You Can’t Math Your Way to Success

Those of us who make our living in a field that demands certification from an elite school sometimes look down on these careers. We’ve decided that if our kid does not end up at MIT, then Google, we’ve failed as parents and a society. Too many of us have fetishized the information and tech industries to such an extent that we have shamed an entire

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Today's ramped-up parental authority rests on three pillars: science, safety, and achievement. What we ambitious parents know about the human brain tells us that children need to be placed in stimulating and productive environments if they are going to reach their full potential. What we know about the world tells us that it is a dangerous place: t... See more

“I feel sorry for the people who know exactly what they’re going to do from the time they’re sophomores in high school,” he said. In his memoir, Knight wrote that he “wasn’t much for setting goals,” and that his main goal for his nascent shoe company was to fail fast enough that he could apply what he was learning to his next venture. He made one s

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The thing about smart people is that they tend to think that if they think really hard about something, they might figure it out, when the truth is, in strategy (and life in general), there is never one right answer. Strategy requires making choices about a future that is not yet known. I’m one of those people that tends to over-intellectualize thi... See more