The core benefit of BackTo20/20 aren’t chiefly the well sorted, carefully structured, consistent-success-producing sessions of instruction. Sure, important stuff. But that’s not really what I’d put the largest part of the value of the program on.
Really what is worth the most, is the support.
I get e-mails quite often, asking me to troubleshoot some Internet vision improvement guide (not my own, but other random stuff). I get requests for BackTo20/20 invites from people who tried other things, and had either no success or got stuck before long. If you’re a regular student and making good progress, you might never even know how insurmountable all this might seem, without good guidance.
What you’re buying then, most of all, is the direct access to answers.
I would know. I’m still fighting high cholesterol numbers, unable to get real answers as to what will fix this problem (currently testing veganism as possible fix). Then things like hypothyroidism. It took me over two years to solve the Hashimoto’s puzzle and keep my thyroid from imploding. My neck pain I assumed would be a life long experience.
I would pay handsome rewards for definitive answers to a lot of these sort of questions. I don’t want to pay some hack to make up stuff, or some medical degree’d arrogant #%@#$@ to make a guess and sell me pharmaceuticals. But if you told me, Jake, this guy will help you …
With BackTo20/20, 30% is the course and sessions. 70% is knowing that the guy who created all that, is going to log on every day, and answer your questions. Who else does all that? Who writes books or guides or things and also helps individuals with progress and troubleshooting? I’ll be dead one day (probably from a heart attack due to unsolved high cholesterol stuff) and then people will be discussing what I might have said or meant and looking up my students for answers.
Not huge ego talking. You should see my e-mail on a daily basis, all the stuff that blows in from the Internet, people doing random things, following random advice, and then ending up wanting me to hand-hold them through all the fallacies and mistakes and get them on track (for free, naturally, because I’m not just a hippie but also a communist apparently).
The basic premise of myopia control is beyond simple. Early myopia is a focusing muscle spasm, and then the quick-fix “treatment” (glasses) cause lens-induced progressive myopia. Reverse both by controlling strain and changing the premise of lens use to create positive rather than negative stimulus. Nothing to it.
It’s like the basic premise of cholesterol is simple.
Once you get into translating concepts into actionable process, that’s when sooner or later you realize that there are a lot of things to learn. By trial and error. The two years it took me to figure out how to stop my TSH levels from being insane, which I could now explain to past-self in ten minutes. Ten minutes, rather than two years. Things that are so simple, if you’ve got somebody who knows, to ask.
Did I mention the whole first part of this blog post would be one huge, giant sales pitch and shameless self promotion?
I didn’t.
Takeaway from above, don’t e-mail me asking me to troubleshoot Joe Bob’s magic vision therapy failings for you. I have no idea why Joe Bob says you should wear plus lenses, or no glasses, or stare into the sun, or pop eye vitamins while rolling your eyes and howling at the full moon. I don’t know what your current prescription means, without knowing the history and progression, and what you do every day, and I’m not tempted to spend ten e-mails and several hours of back and forth to figure it out.
I’ve got a whole approach, which if you e-mail me you already know. You get every last thing I have to share, for free via the blog. If you want structure and specific insights from me … BackTo20/20. I’m supporting those who support me (and my many expensive vices).
Or use the blog, which works just fine if you’re ready to dig through it.
The Forum & Standardizing Progress Metrics
Here’s a quick update on the topic of the forum, which has been insightful without being overburdened with inquiry volume lately (mainly due to the 10 invite limit since the whole new-baby situation emerged).
One of the current goals to improve said forum is to institute a consistent system to track student progress.
Right now it’s up to everyone individually to keep a log, how and when to measure, whether to report progress or not. This of course is less than ideal since it introduces challenges that I could easily prevent, with an easy-to-use log tool.
Easier said than done.
We’re two false starts into creating a small app to help you keep track of centimeters and Snellen and prescriptions. Hopefully third time is the charm.
Meanwhile and still, we use the forum signatures to manually enter current diopter values. It’s been a step in the right direction at least, since both you and I can now get a quick gauge of where the individual is at, putting the question or post in a bit more context.
Here for example, Roy’s question:
Answered in this thread (if you have forum access).
This whole entire post, and all I originally wanted to say, was … hey check out Roy’s prescription reduction progress. Pretty good work, yea? Thumbs up for Roy, and also we’ll hopefully have an easier system to make progress data available to students.
But then the e-mails derailed things just a bit, into a minor rant-slash-buy-my-stuffs. Perils of daily blogging.
Hopefully all this found you in great new years spirits, you’re making progress, you’re looking forward to this year’s lower and lower diopters, forum improvements, and keeping me updated with your stories and experiences!
Cheers,
-Jake
