Amit Shekhar’s journey is one I often think of when I consider what democratised learning can mean. He found himself with a civil engineering degree he never truly chose, feeling as if those years had slipped away. Yet his turning point did not come from another formal qualification, but from a free online book, and then a trail of tutorials, blogs, and forums he followed on his own. Within a year, he had learned enough to solve a startup interview problem and land a job.
His is not a lone story. I increasingly work with students who actively use Discord or YouTube to self-teach. These examples show how to begin again, seek out knowledge, and trust that discipline and curiosity can open doors that once seemed closed. Such stories still amaze me: a student anywhere can now listen to lectures from the world’s best universities, something that would have felt like a far-fetched dream a few years ago.
I even recall the live interview I conducted on Instagram a few years ago with ace photographer Venket Ram about how he used to wait for his relatives to get him expensive photography books from “foreign” because they were hard to find in India. The easy access we have today to information has also reduced the gap between those who could find good teachers and those who could not. For those of us who have watched families search desperately for guidance, this shift feels nothing short of extraordinary.
Yet, as with most things, the story is more complicated than it first appears. The numbers tell us that only a small fraction of people who start massive open online courses actually finish them. Many of those either already have university degrees or come from backgrounds where education is a given, not a struggle. It makes me wonder: is access enough, or do we need to nurture something deeper before opportunity can truly take root?
With this new abundance comes a different kind of challenge. Anyone can now share a course or tutorial, and the sheer volume of material can feel overwhelming. Sometimes, it is hard to tell which resources are truly helpful and which are simply noise. Platforms like Udemy have noticed this too, putting limits on fully AI-generated courses after seeing how easily generic or even misleading content can spread. The same openness that helped Amit find his path can also make it harder for others to know which path to trust.
This, I think, is the real crossroads for parents and young learners now. Good material exists, but can we recognise it when we see it? In a world overflowing with information, the real skill may be learning how to tell the difference between what is merely plentiful and what is truly meaningful. When doors are plentiful and easy to open, what we increasingly need is the ability to learn, discern, and choose which ones are worth walking through.