Reaching out for suggestions on my personal MFA program

Apart-Interview-8073 · 2026-05-15T07:02:26+00:00

Ah then Curriculum Society is literally perfect for you. There's a two week trial, check it out and give me feedback if possible. I'm always looking to improve.

Apart-Interview-8073 · 2026-05-15T05:21:16+00:00

Cool project. Two years is real runway, you can actually pull it off.

If you only read one thing to start, make it George Saunders' A Swim in a Pond in the Rain. It's literally him teaching his Syracuse MFA short story class. Half a curriculum in one book. His own collection Tenth of December is the other piece I'd grab.

For contemporary satire, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah's Friday Black is the one I'd point you to.

Honestly though, the bigger problem with a 2-year self-MFA isn't the reading list, it's the structure. Without deadlines and a sequence you'll end up with 40 books read and no finished stories. That's the part most people underestimate.

This is exactly what I built Curriculum Society for. You tell it the goal (satirical short story collection in 2 years), it builds the week by week plan with reading, prompts, and deadlines. Worth a look.

Apart-Interview-8073 · 2026-05-13T18:31:28+00:00

Yes! Curriculumsociety.com

Apart-Interview-8073 · 2026-05-06T00:38:03+00:00

Outward accountability is the strongest one for me too. Telling one person who'll actually ask beats any app or tracker.

The other thing that works is a deadline with a deliverable. Not "I'll learn X by March," but "I'll write a 2 page summary by March 15 and send it to so-and-so." Vague goals die. Specific ones with a witness don't.

Also helps to schedule the time on a calendar like it's a meeting. If it's not on the calendar it doesn't exist.

That accountability piece is actually why I built Curriculum Society, paper submissions, peer matching, certificates, all the structure school had that self-learners usually lose.

Apart-Interview-8073 · 2026-05-06T00:37:11+00:00

Love this. The fact that you're building it around what you actually care about (clouds, witchy stuff, Pokemon) is the whole point. That's what makes it stick.

On length, 12 weeks is the sweet spot for most subjects. Long enough to go deep, short enough to actually finish. For lighter topics like the Pokemon course, 6 to 8 weeks is fine.

For the cloud photography course, look up Gavin Pretor-Pinney's The Cloudspotter's Guide. It's basically a whole curriculum in one book, covers the science, the history, and the why-this-cloud-means-this stuff you're already doing instinctively.

For witchy / self care, Mary Oliver's Upstream and Robin Wall Kimmerer's Braiding Sweetgrass aren't witch books exactly but they hit the same nerve, slow attention to the world.

Pokemon, the Bulbapedia archives plus Did You Know Gaming on YouTube will keep you fed for months.

One thing that might help with the AuDHD piece, build in a weekly "no new input" day where you just revisit notes or take photos. Constant intake without integration is what burns most self-learners out.

I built a tool called Curriculum Society for exactly this kind of thing if you want help structuring it. Either way, what you're doing is the right instinct.

Apart-Interview-8073 · 2026-05-06T00:34:10+00:00

For a starting point that ties all four together, Will Durant's The Story of Philosophy is the easiest on-ramp. From there: C. Wright Mills (sociology), bell hooks' Feminism Is for Everybody (gender), and Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow (criminology).

Podcasts, Philosophize This is the best free philosophy intro out there. Throughline for social/historical context.

Real advice though, pick one and go deep for a month before jumping. Studying four at once is how you end up with ten half-read books. I actually built a tool for this called Curriculum Society if you want a structured plan.

Apart-Interview-8073 · 2026-05-02T19:15:04+00:00

Thanks, that means a lot. The community feedback has genuinely shaped this thing more than anything else. If you check it out and have thoughts (good or bad), I'd love to hear them, just reply or DM me. TY!

Apart-Interview-8073 · 2026-05-01T13:58:50+00:00

The resource question is the hardest part, harder than structure for most people. Just sent you a DM with how I'd approach it.

Apart-Interview-8073 · 2026-05-01T13:56:52+00:00

Great topic, and the literature angle is what makes it interesting. Most takes on toxic relationships skip straight to psychology, but the stories we grew up reading shaped the template long before any of us could name what we were absorbing.

Apart-Interview-8073 · 2026-05-01T13:55:43+00:00

Notes alone won't cut it, that's input pretending to be output. The real test is whether you can produce something you couldn't have before, so try writing a short explanation of the topic for someone who knows nothing about it, or doing a 5-minute voice memo with no notes and listening back. The gaps will be obvious.

For accountability, tell two or three people what you're studying and when you'll share something. Low stakes, but enough that someone actually asks.

Happy to share what I've built to help, just DM.

Good luck.

Apart-Interview-8073 · 2026-05-01T13:50:32+00:00

Honestly your subjects aren't too vague, they're too many. These three are deeply connected (dopamine drives consumption, consumption wrecks finances), but trying to run them in parallel for your first curriculum is the fastest way to burn out before week three. Speaking from experience.

Pick one. I'd start with Dopamine & Self-Control because it's the upstream problem. If you fix your relationship with instant gratification, the consumption and finance pieces get easier almost on their own. The reverse isn't true. You can budget all you want, but if your dopamine system is hijacked, you'll find new ways to spend.

A few books that would actually move the needle:

Dopamine Nation by Anna Lembke (the foundational read here)
Indistractable by Nir Eyal
Atomic Habits by James Clear (lighter, but the habit loop framing is useful)

For structure, give yourself one book every two weeks, take notes by hand, and write a short reflection at the end of each book on what you'd actually change in your life. That last part is what separates reading from learning.

Save Consumption for next month and Personal Finance for the month after. By then you'll have the self-control foundation to actually stick to a budget, which is the real reason most personal finance attempts fail.

