You probably already know the answer, which is no -- they don't matter much in the "real world."

But I think that's not the complete picture.

I found that certificates can be a really good source of motivation. Human beings tend to love collecting stuff, that's why we love Pokémon, for instance, and why kids love collecting badges in class. It's human nature.

After a long course, it feels nice to receive a certificate with your name on it. At least, it does for me. Maybe it's a weakness or some guilty pleasure, but I'm okay with that.

Some people don't care about that. They believe knowledge is worth pursuing in itself, and the real joy is in learning and seeing yourself get better. Those are really cool people, I'd love to be friends with them, but I'm not one of them.

So my point is that if having a certificate at the end of a course helps motivate you to complete a good course, then paying for that certificate might be worth it. The value is not in the certificate itself. The value is in the motivation it provides, in the case that it does so for you.

For some reason I've noticed the more online courses I take, the less urge I feel to share about it. It's funny now remembering that I felt so happy when I completed the Systematic Program Design on EdX -- one of the first courses I took -- that I literally printed the certificate. But I'm glad such silly things make me happy (https://tenor.com/view/chair-alps-no-shoujo-heidi-heidi-gif-2885451484479610800)

After taking some courses on learning theory and education I understood more about what happened. It turns out that the so called extrinsic and intrinsic motivation aren't opposites. Extrinsic means of motivation -- like badges, certificates, or praise from a teacher -- have a great impact on a learner's motivation and give them a reason to continue.

At some point the learner won't need the external motivation anymore because they started to enjoy the material itself. Barbara Oakley gives a sweet example of how she motivated her young daughter Rachel to start reading books. She did something simple: whenever Rachel completed a book she would give her money. Why not? We all love money. Sometimes simple solutions do magic.

Because she wasn't used to reading books, at first reading itself was so painful, it wasn't a fun activity -- but money made it bearable. The key idea is that reading gets easier the more you read, and at some point it becomes fun. Then Barbara simply stopped rewarding her; there was no need for it anymore, she was already hooked on reading.

It makes so much sense when you think about it. There is no shame in trying to motivate yourself using extrinsic means. Does that resonate with anyone else?