THE INTERNET, THE WORLD’S BIGGEST SCHOOLFor most of human history, learning something almost always depended on having someone nearby who knew how to do it. A parent, a teacher, a craftsman, or that one neighbor who could fix anything with a screwdriver and a couple of swear words.
If nobody around you knew how to paint, repair an engine, play guitar, or make sushi, chances are you weren’t going to learn either. You could look for a book, sign up for a class, or spend years figuring out by yourself what someone else could have explained to you in twenty minutes.
Video tutorials completely changed that.
Now we have a teacher available for practically anything we can think of. You can learn how to replace a roller-shutter strap, solder a pipe, grow tomatoes, build a computer, make a table, edit a video, or draw human anatomy properly. All you have to do is type in a few words and, more often than not, someone has already taken the time to record the entire process step by step.
It may feel completely normal because we’ve been living with it for years, but
having instant access to the practical knowledge accumulated by millions of people is one of the internet’s greatest achievements. Never before have we been able to learn so many things, from so many people, with so little effort.
Forty years ago, getting better at drawing required an art school, specialized books, and countless hours of trial and error. Today, you can watch every stroke, pause the explanation, rewind, repeat the movement, and practice at your own pace while someone shows you exactly where to place every line, shadow, and curve.
# Watch the videos
Mastering the Force.