> And a sort of naive read on the situation would be to say that if we look at the people who are really strong, they show that inefficient, non-scalable person

> And a sort of naive read on the situation would be to say that if we look at the people who are really strong, they show that inefficient, non-scalable personal training has been disrupted by whatever hobbyist forums or other internet resources they rely on. I think this absolutely misses the mark on the two most critical factors. Number 1: *exposure to and interaction with a community of peers engaged in personal improvement in the same manner* I can read Aristotle and Mills and Kant on my own in my living room; but this is not the same as being part of a book club (or a college course) reading these texts and discussing them. Finding positions, explaining them to your peers, perhaps defending those viewpoints, listening to others do the same, challenging them on their viewpoints, etc. These are examples of a secondary layer of context and understanding of a subject that is inherently not replicable in isolated learning. I have a friend who deadlifts over 750 lbs. Do you think he goes to Planet Fitness and hops on the elliptical for 20 minutes and then goes home? No. He goes to a gym filled with similarly powerful, driven lifters. He discusses training loads, regimens, diet, etc. with his peers. The knowledge transfer between skilled practitioners is critical to master of a craft past a certain point. Sure, almost anyone who lifts for 3 years with even moderate dedication can eventually break 3 plates. But 5 plates? 6? 7? 8?! No, that requires something more: a petri dish for cultivating improvement; a community of similarly motivated individuals. Number 2: A subject matter expert who can react and interact with you and your peers. Having a SME to highlight what is critical, to deprioritize what is 'cruft', to dispel or correct misunderstandings/misconceptions, to push the depth of the learning/training to a more advanced level; this is a massive advantage that in-person education has over impersonal, technologically-distributed courses. Sure, some things are easily teachabale over YouTube. One of my favorite examples: Simple mechanical work. I've used YouTube multiple times to supplement my existing knowledge & owner's manual. It's helped me flush brake lines, install oil coolers, replace a water pump, and align headlights. Work like this, that is to say, work that doesn't require a high level of expertise, is easily transferable via YouTube. This is akin to taking notes during a lecture. More complicated work, like... say, dropping an engine, replacing the crankshaft, and remounting the engine is a task that requires a higher skill/knowledge base to perform correctly. I would not trust someone to do that with purely internet-based instruction. Lastly, I would like to say that I believe scale necessarily diminishes the quality of what is being produced. You cannot teach 4000 students online as well as you can teach 400 in person; and likewise a 400 person lecture is necessarily a lower-quality educational product than a 40 person lecture & follow up socratic seminar.