Learning Communities: 3 Criteria, 4 Picks, and 5 Ways to Get Results

TL;DR: A community is decided not when you choose it but in the month after you join. This post covers 3 criteria for choosing, the 4 communities I’m active in, and 5 ways to use them.

Contents

1. Why Do We Need Communities?
2. Which Community Should You Join?
3. The 4 Communities I Recommend
4. Setting a Purpose
5. Proving There Is a Person Behind the Monitor
6. Moving Up to the Organizing Team

We live in an era when all kinds of AI keep emerging, and education and communities to keep up and move one step further are pouring out. I also kept moving between communities because I wanted to grow. I’ve done English conversation and writing groups, and this time I went to Huddling Club, run by Haiseo.

This meeting was held in a study space at Shingu University (a college in South Korea). Each of us opened our laptops and worked on our own things, then talked with Figma tutor Haiseo about career worries. The know-how for taking part in a community and getting value from it took shape through that conversation, and I’m sharing it here.

1. Why Do We Need Communities?

Once you finish regular schooling and university, your learning path naturally stops. You spend your days trading time for money at a company. But in reality, growth is hard to find as a keyword at work.

So if you want growth and achievement, you have to enter another “school.” I think of a community as a school built for you.

2. Which Community Should You Join?

With so many communities out there, where should you go? I use three criteria.

Criterion	Why this criterion
Has rules or a deposit	Proof that a system exists. Agreements that make you act on your own
Has people you know	Lowers the barrier to entry, and you can hear reviews before joining
Has a clear purpose	Without one, it becomes a simple get-together

Having rules or a deposit itself means a system exists. It creates agreements that make you act on your own, and that leads to better results.

Having acquaintances already there is also a great way to encourage activity. People are social animals, so it lowers one threshold for entering a new world. You can also hear reviews before you go in.

Without a clear purpose, it turns into a simple get-together. Once people get close, it’s common for things to drift toward drinks or food tours. That’s a side pleasure a community can offer, not the goal. When it becomes the goal, it actually gets in the way of learning and growth.

The 4 Communities I Recommend

These are the communities I currently recommend, based on the criteria above.

Community	What it is
Huddling Club	Run by Figma tutor Haiseo. Design and AI use
After-Work AI (a Korean community; the name means “after work”)	Run by Seulgi and Jaecheol. Marketing-focused
Making a Living with AI	Run by the author. A casual Q&A KakaoTalk chat room centered on data roles
Inflearn Challenge (Inflearn is a Korean online course platform)	Not an ongoing community, but an active platform with a clear learning goal

3. Setting a Purpose

Whether it’s personal study or a community, the reason you join is probably anxiety about your current situation or preparation for the future. You likely thought about what you lack and how to fill it. But once you’re in, if you act without a standard, your goals blur, and in the end you get nothing out of it.

So I always set goals before joining. I set both quantitative and qualitative goals.

Example goals to write down before joining

• Quantitative Write once every 2 weeks A goal counted by number. No ambiguity about whether it's met
• Qualitative Meet someone new once a month to get inspired A goal that can't be counted by number. Gives direction to your activity

The moment you declare it, your activity has a destination

When you declare and write down your goals this way, your activity gets a destination. It also helps prevent distractions and dropping out midway.

4. Proving There Is a Person Behind the Monitor

Many communities start online, because it frees you from the limits of time and space. But I’ve found nothing raises participation like actually meeting people, studying together, and doing things side by side. So when I start a community activity, I make a point of joining an offline meetup within 1 month.

As you share your thoughts and interests, a sense of “Ah, I can take something from this place” begins to form. As your image of the community takes shape, you focus more on the activity.

5. Moving Up to the Organizing Team

I found it a shame to participate only as a member. So after 1~2 cohorts, I always apply to the organizing team. Apart from the impression I had as a participant, getting involved in running and managing things rekindles my affection for the community. That leads into a positive feedback loop that pulls me back to the purpose I set at the start.

One thing I built while helping run Geultto is described in Notes on the Geultto lucky-pouch message. If you’re curious what running a community actually involves, take a look.

How are you approaching communities as a way to grow?