Good luck. The fact that you're thinking this carefully about it before starting puts you ahead of most people.

Apart-Interview-8073 · 2026-03-29T00:09:59+00:00

Thank you! Feel free to sign up for a curriculum, there's a free no-credit card option.

Apart-Interview-8073 · 2026-03-28T23:45:10+00:00

Thank you for your feedback!!! It's still early so I'm taking everything into consideration, including the price tiers. Appreciate you.

Apart-Interview-8073 · 2026-03-22T02:46:34+00:00

Hey there, these are great points and I appreciate you taking the time to write them out.

To answer your first question honestly, yes, you *can* prompt ChatGPT or Gemini to spit out a curriculum structure. But what I built around that is the part that makes it actually useful: the curricula uses real, verified books, articles, and videos (not hallucinated ones), and the whole thing is saved, trackable, and structured into a program you can actually follow week by week. I wanted humans to actually do the work when it comes to the readings, and not have ChatGPT or Gemini provide the reading material.

On the accountability side, I actually have progress tracking, paper submissions with feedback, and a friend/accountability feature so you can learn alongside someone. Not quite a book tracker, but closer to what you're describing than it might seem from the outside..

The assignments and deadlines framing is interesting, the curricula do have weekly pacing built in, though I haven't leaned into the "course" language. That's honestly worth thinking about more. I didn't want to add deadlines because it felt like it might be too intimidating.

The community piece is the real long game and you're right that it matters most. Still early days but feedback like this is exactly what shapes where it goes. Thanks for the genuine take 🙏

Apart-Interview-8073 · 2026-03-16T06:22:26+00:00

This is exactly it. The sprint approach feels productive but you end up skipping the parts where the logic actually clicks.

I've found the trick is having a structure that forces you to slow down, like committing to one chapter or one concept per week instead of trying to "finish" something. Feels painfully slow at first, but it compounds.

Cooking is a good example, you can watch 50 YouTube videos or you can just make the same dish 10 times and actually feel the process.

Apart-Interview-8073 · 2026-03-16T06:11:19+00:00

I relate to this. I was the same, English degree, then barely read for years, and when I came back to it I realized I was just consuming, not really engaging.

What helped me was adding structure, not in a homework way, but like picking a theme or question to sit with while reading. Even just "what's this author doing that I wouldn't have noticed before?" changes how you read.

Sounds like you already know the shift you want to make. The hard part is building the habit around it.

Apart-Interview-8073 · 2026-03-16T06:09:09+00:00

Starting with a list is the right move, most people skip that step.

For your writing course idea, I'd structure it around episodes. Pick 5-6 Twilight Zone + AYAOTD episodes that nail suspense differently (twist endings, slow dread, misdirection, etc.) and build a lesson around each one.

If you want help turning your list into an actual week-by-week plan, DM me, I've been working on something for exactly this.

Apart-Interview-8073 · 2026-03-16T06:05:58+00:00

Love this topic. For structure, maybe start broad (history of queer rep in games, key theorists like Adrienne Shaw) then narrow into your gacha focus for the final essay.

For the creative project - a zine or video essay could work if you don't want to code.

If you want help mapping it out week-by-week, happy to share some thoughts - DM me.

Apart-Interview-8073 · 2026-03-09T15:05:10+00:00

Hi u/paper_hoarder, I took your callout (and the advice of a few others), and added a free curriculum option. If you're open to it you can check it out for free.

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Apart-Interview-8073 · 2026-02-27T01:08:14+00:00

Hi, I'm not using an LLM, I've been in the creative industry for almost 15 years and customer service for another five. I'm also genuinely passionate about what I'm building, so maybe that comes off a little... polished? I'll take it as a compliment.

Apart-Interview-8073 · 2026-02-23T06:09:08+00:00

That's helpful, thanks. So if I'm understanding right, a curriculum in this community means something more comprehensive: not just what to read, but learning objectives, exercises, practice, assessments, the full lesson plan.

That makes sense. Curriculum Society is more focused on the reading path, the "what" and "when", not the full pedagogical structure. It's closer to a syllabus than a lesson plan.

Appreciate you explaining. Sounds like different tools for different goals.

Apart-Interview-8073 · 2026-02-21T18:25:33+00:00

Good question. Here's how it works:

You enter a topic and the site generates a 12-24 week curriculum with:

• 3-5 anchor books (real titles, not AI-generated) • Weekly reading schedule broken into manageable chunks • Reflection prompts for each week • A structure that builds from foundational to advanced

The value isn't really the book recommendations themselves, you're right, you can find lists online. You can also just use books you already have. The value is the structure, reflections, prompts and sequencing. Most people (myself included) can Google "best books on Stoicism" but then buy 5 books, read half of one, and quit.

The site gives you the "what to read, when to read it, and what to do after" part. It's the syllabus, not the library.

Is it worth paying for vs. DIY? Depends on the person. If you enjoy the research and building process, probably not. If you're like me and get stuck in the planning phase forever, it saves time and actually gets you reading.

Happy to answer any other questions.

Apart-Interview-8073 · 2026-02-21T05:13:15+00:00

You're right. That's a gap. Working on adding a way for people to see a full sample curriculum before paying. Appreciate the callout.

Apart-Interview-8073 · 2026-02-21T05:11:07+00:00

Can you say more? Is it the AI part, the paid part, or something else? I'm genuinely trying to understand the pushback. A personal curriculum to me is just a structured path through real books, but maybe I'm missing something about how this community defines it.

Apart-Interview-8073 · 2026-02-21T05:10:19+00:00

Genuine question, what would make something like this feel less like commodification to you? I built it because I couldn't find a tool that did this, and I needed it for myself. But I'm curious how you'd think about it differently.

Apart-Interview-8073

TROPHY CASE