and educators, learning in public together. Larc Mini -- Obsidian / note-taking but with agentic AI capabilities, with a focus on helping structure and guide one's learning. This is a market gap because Steph, the founder of Obsidian, clearly states that Obsidian is all about privacy, security, time-endurance --- the core characteristics of this product and why it's loved by so many people. Meanwhile, most other note-taking apps and some small new ones as well are all going full on AI -- Notion 3.0, Craft, Tana, Kortex, etc. There is this opporunity to build on top of what we love of Obsidian, the core of it but redesigning and repackaing the whole process with AI agent and learning. So that's sort of what I am currently building -- a AI-powered note-taking app optimized for learning -- that's why it's called "learning architect" -- scaffolding the process. The ultimate goal is to revolutionzie how humans interact with knowledge and resign the human-knowledge interface, personal knowledge and world knowledge. Oddeysey - Default path -- university, startup idea, sillicon-valley-tech-changing-the-world vibe - Alternative path -- Gap year: educators, more in-person experience with differnt schools and students and their needs - Wild path -- Totally opt out of university, first try to monetize my products and knowledge to feed myself, living a life to the minimum, and see where it goes from there