• Think critically
• Nurture curiosity
• Save and prep taxes
• Sustain relationships
• Have difficult convos
• Navigate mental health
Yet they teach how to:
• Differentiate dinosaurs
• Memorize the periodic table
• Make paper snowflakes
School is an astonishing failure of modern society.
We're taught about dinosaurs before learning how to function as people.
Thread: Life lessons I wish school taught all of us.
• Think critically
• Nurture curiosity
• Save and prep taxes
• Sustain relationships
• Have difficult convos
• Navigate mental health
Yet they teach how to:
• Differentiate dinosaurs
• Memorize the periodic table
• Make paper snowflakes
1. Awareness: Those in power don't realize how bad it is.
2. Priorities: It's not a pressing issue. Voters care about the cost of education—not enough about WHAT is taught.
3. What to do: Shout to the politicians and educators in power.
These are the ones on my mind lately. This list could be 1,000 items long. Add yours to the thread.
Here we go.
Assuming bad intent.
One of the highest ROI things we can teach our children:
Start by assuming good intent: Train your reflex to ask questions before making assumptions.
Always lead with curiosity—never critique.
So, now I pretend my problems are those of others. It works.
I project my circumstances onto a friend and act out being coldly rational to get them from A to Z.
A rule of thumb: Move slowly when choosing what to focus on. But move very quickly once you've decided.
Move slow then fast.
Reserve 15 minutes per week to send appreciation emails to anyone you really enjoyed chatting with.
If you’re specific about why you appreciated the chat—instead of just saying "Great chatting!"—it resonates much deeper.
• Mirror talking speed
• Avoid gossip + negativity
• Know that a real smile includes the eyes
• Nail first impressions because they're so hard to reverse
• In convo, ask questions to help people think more deeply about what they're saying
• Instead of What's new?, I ask "What can't you get off your mind lately?"
• How's work? → What's the most exciting thing you could be doing?
I ask questions that get people to focus on their enthusiasm. No one gets offended.
• Find a boss who loves to mentor
• Join a cohort-based online class
• Find similar minds on Twitter and form a peer group
Mentorship + friendship turn advice into action.
Genuine experts realize the complexity/nuance of their craft, and they don’t feel comfortable claiming to be authorities.
1. Bias toward taking action. No lazy deferring.
2. Always looking to prove themselves wrong.
3. Regularly reassess their priorities without any fear of changing them.
Key: They balance progress with indulging curiosity.
Judge your years by how much you cashed in on that investment.
Being teachable = accepting when you’re wrong.
As adults, we suddenly forget we're still students. We must continue to seek discussion with people who'll tell us when we’re wrong.
Your teachers are now the strangers around you.
On the left are qualities they say can likely be improved with training.
On the right are red flags.
(I disagree with the ranking of "self-awareness.")
School is a glorified babysitting service for people who aren't yet self-sufficient.
Society critically needs this—but to an extent.
It's very dangerous when your babysitter squashes your curiosity, passion, and drive for nearly everything.
See past threads over here: @julian
More from Julian Shapiro
THREAD: I've helped 200+ startups grow their newsletters.
Email marketing tactics 👇
People reflexively ignore welcome emails after signup.
• Delay welcome emails by 45min to bypass this reflex
• Send the email from a person—not the business. Julian Shapiro is more human than https://t.co/8y68CQzBOR
• Use unique subjects:
👎 Welcome
👍 Grammerly = Bye Typos
Make it seamless to refer
• Remind readers at the end of each issue that they can refer others. Include a link.
• Have a web version of every issue so they can be easily shared outside of email
• Consider rewards: Send a monthly bonus issue for referring 5 friends
SEO can be a vanity metric if it doesn't convert to leads.
• Offer readers quizzes to identify the best products for them. Require an email to see results.
• Create Buyer's Guides: Make PDFs with nice visuals to help readers learn skills. Require an email.
When pitching your newsletter on your site:
• Show a sample issue on the page. Prove how high quality your content is.
• Give them control over how often they get emailed. Some want weekly, but others REALLY want monthly. High volume can burn you and your readers out.
Email marketing tactics 👇
People reflexively ignore welcome emails after signup.
• Delay welcome emails by 45min to bypass this reflex
• Send the email from a person—not the business. Julian Shapiro is more human than https://t.co/8y68CQzBOR
• Use unique subjects:
👎 Welcome
👍 Grammerly = Bye Typos
Make it seamless to refer
• Remind readers at the end of each issue that they can refer others. Include a link.
• Have a web version of every issue so they can be easily shared outside of email
• Consider rewards: Send a monthly bonus issue for referring 5 friends
SEO can be a vanity metric if it doesn't convert to leads.
• Offer readers quizzes to identify the best products for them. Require an email to see results.
• Create Buyer's Guides: Make PDFs with nice visuals to help readers learn skills. Require an email.
When pitching your newsletter on your site:
• Show a sample issue on the page. Prove how high quality your content is.
• Give them control over how often they get emailed. Some want weekly, but others REALLY want monthly. High volume can burn you and your readers out.
More from Education
Time for some thoughts on schools given the revised SickKids document and the fact that ON decided to leave most schools closed. ON is not the only jurisdiction to do so, but important to note that many jurisdictions would not have done so -even with higher incidence rates.
As outlined in the tweet by @NishaOttawa yesterday, the situation is complex, and not a simple right or wrong https://t.co/DO0v3j9wzr. And no one needs to list all the potential risks and downsides of prolonged school closures.
On the other hand: while school closures do not directly protect our most vulnerable in long-term care at all, one cannot deny that any factor potentially increasing community transmission may have an indirect effect on the risk to these institutions, and on healthcare.
The question is: to what extend do schools contribute to transmission, and how to balance this against the risk of prolonged school closures. The leaked data from yesterday shows a mixed picture -schools are neither unicorns (ie COVID free) nor infernos.
Assuming this data is largely correct -while waiting for an official publication of the data, it shows first and foremost the known high case numbers at Thorncliff, while other schools had been doing very well -are safe- reiterating the impact of socioeconomics on the COVID risk.
A group of Ontario experts led by SickKids has updated its guidance for school operation during the COVID-19 pandemic. The living document, COVID-19: Updated Guidance for School Operation During the Pandemic, can be read here: https://t.co/rotLqDqkQh pic.twitter.com/q7kVezAPoG
— SickKids_TheHospital (@SickKidsNews) January 21, 2021
As outlined in the tweet by @NishaOttawa yesterday, the situation is complex, and not a simple right or wrong https://t.co/DO0v3j9wzr. And no one needs to list all the potential risks and downsides of prolonged school closures.
1/It's the eve of provincial announcements on schools reopening for in-person instruction.
— Nisha Thampi (@NishaOttawa) January 20, 2021
Households are under stress and experts are divided on whether schools are unicorns or infernos.
Everyone wants to do right by kids, who have borne so much throughout this pandemic.
On the other hand: while school closures do not directly protect our most vulnerable in long-term care at all, one cannot deny that any factor potentially increasing community transmission may have an indirect effect on the risk to these institutions, and on healthcare.
The question is: to what extend do schools contribute to transmission, and how to balance this against the risk of prolonged school closures. The leaked data from yesterday shows a mixed picture -schools are neither unicorns (ie COVID free) nor infernos.
Assuming this data is largely correct -while waiting for an official publication of the data, it shows first and foremost the known high case numbers at Thorncliff, while other schools had been doing very well -are safe- reiterating the impact of socioeconomics on the COVID risk.
