Austin Scholar #19: How Jayson Tatum Used YouTube To Become One of the NBA’s Greatest Players

June's Free Article!

Hey, y'all!

I am a die-hard Boston Red Sox fan. My dad, who grew up in Boston, totally got me into watching baseball and supporting his team. 

So, of course, when I heard that the Celtics were in the NBA Finals, I was excited to support them. Even though the Celtics ended up losing, I kept seeing this guy called Jayson Tatum all over my Twitter. So, I decided to do a bit of research into the Celtics player and figure out why he was so important. 

Tatum is one of the youngest players on the team, yet, on average, he scores the most points in a game.

How did such a young player manage to make such an impact? Well, it all comes down to YouTube.

But I’m getting a little ahead of myself.

This week from Austin Scholar...

1. Austin’s Anecdote: How I learned how to learn

2. How Jayson Tatum used YouTube to become one of the NBA’s greatest players

3. Scholar’s Sources: The YouTube channels that changed my life

This past week was my last week at school and I have seriously never been more excited for summer break. Although “break” isn’t exactly the right way to describe it.

Summer “work at home instead of at school?”

Summer “I don’t get a break?”

Anyways, from working at Write of Passage: Liftoff, to starting to market my newsletter, to getting started on next school year’s courses, it’s going to be hard for me to catch a break. 

So, I guess I should say that I’m excited to sleep in. 

Over the course of the summer, I will still be posting weekly newsletters and will start to build up my Twitter account, so watch out for that.

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Austin’s Anecdote: How I Learned How to Learn

One of the requirements to get into Alpha High is to complete an exercise called “Creating A Learning Plan.” 

A Learning Plan is a written step-by-step plan on how to become an expert in a topic.

To create a learning plan, you first are assigned a topic to master. Then, you create smaller learning goals that make up all of the things you must learn in order to fully understand the topic. Next, you choose methods of learning to attain each of those goals (taking online courses, reading certain books, etc.). And finally, you set an objective "test to pass," which allows you to prove that you've sufficiently mastered your assigned topic. 

In the following section, How Jayson Tatum used YouTube to become one of the NBA’s greatest players, I provided an example part of a Learning Plan that I created so y’all can see the concepts in action.

A Learning Plan should be detailed enough so that if you gave it to someone who knows nothing about your topic, they would be able to follow your step-by-step plan to become an expert in that topic.

Sounds cool, right?

Well, there is one key aspect of the Learning Plan requirement that made basically every middle schooler procrastinate completing this assignment: the Learning Plan is on a completely 100% random topic. Like off-shore drilling.

How were we supposed to figure out how to be an expert on off-shore drilling in three hours? I didn’t even know what off-shore drilling was!

So, in preparation, I consulted YouTube and probably watched twenty “How To Get Really Good At Anything Really Fast” videos. 

Once I filtered through all of the “as long as you have the right mindset, you can do anything” parts of the videos, I realized something pretty life-changing.

Because I’ve grown up with the internet – with YouTube videos and Wikipedia at my fingertips – I have already learned the skill of Learning to Learn. 

Okay, Austin, what does that mean?

When I was twelve years old and wanted to try on makeup for the first time, I watched a YouTube video. Whenever my dad said fancy “SAT” words that I didn’t know, I just looked them up and continued the conversation. Whenever I got stuck in math, I Googled the concept.

The internet allowed me to learn how to learn. 

So, when it was time for me to do my Learning Plan for high school, I was ready, even if the topic was off-shore drilling. 

I was able to compile websites, YouTube videos, podcasts, documentaries, and books during those three hours – enough to make me an expert in something I knew nothing about.

I passed my Learning Plan test.

But that wasn’t the end of the applications of Learning to Learn. In high school, to get your Masterpiece approved (Read Austin Scholar #1: What School Do You Go To? for more information on a Masterpiece), you have to create a Learning Plan for your Masterpiece. This time I had to create a Learning Plan that I was actually going to use.

