Thread by @fortelabs

1/ The upcoming cohort of our Building a Second Brain course, cohort 12, will be the last time we offer all students lifetime access to join future cohorts

This was a really difficult decision, and I wanted to explain our thinking around it

2/ This won’t affect anyone who’s purchased the course in the past. Students through cohort 12 will always be able to join any future cohort

And it only applies to joining live Zoom calls. Everyone will continue to get future curriculum updates & lifetime access to Circle

3/ First, why did we offer lifetime access in the first place?

Honestly, in the early days it was because I was embarrassed by the quality of the course. I had no idea what I was doing, didn’t live up to my own standards, and lifetime access was my way of making up for it

4/ Over time it dramatically improved, but I noticed that this policy had a really powerful effect on the culture of the alumni body

They felt like they were part of an inner circle for life, and their enthusiasm and commitment showed up in all sorts of ways

5/ They passionately recommended the course through word of mouth, gave me tons of constructive feedback, and joined in some cases multiple cohorts, becoming experienced experts in their own right

Eventually I realized returning alumni were our greatest asset

6/ We started relying on them in all sorts of ways

They became our best affiliate partners, we trained them as Alumni Mentors, and even hired them as employees

In every cohort, alumni became coaches that answered questions and helped new students succeed in ways I couldn’t

7/ So why change it if it’s worked so well?

Because the number of students we are working with are straining the capabilities of our technology, and making it difficult to ensure a quality student experience for newcomers

8/ The main limitations tech-wise come from Zoom, which hosts the live sessions that are the most important element of the course

For more than 1k participants, we can’t use Meeting Mode and have to use Webinar Mode, which doesn’t show faces and is much less warm and friendly

9/ Breakout rooms, our favorite feature for making large cohorts feel small, don’t work beyond 300 participants if we want no more than 6 people per room

We got access to 100 breakout rooms, but even then that only raises the limit to 600, and we are expecting close to 2k

10/ Beyond ~600 participants Zoom turns into a webinar, and that isn’t the experience we want to provide

We’re looking into running cohorts more often, in parallel, or splitting an AV feed across multiple Zoom meetings at once, but even then the cohorts have become too large

11/ There’s also a value mismatch

When you give away something to everyone, it becomes a default expectation that isn’t really appreciated. Many people didn’t care or want lifetime access, or were even annoyed when we kept emailing them about it!

12/ So the Essential Edition will no longer include lifetime access to join live sessions after the next cohort

Premium and Executive Editions still get lifetime access

And all students will continue to get future updates to the curriculum and Circle community

13/ Our #1 priority is the quality and impact of the learning experience

Too much growth is a problem we’re honestly delighted to have, and we’re determined to channel the interest in Building a Second Brain to the place where it can best be served

14/ If you’d like to join our course and community, this is the last chance to get lifetime access at the lowest price it will ever be offered

Enrollment is open April 19-28, and cohort 12 runs from May 5-June 4

Learn more and subscribe for updates:

fortelabs.co/blog/basb-12/