When you venture into the crypto space, you will immediately be struck by a maxim: Do Your Own Research (DYOR). Usually, this involves you trying to make sense of a project’s whitepaper and understand its fundamentals and features.

I have not read any whitepaper so far. Before you gasp in horror, I might as well confess that I’m actually not here for the technology. Neither do I really care about the principles blockchain technology stands for - a decentralised, permissionless world. All I know is that although I work as an English teacher, reading pages and pages of crypto-related jargon is just gonna bore me to tears. Consensus mechanisms, scalability issues, minting? I might as well learn ancient Latin and Greek.

Now you may gasp in horror.

However, perhaps it’s my occupation that causes me to have a different mindset in regards to learning about crypto. I mean, just as I will employ unconventional methods like finger spelling and drawing vivid images in the form of letters, I will expect myself to play to my strengths and employ my preferred learning style when it comes to my own learning.

I am a people person, so I learn best when I read other people’s comments and articles because I feel that they have done the heavy duty of digesting the chunky information and spitting it out in the form of easy-to-remember soundbites. So, interpersonal intelligence is my favourite learning style. Bonus if the platform includes dynamic discussion forums in which I can interact quickly and bounce off ideas with other people.

It may then come across as a surprise but r/cryptocurrency has wormed its way into my heart and become an indispensable part of my daily routine. Don’t get me wrong. I use it primarily for shitposting and am well aware that it is an echo chamber and doesn’t encourage critical thought. On the other hand, I find it a useful platform to gauge market sentiment and determine user reactions. It’s the best place to get first-hand perspectives whenever a crisis breaks out. I learnt about Crypto.com slashing its market rates, Algo scoring a vital partnership with FIFA, and UST depegging on r/cryptocurrency before anywhere else.

Besides being the venue for breaking news, I actually appreciate how many people obsessively post about the trending issue concurrently. It gives me ample opportunity to not only find out about the technical details governing the crypto, but also observe how other users are responding to it. Take for instance the decline of LUNA. If I weren’t active on r/cryptocurrency, I wouldn’t have known that people were utilizing the last gasps of LUNA’s breath to engage in swing trading and profit from shorting. I don’t necessarily want to short LUNA myself but it’s nevertheless comforting to know that I can buy LUNA from Kucoin and Binance if I want to.

Another platform where I find my tribe is the Discord channel managed by Hodlnaut. The general chat is quite lively these days and is populated with users from different parts of the world. So, if you are into foreign cultures like I am, you will have a blast learning about how people of different nationalities navigate the crypto space due to their sociopolitical climate. I count my blessings that I don’t have to pay capital gains taxes because I learn about how my U.S. and U.K. mates have to constantly think about keeping track of their transactions. Suffice it to say that it’s a cool place to get a second (and even a third) opinion on a project you find promising. This is best illustrated by how many frequent users have taken the plunge into StepN, aware that the high yields don’t seem to be sustainable but united in encouraging everyone to walk/run/jog every day. Owing to family circumstances, I am not involved in StepN myself, but it is still enlightening to find out about its various facets. I have learnt a lot from chatting there. It ranges from choosing the best cold wallet and 2FA authenticator to embarking in the most promising degen projects.