I worked on and edited my Learning Plan for online writing for probably over ten hours. There were what seemed like thousands of blogs, books, and online courses that I would have to take if I were to learn how to write online. 

Even now, I’m still working through my Learning Plan and experiencing what it means to write online. 

But I’m learning.

Today’s high schoolers are powerful because we know how to learn. There’s infinite information online and we are a generation who knows how to use it.

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How Jayson Tatum Used YouTube To Become One of the NBA’s Greatest Players

In order to really show y’all how absolutely live-changing Learning to Learn can be, let’s go back to the Celtics. 

I’m not going to lie – I don’t know a lot about basketball. (I’m more of a baseball person :) ) But, I do know that the Celtics have this really good player, Jayson Tatum. 

Jayson Tatum is only 24 years old and he’s made it to the Eastern Conference Finals three times. This season, he had an average of 27 points per game, and he’s not even at his prime. (I’m pretty sure that’s really good?!)

Anyway, my lack of basketball knowledge aside, Tatum is a really young, really good player. 

How did Jayson Tatum get so good?

Well, it’s all thanks to YouTube, according to this Wall Street Journal article.

Because Tatum grew up with YouTube, “there was never a time in his life that he couldn’t watch any clip of any NBA player any time he wanted.”

Tatum was able to watch videos and compare himself to the best NBA players of all time. He spent hours studying their moves and throws. He learned how to learn to play basketball through the internet.  

The core reason that Jayson Tatum was able to get so good, so young “is because he’s this young.”

Tatum is able to outplay so many of the older NBA players because he watched YouTube – an advantage they never had.

Tatum exemplifies the power of Learning to Learn. Through the internet, high schoolers can become experts in anything they want, as long as they know how to learn it.

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How do you go about learning how to learn? 

Well, you’ll find that your teenager is probably already doing it. 

My sister learned how to do winged eyeliner from YouTube. My cousin spent hours watching videos to learn how to do magic tricks. My best friend spends hours on “SwiftTok” and knows basically everything there is to know about Taylor Swift.

We know how to use the internet to learn something. 

But one key change needs to be made: We have to learn how to apply this skill. 

We’ve learned how to make smoothies and understand a question on our math homework, and at this point, we do it naturally. But we need to learn how to turn this passive skill into an active one and apply it to our passions, through long-term commitment, daily practice, and intense focus – instead of random one-off questions and Google searches. 

Let me explain. 

For my Masterpiece Learning Plan, I took the skills I learned from years of learning from the internet and created a list of resources that I could use to learn how to write online. 

Here is a snapshot of one part of my Learning Plan. 

Now, here I am, writing this newsletter. Putting into use the skills I learned because I learned how to learn and applied that skill to my passion for writing. 

Your teenager has so much power. Teach them that if they use their skills of Learning to Learn, they can become the next great NBA player (or whatever their life dream is). There’s proof. It’s possible. 

If they know how to learn, your kid can do anything.

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Scholar’s Sources: The YouTube Channels That Changed My Life

A big focus of this newsletter was on how effective YouTube can be, so here are a few YouTube channels and videos that changed my life:

This is a video series that completely changed how I thought about Calculus, and just math in general. 

This video-workshop includes a great exercise on finding and pursuing your passion, which is such a powerful thing for all high school students to do.

“The Big Rock Video” is basically legendary for Alpha veterans because this video was the foundation of our day-to-day work ethic when we were in elementary school. For little fifth-grade me, this video completely changed how I thought about schoolwork. 

As I mentioned in Austin Scholar #12: Managing May, history is not my greatest subject. But this video was a super engaging (and super funny) way for me to find overall themes and ideas in world history. 

I’ve already talked about this video before, but I cannot express the impact that this interview of Kobe Bryant had on my life and thought process. Seriously, whenever I need some motivation, I just watch this video.

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Thanks for reading. Go crush the week! See y'all on Wednesday.