I'm taking some Udacity courses now and mine are free, from what I understand the courses themselves are all free unless there is an inherent cost, however if y

I'm taking some Udacity courses now and mine are free, from what I understand the courses themselves are all free unless there is an inherent cost, however if you want a nanodegree or some other mentoring etc, then those added value options will require joining as a paid member which is as it should be. As well I agree with you, for me I've learned recently that having a mentor and paying is demotivating for me. I like clocking hours and hours studying to learn software development on my own and pushing myself is far more motivational than having someone else adding structure and deadlines. I would have never thought that until it happened and I was like wow I'm slacking off now rather than clocking the huge hours I was doing before on my own.