Project Orange: The PUGSpdx pivot

I spent the day on the Oregon Coast, read Seth's All Marketers Are Liars, and built a pitch for what PUGSpdx should be. Pictures are from the day while I worked on this post.

Project Orange: the PUGSpivot
It is courses for people who want to pivot and change to something better in their lives. It's a pivot for PUGSpdx. It's pivotal.

The name may be lame. Open to others.

The PUGSpivot pitch
This is grad school for people who want to make a difference. 

Other subpitches

• The 20th century model of grad school is broken. This is the 21st cenutury grad school. 
• Instead of being a better cog in the machinery, build your own machine.
• Take ownership of your future.
• Further your frontiers

The pedagogy
1. Personally meaningful curriculum 
2. Clear structure and defined goals
3. Concrete skillset development through performance projects
4. Collaborative and active community
5. Regular and consistent feedback and reflection
 

Possible subjects for people who want to make a difference.

Start with The Catalyst Course:

1. business and entrepreneurship
2. parenting 
3. creativity, craft, and artistry
4. social change

First list of individual lessons/courses here. 

Customer persona 
Click here.

Customer Value Proposition (tentative, feel free to edit, Abbe and Alexa)

• Improved skillset for professional growth
• Connection in an intellectual community
• Making career dreams into reality
• Accountability for own growth
• Looking like an innovative person to friends and family
• Proof of Mastery
• Quantifiable indicators of curiosity and learning for LinkedIn profile.
• More connections
• Feeling challenged and satisfied.
• Feeling of accomplishment and personal fulfillment
• Growth: mastery, membership & meaning
• Learning that is self-financed, instead of debt

Customer Insight: 
"I’m a unique creative individual and I’ve got a lot to offer the world."

The 20th century university system is broken.

Universities have a story to tell you about their graduate schools. You'll gain knowledge, exclusivity, and prestige. It'll be worth it to pay $100,000. You will gain it all back. 

Is it true? 

You decide yourself. But PUGSpdx is an alternative. 

In the 21st century, knowledge is no longer exclusive to the ivory tower: it's everywhere now. On the internet. In books. With real-life practitioners. In the 21st century, prestige and exclusivity matter less and less while your demonstrable skills and abilities matter more and more. 

Let's put it another way: when is the last time someone hired you because where you went to college? Conversely, when was the last time someone hired you because they already knew you and knew you could do the job?

A vision for the 21st century grad school
The fundamental premise of PUGSpdx is that people learn if:

1. They get to participate and contribute to their learning.
2. They get to apply what they learn immediately.
3. They see the benefits to themselves of what they are learning.


The feelings and experience of PUGSpivot is described here. 

In the 21st century, grad school will be about action. Learning through performing, making mistakes, and continuously improving. To do that, people will need connection, accountability, and commitment. 

I envision graduate school in the 21st century will be:

• In your daily life, NOT disruptive to your life.
• Self-financed, NOT debt larger than a down payment.
• Practical and focused on producing incredible personal outcomes, NOT theoretical or focused on remembering generic content.
• Centered on improving students' skillsets, NOT on instructor's knowledge
• Community and joint commitment, NOT hierarchy or bureaucracy.

Debt and difference-making
Debt ties you to the system. If this is school for people who want to make a difference, the ability to self-finance are a big part of the value proposition. 

Without debt, you have the intellectual and emotional freedom to be a creator of change. I know because I had grad school debt for 10 years (I went to law school). It's not a coincidence that PUGSpdx started after that debt was paid off. It's harder to make the difference you want when you're in debt. It is mentally constraining. It limits your worldview. It narrows your imagination and sense of possibility. This is the freedom to move to who you want to be,  be a full-fledged citizen, to have creative agency in your life and others.

Oregon coast at the end of the day.