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The Un-School
I recently wrote on Why Investing & Money Are Undertaught, closing with a Beautiful Question: “What topics not taught today in schools should be?”
What’s the curriculum for “The Un-School”?
Now:
I’m very interested in what you think belongs on this list — anything I’m missing? Let me know!
The distinction between what kids should learn outside of schools vs. what they should learn in the classroom is subjective. I’m not “blaming” schools. I’m encouraging new thinking, in particular with a focus on the eminently practical…
Each topic could be “plugged in” once a year for one month, and therefore could be covered in full from ages 8-18, which is how they are roughly ordered. (The Un-School could also be done as a “Jan Plan” or summer experience.)
I’m confident that any single one of my 10 topics would, on its own, seriously strengthen our kids’ personal, and the global, future. But fully unleashed, The Un- School revolutionizes education and human flourishing. “That was the most important part of my schooling” will, I predict, be the primary reflection of these students when they later reflect back as adults.
Here you go:
- Nutrition (age 8): Understand how what we eat drives our physical health.
- Mental Fitness (9): Study positive intelligence and looking on the bright side.
- Character (10): Provide or invite some core values, and go in depth on each.
- Money (11): Saving and spending.
- Innovation & Technology (12): Integrate smartphones, social media, AI, etc. into your life appropriately.
- Investing (13): The power of compounding.
- Psychology (14): Covering the most important cognitive biases.
- Leadership (15): We are all potential leaders, but how?
- Parenting (16): Such an important and undertaught topic! And at an important age…
- Success (17-18): This is of course very subjective and very eminently worthy of reflection! So invite presentations from successful adults in diverse fields. Most of all, as our kids graduate and become adults, we want them to succeed. Help them see how.
No large public school system likely can take “risk” at scale launching compulsory Un- Schooling.
I leave it to the edge cases, and the dreamers. Let’s talk.
The Rule Breaker’s Lonely Style Box
Last time I teased the style box that helps explain why Rule Breaker investing wins. Remember that style boxes oversimplify; they’re cartoonish views of the world. But when we make things as simple as we can (Einstein: “But no simpler”), we give ourselves a clarity that many others lack.
Here’s the style box I use to explain why Rule Breaker Investing works:
The Y axis, labeled “Timeframe,” goes upward from “short-term” to “long-term.” This is the holding period of your investing, with traders at the bottom and investors at the top.
The X axis, labeled “Company Type,” goes rightward from “predictable” to “innovative.” “Predictable” companies predominate the world of business, whether they’re operating oil fields or selling Dunkin Donuts. These companies stay within the defined lines of their industries and their core businesses. The “innovators” are the rare Rule Breakers.
For “Timeframe,” well more than half the financial world operates in a short-term timeframe. So if you’re fishing in the “long-term” pond, you’re already feeling lonely. For “Company Type,” well more than half the corporate world is not only predictable, most of it strives to be even more so! Businesses at scale that challenge the status quo, or completely unravel it, are few and far between.
Thus, if you’re investing in the quadrant of “long-term” and “innovative,” you are among a tiny subset of investors. Most of the long-term capital out there (e.g., the Buffett crowd) has been actively coached and reinforced to avoid innovation. Meantime, most of the “innovator” company stocks are highly volatile, “overpriced.” “Make your money fast before they blow up,” short-termers say, treating them as a “trade.”
Malcolm Gladwell has shown: The best way for David (here, individual investors) to beat Goliath (institutional investors) is by playing the game completely differently. Rule Breaker investors ironically serve as lonely fishers at the market’s most stocked pond. The fish swimming here are the world’s great innovators who’ll provide the most market-crushing long-term returns.
I love this pond, this style box! It’s enriched me, so much, in part because so few find their way here… to our quadrant.