why is it more fun to level up in a video game to level 100 than level up in real life in skills like in online writing?

the answer is in an unlikely place: a japanese anime about a hero with a magical shield. the main character, naofumi, doesn’t just get better at fighting different monsters - he sees exactly how he’s getting better. each victory unlocks new abilities on a beautiful constellation of a skill tree.

his progress is visible, tangible, and most importantly, structured.

screenshot of the overlay with unlocked shields (lighter) and different locked ones (grayed out).

to find a place to start, an llm can be prompted with “i don’t know what i don’t know about [this skill], please make me a 30 day challenge guide to getter at the craft.” here’s a sample of an output that comes from anthropic’s claude model for 30 day challenge on learning and building with brain computer interfaces.

sample artifact from claude making a bci skill tree.

alongside structured maps that can act like guides, it’s also important to make intangible progress tangible. startup founders call it building in public, where they share progress updates that previously might have remained internal or forgotten.

the same process can be used when building a skill and set of projects. staking goals socially will create accountability and stakes for failure. posting learning updates become feynman technique style ways to make sure to bake in understanding. if it can be written or talked about in an update and taught to an audience, then it can be understood.

all it takes is committing to one channel for sharing progress - youtube good for quick video updates, x (twitter) good for combination of video and image updates, or linkedin which works too.

after a week, two, or more of posting updates, now progress be reflected on and shared like a captain checking the logs of their ship. also, by posting it on social media, there’s also an increased network effect for serendipity.

the last thing that’s needed to create hero like skill trees is the structure. structure can from time, context, and feedback.

the time someone wants to dedicate to that skill: one saturday morning or multi week challenge. my main reccomendation has been 30 days: long enough to stay committed to something and reach results, but short enough can do multiple in a year.

direction can come from learning from the best. for example, learning how to write online inspiration can come from paul graham’s startup essays, bari weiss’ writing for the free press, or packy mccormick’s not boring newsletter. with the ability to search the web, llms can help create lists of people to actively follow and learn from.

feedback of progress. almost any file format can be fed directly to an llm for different forms of feedback along the way and discussions on new ideas.

unlike naofumi, we might not have magical shields materializing our progress, but with today's llms and social platforms, we can create our own constellations of achievement.

every post, every update, every piece of feedback becomes a new node in our skill tree. each node when unlocked becomes a key to potentially unlock a new challenge or opportunity ahead.