What Changes When You Become a Free Learner: Culture Shocks from the Self-Learning Journey

Someone on Reddit once asked: “What’s the biggest culture shock you experienced when you switched to independent learning?”
I didn’t even have to think. Everything.

As an education game developer, I live and breathe self-learning. But the moment I stepped out of traditional structures—no teachers, no tests, no curriculum—I realized just how different the learning game becomes.
Here are the culture shocks, mindset flips, and deep truths I’ve discovered since becoming a free learner.

1. Learning Becomes Social Again (But in a Whole New Way)

In school, “social learning” often means forced group work or awkward presentations. But outside the classroom, you can interact with people like they’re living libraries.

I design my questions carefully.
I share cool stuff with others not just to pass it on—but because sharing locks it into my memory. When I show something to someone, it’s like I store it in both of us.

One of my biggest learning goals?
Know someone from every country and from every domain of knowledge. Imagine the kind of conversations that unlocks.

But that requires depth. So I work on connecting fast and deep—getting past surface-level chat so we can talk about real things.

2. Project-Based Learning Is the New School

I don’t “study” topics anymore—I build with them. Every new skill I learn comes from the demands of a real project.

Right now, that project is Edenauts, my educational survival game. And whenever I hit a wall—be it design, marketing, or storytelling—I dive into that area intensively for 1 week to 3 months.
That’s my rhythm.

I don’t try to master everything. I learn just enough to think through my problem from that perspective. The rest? That’s where creativity steps in.

Bonus Tip: If you search what project might be right for you… Ask what you absolutely hate -> then do a project to bring forward the opposite result. As a bonus this exact project not just gives you a heart project but supercharges your couriosity 10-fold.

3. Forget Memorizing Sentences. Remember What Matters.

One of the dumbest things we’ve learned in school is to memorize full sentences from textbooks.
Like: “What was the second sentence in paragraph three on page 7?”

No. Just no.

Instead, I remember what matters:

• Lists that are core to what I do

• Mental models I keep using

• Structures I use to teach others

For the rest, I build massive mindmaps—visual, evolving, and connected. My business is a mindmap. My knowledge is a mindmap. Even my problems are mapped like puzzles I’m solving.

4. Associative Thinking Needs Space (and Silence)

Self-learning isn’t just about information. It’s about associations.
And association needs one thing most people avoid: silence.

Social media, notifications, endless scrolling—these kill long-range thinking.
But when I sit down, breathe, and listen to loooong cycling hippie music… something opens up.

I’ve sat on park benches with my eyes closed, following one thought into another like a dream…
And when I opened my eyes again, I wasn’t even sure if I was home or still outside.

That’s where my best ideas come from.
*sidenote* the title image is from an art project i did about visual neural networks.
This is a good representation of associative thinking

5. Ideas Are Garbage—Until They’re Not

Let’s be real: your first idea? Crap.
Your second? Slightly less crap.
The third? Maybe interesting.
The tenth? You’re getting somewhere.
The fiftieth? Could be gold.

But only if you write them all down.

I have a piece of paper always under my keyboard. Ideas go there first.
If they come back again later? I drop them into my digital mindmap or integrate them into the project.

That’s how ideas evolve—not in your head, but in your process.

6. Questions > Answers

School taught us to chase answers.
But in real learning, questions are everything.

The kind of questions you ask reveal who you are.
And if you stand for something, you automatically stand against something. That’s where clarity comes from. That’s how you build identity.

But identity is scary. Because it means you might lose approval. You might not be liked by everyone.
And most people can’t stand that.

So they float in the middle—safe, agreeable, forgettable.

But learners with purpose? They choose a direction. They form questions. They become someone.

Final Thought

A sheet of paper and a pen.
That’s where it all starts.
Write the idea.
Map the path.
Ask the question.

And when it returns to you, bring it into the project.
This is what it means to be a free learner:
No grades. No permission. Just curiosity, commitment, and the courage to create.

Welcome to the game.