So why am I writing this you may ask? I thought this was a website about options trading? Well, in this post I’m giving you a look behind the curtain at the inner workings of the Put Paradise website and where we are going in the short term: which is courses, memberships, coaching and community.
First of all, I need to clarify, I’m a huge fan of Graham Cochrane. He wrote the book “How to Get Paid for What You Know” in 2022. I found that book online in 2024 and it changed my life. I was on a road trip in Orlando and I listened to the audio book on repeat. I have read it several time since and I absolutely love the book. That book gave me the hope and the idea to start this website and provide you with all of this awesome options trading content. Before reading that book, I really couldn’t conceptualize doing this myself. He showed that it was possible…for me, which was highly valuable. His story is that he has been creating online courses for the last 16 years, and is one of the leading voices in this business space. He created the Recording Revolution and the Graham Cochrane websites, which are both wildly successful. I have been devouring his content ever since 2024, particularly listening to his podcast regularly. I consider him my mentor in this business and someone that I follow closely as he gave me the blueprint for getting this website up and running. He aligns with me philosophically and personally on worldview and business in many, many ways. So, you can image my shock when I went to his recent podcast and it was titled “3 Reasons I Don’t Sell Online Courses Anymore”. His YouTube version of the podcast even has a picture of a tombstone with a RIP for online courses in 2026….Gut Punch.
My heart sank. I have been slowly building this website since 2024 via blog posts and developing the Put Path details to curate my successful options trading methodology that I’ve been exclusively trading since 2023. I’ve been trading Put Credit Spreads successfully since 2020 and started to really notice in 2023 that they were very successful, when all other strategies had failed me in one way or another. This way of trading has been highly beneficial for me in terms of efficiency, profitability and psychological well being. So I really believe in the Put Path Options Trading System and I’m trying to get the word out that this can revolutionize your trading and your life by getting higher returns with less time trading. This started as me telling my family and friends about it, and in 2024 I wanted to expand the reach. Which lead me to dive in deeper during 2025 to get diligent about posting YouTube videos and blog post content weekly. I have a course in draft form now and I’m going to roll it out this year, as well as start some private coaching. So when Graham made that announcement, I felt like I had been stabbed in the back by a friend (even though we have never met or spoken). The good ol’ bait and switch…I was upset. I had put so much effort into this site and course and I felt like Charlie Brown and the football was getting moved. How could the online course guru that I’m following, say to get out of the business right when I was just getting some momentum? How could I be so unlucky as to finally have a great idea and business plan that could truly help people, and have it taken away by a mentor that I trusted? So frustrating and disappointing…I was in a bad spot and considered giving up altogether.
But then I slept on it, and came back to his podcast with a clearer mind and a fresh perspective. I listened to it again. I thought about what he said with more objectivity and began to formulate a plan to modify this website and community somewhat that should set it up for success going forward. So here’s what he really said, and how I think about it now. Recently when he was writing his new book called “The Effortless Business”, Graham publicly shifted his philosophy on online education. He argued that traditional paid courses are losing value because information is now widely available through AI tools like ChatGPT, the online education space is overcrowded, and it is increasingly difficult to build trust, audiences, and email funnels at scale. Instead, he is advocating for a stronger emphasis on coaching, memberships, and community driven models. His perspective is thoughtful, experience based, and rooted in real changes happening across the digital landscape. However, while many of his observations are valid, the conclusion that paid online courses are no longer valuable goes too far. In reality, online courses remain highly valuable and will still sell, not despite of AI, but because of it: when they are built around clarity, structure, and transformation rather than raw information, and when bundled with other real humans in a community.
The first reason online courses still have significant value is that information has never been the true product, transformation is. AI can provide answers instantly, but it cannot replace a coherent learning path designed to move someone from confusion to competence and get results. Beginners, especially, are not suffering from a lack of information; they are overwhelmed by it, and as Graham used to say where there is overwhelm, there is also opportunity. A well designed course filters noise, organizes concepts logically, and introduces ideas in the correct sequence for a specific audience. This is especially true in complex disciplines like options trading, where knowing what something is matters far less than understanding when to use it, why it works, and how it fits into a larger system. AI can answer questions, but it does not proactively design a curriculum tailored to a specific strategy like the Put Path or understand lifestyle constraints. Courses that do this well save students time, reduce costly mistakes, and provide confidence through repetition and reinforcement. In that sense, AI increases the value of good courses by highlighting how rare clear structure actually is.
