A Better Way to Binge TPM Forum in 2021
I had an idea a few months ago that I'm now bringing to the forum.
There are many driven individuals here who are looking to binge Power University when they have the time to increase their knowledge of social power dynamics and become more high-quality. But, what about the forum? There's no real easy, simple, streamlined way to binge through the forum's content.
Binging Power University is a simple process of starting at the first lesson, reading, and clicking "next lesson". But, binging the forum is a process of starting at the first category, clicking in and out of posts, keeping an eye on any posts we've already read, and hoping we're not missing anything valuable.
So, how about we turn the forum's content into an eBook?
We could have an eBook for each forum category with each chapter being one of the subforums.
For example, this is an example of what the eBook for the Power Dynamics category might look like. And, this might be a rough look for the eBook for the Dating category.
Lucio could offer these eBooks as bundles in the store. So, each separate forum category would be a separate eBook. And, all of the eBooks that contain content from 2020's forum posts could be the 2020 TPM forum bundle.
Additional Thoughts
I remember having some forum posts that I "saved" by subscribing to those topics. Then, there was an event that occurred within the TPM website (I think it was a plugin update or something) that caused some forum posts to be lost. Luckily, Lucio was able to recover a good deal of them.
By going with this eBook idea, not only are we getting more organized information in the form of a structured book that we can read anytime, but we're also essentially creating a back-up so that if something like this were to happen again, the posts from past years are already saved in the eBooks.
Hi Ali,
I love this idea.
From the "disaster recovery" recovery point of view, the website is backed up daily automatically on server-side, plus locally weekly.
But still, you never know.
What I like even more about this day is how helpful it could be in structuring information, taking the best from the best, and putting it together to form a more coherent structure / system.
EBOOKS VS PU: THERE'S VALUE
I took a lot of inspiration from these forums to improve PU, and often linked from PU to some topics for "more information".
Yet, since PU must also be compact enough, there is a limit to how much one can add.
And that's where a "best of" from the forum could add value.
EBOOK VS "TECHNIQUES": THERE'S VALUE
The "techniques" part of the forum was meant to collect some form of "best of", but there is still much wisdom in "normal" forum entries that isn't captured.
EBOOKS VS "BEST OF": THERE'S VALUE
I've also thought of a "best of" sticky thread to put on top of each forum, and that's something I'll do anyway.
And still, the "best of" would be limited to a maximum of 10 or so threads, so something would be left out from there too. Plus the structure would be missing.
WHERE: PUBLIC OR PRIVATE FORUMS
The ebooks could be offered either in a sticky-format at the top of each public forum, or in the private forum.
Since the forum content is in good part community-generated, I think it's fair to have them available for the community without additional charges.
Alternatively, they could also be sold and the whole generated revenue go to a cause that the community would periodically vote on -say, once a year-.
That's also a cool idea, with the only downside that it would take some time to report the numbers publicly, plus take care of the accounting each year, and making the transfers.
Oh, and one more additional thought from my side is about the timing.
Is there already enough top-notch content for an ebook, or would it be better to wait until there is even more?
Power dynamics is also, in good part, a field that has been largely neglected, so this website and the community are contributing to codifying the field.
A best-of ebook right now could already be great. But one that came, say, 6 months or a year from now might be even better (albeit one of course one can always update it).
Hey Lucio,
Glad you love the idea.
Lucio: "Power dynamics is also, in good part, a field that has been largely neglected, so this website and the community are contributing to codifying the field. A best-of ebook right now could already be great. But one that came, say, 6 months or a year from now might be even better"
Yes, it seems that we're not only codifying the field but demystifying it for those of us who are new and completely unfamiliar with power dynamics.
As a result, it feels like it may be wiser to take a "done is better than perfect" approach and make the eBook sooner than later so that new visitors and other members can reap the benefits of a best-of eBook with great content on the subject of power dynamics.
Lucio: "...(albeit one of course one can always update it)."
That's right. Once it's finished, we can always update it later. The idea is to make sure no one misses out because we waited.
That said, of course, it's entirely up to you 🙂
How would you go about compiling it, Ali?
Simply copy-pasting the content?
If not, then it takes some editorial work on picking the best topics and most relevant messages (or part of the messages) within each thread.
Well, the answer to that question reminds me of a note you made on your flagship course, Power University.
You said that you weren't too keen on the idea of also making Power University a Udemy course because, ultimately, the all-video format isn't always the best for efficient learning.
So, if we're taking learning efficiency into account, the last thing we want to do is overwhelm the reader to where reading the eBook feels less like a self-development goal and more like a nuisance. To avoid that, I would put in the editorial work upfront to pick the best topics, posts, and messages.
Copy-pasting the content isn't a bad idea, it's simply not the best idea if I were to put myself in the shoes of the reader. When we think about books in general that we view as investments and not as purchases, we're thinking about books that provide value above anything else. So, removing the messages that aren't relevant or conducive to the learning goals of the chapter is a great way to make sure the eBook is more than a "cool idea", but also a wise, win-win business move for the TPM community.
An Ebook on Google Drive is a great idea, it could be constantly updated and improved as the years go by.
Always good to give the organisation's core values at the beginning of a book. (usually people start things, rarely people finish and get to the ends of things)
Maybe the Forum needs a summative story about itself? If that can't happen maybe sprinkle in Lucio's origin story
For instance, my notes page on my computer for TPM/TPU begins with a compilation of statements regarding of Lucio's vision, in order to centre and ground my learning, such as:
I often stress that learning power dynamics is not only about power, but about balance, fairness, and cooperation as well.
One of the motivators that got me started on this website was anger -anger towards gratuitous abuse and the world’s injustices-, coupled with a desire to empower people to stand up for themselves.
And the second is a burning desire for freedom and independence.
Once the students find out whether these (TPM's) values link to their personality- they have the ability to Power Align with the Execs and Embody the Company's Culture. Which translates to more power and freedom to the average user 🙂
OK, and who would compile the ebook?
If it's me, I still love the idea and might do something like that in the future, but it would have to wait for now.
If you'd go ahead with this personally, Ali, then keep in mind the work it would require, and if you like the idea, let's go for it.
And if it's user-generated, where everyone pastes their best insights in there, it could also be a cool project if there is a good adoption rate, a bit like a Wiki on power dynamics and strategies, and it would require some more sophistication.
For example, a team of a few users with admin rights, and some restrictions on what a non-admin user can or cannot do -for example, one can't delete everything at once, or cannot add too many words-.
P.S.: I'm throwing a lot of roadblocks here, and purposefully so.
Not to be negative, but to make sure the project has a chance of flying.
I like Samit's concept of "how to choose good ideas to invest on": throw a lot of "why it won't work" against it, and the "zombie ideas" that will be left standing might be good projects to invest on. They are "zombie ideas" because with all the attacks they received, they might not look as cool as the original plan, but they have a far higher chance of doing well over the long run.
Thanks for sharing Samit's "zombie idea" concept, I like the organized thinking behind it as well.
Compiling the book is something that would have to wait for me as well, at least until around mid-next year. Maybe sometime in mid-2021, I could take a crack at it.
On Facebook, there's an option to have all posts reviewed and approved by an admin before being posted to the Facebook group. Maybe, we could have a similar system where we have the posts approved before being uploaded to a section of the eBook. My only concern is that would be time-consuming for the admins as far as reviewing each post, but it would also save more time in the long run for the admins in comparison to combing through the entire forum for the best content.
Let me know what you think.