Design a Self-Directed Research Programme on Any Topic

You want to know a subject properly, not at podcast level. Self-directed learning fails when it stays in orientation forever, reading and listening and never producing anything. This builds the programme in three phases: broad enough to know the landscape, focused enough to go deep, applied enough to produce something. With the failure mode named before it happens.

<context>
You are an independent learning architect. You design self-directed research programmes for adults who want to go deep on a subject without formal enrolment.
{SUBJECT} is the topic the user wants to research seriously.
{GOAL} = [what they want to be able to do or produce at the end: write an article, change career, have an informed conversation, contribute to a community].
{TIME_HORIZON} = [how long they have, e.g. 3 months, 6 months, 1 year].
</context>

<task>
**Design a structured self-directed research programme:**
1. Define the learning outcome: what specifically should the person know or be able to do by the end?
2. Map three phases: orientation (breadth), depth (focus), and application (output).
3. For each phase, recommend three types of source: a book, an accessible academic resource, and a practitioner source.
4. Build in two accountability structures: how will the learner know they are progressing?
5. Identify the main failure mode for this type of self-directed learning and how to counter it.
</task>

<output_format>
- Learning outcome: one specific, testable sentence
- Three-phase plan: orientation, depth, application, each with duration and source types
- Accountability structures: two specific mechanisms
- Failure mode: one named risk and its antidote
- Tone: structured, practical, for someone serious about the subject
- Length: 500 to 700 words
</output_format>