The second reason paid courses still matter is that commitment and transformation require friction. Free information is easy to consume and just as easy to abandon. Again, Graham used to teach that when students invest financially in a course, they psychologically commit to finishing it, implementing it, and generally take it more seriously. This commitment gap is critical and often overlooked in conversations about AI and free content. Most people don’t fail because they lack access to knowledge; they fail because they never apply it consistently. A paid course creates accountability through intention: it signals that the student has decided to change something, not just browse AI. Additionally, courses provide a controlled learning environment free from algorithm driven distractions, contradictory advice, and endless “one more video” syndrome. While communities and coaching deepen engagement, they work best after a foundational framework has been established with the course. The course provides the map; coaching and community help refine the journey. Removing the map entirely leaves many people wandering, even if support is available. He is embedding his courses now within his coaching and calling them the “curriculum”, but this misses out on the audience that are self starters and just want the course to get rolling.
The third reason online courses remain relevant is that experience cannot be automated. AI excels at summarizing existing knowledge, but it cannot replicate lived experience, personal filtering, or decision making under uncertain conditions like the stock options market. I designed and built the Put Path, not AI. Sure, AI may be able to theoretically understand it, but AI will never have the depth of nuance regarding my specific system. A good course is not simply a collection of facts: it is a curated expression of what not to do, what to ignore, and where beginners typically go wrong. In trading, business, fitness, or any performance based field, knowing which paths lead to failure is just as valuable as knowing which ones succeed. Course creators who teach from experience are not selling information; they are selling transformation (from perspective, judgment, and pattern recognition developed over time). AI can assist learning, but it cannot replace a teacher who has made mistakes, adapted systems, and refined methods through real world feedback. In fact, the rise of AI increases the importance of trusted guides who can contextualize tools, explain limitations, and teach discernment rather than dependency.
In conclusion, Graham is right that the online education landscape is changing, but he’s wrong that online courses are obsolete. If he means low value, information only courses are fading, then peace…but structured, experience driven, transformation focused courses are becoming more valuable than ever. The future is not “courses versus community” or “courses versus coaching,” but courses as the foundation upon which deeper engagement is built. In all fairness to Graham, that is ultimately what his point was. For him, he personally is going towards a more “premium” brand and is exclusively offering Group and 1-on-1 Coaching. That’s great for guys like Graham to position themselves in the premium category and charge $10,000 for coaching, but for businesses just starting out like me that really makes no sense. It’s unrealistic and demotivating. So even with the challenges that Graham has identified, I need to respectfully say that Graham is wrong about this one for me personally. I love Graham, but I think he’s missed the mark on this one for the hundreds or thousands of people following his “old” system and just starting up businesses in the online knowledge space. I believe that AI does not eliminate the need for courses; it raises the bar for what a good one looks like, particularly for a specialized options trading system like the Put Path that is not widely known or promoted. The opportunity today is not to abandon courses, but to design them with intention, clarity, and respect for the learner’s time and goals. So I’m going to continue to work on the Put Path Course and finalize it to offer you all some real value! If you are serious about mastering a skill by doing it, not just understanding it, this new course will be for you. I’m looking for students seeking structured learning that leads to action (not just ChatGPT answers), which is ultimately success in options trading while still having time in your life for everything else. So if you are looking for an options trading system that is built around clarity, structure, and long term consistency, rather than hype or analysis tools or information overload, explore the Put Paradise approach and start learning the Put Path system, which is designed to work in the real world, one disciplined step at a time. Remember, options trading is better when it’s not done in isolation: leave a comment below with your thoughts or questions, and let’s keep the conversation going!
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