Hey friends!
Happy Sunday and day after July 4th. We’ve got another handful of new subscribers this week, so welcome to those of you reading for the first time.
If you are reading this and haven’t subscribed yet you can do that here.
For the rest of you, you’re late for class……
Let’s get to it! Today’s curriculum:
Homeroom
My Essay: Higher Education’s Cost Trap
This week I’m sharing an essay that I published a few weeks ago on the cost of higher education. Higher ed. costs have rocketed higher and higher since…forever, and we’ve come to a place where it’s time to strongly consider if it’s worth it.
In this essay I explore why costs have risen, and a few potential shifts that universities could make to provide value for their students. I’d love to know what you think about this topic, it’s my favorite thing to talk about.
I’ve also been working on a project building an online community of writers with a few friends called Writer’s Bloc. We opened our group to beta users last Monday and it’s been great connecting with the community so far. If you’re a writer and are interested you can check out some info and join the waitlist here:
Future Studies in Education
Essay: 10 Year Vision: Write of Passage - David Perell (2-minute read)
This 10 year vision for his writing course by David Perell may very well be the future of education. I haven’t seen many other models that make as much sense as this. Here is his bite-size summary:
The school I want to build helps people start writing, build an online audience, and start a company in their niche. They’ll graduate once they have a profitable business.
This is exactly the type of value proposition that colleges are missing. Colleges bring you in, take your money and then you’re mostly on your own as you move on in life. What if there was a school that stayed alongside you and helped you grow into your profession and as you build a profitable business?
Those are undeniable ROI metrics, and it’s the type of thing schools need to show if they’re going to keep up with online education debutantes. This model from Perell is something we’re going to see a ton of as traditional colleges are forced to change.
Nuclear History
Did you know that in 1961 the Soviet Union built an atomic bomb so powerful that it was 1,500 times stronger than the bomb the US dropped on Hiroshima?
I didn’t. When I found this out I felt a bomb of that magnitude go off inside my brain.
The bomb was called Tsar Bomba and it was 10 times stronger than every conventional bomb dropped during WWII….combined.
Here’s a BBC article about it, just so you know I’m telling the truth.
What’s most interesting about this bomb is the fact that it was far too powerful to use. This couldn’t have been used to start a war during the Cold War Era because the US would have simply retaliated using equal force, wiping Moscow off the face of the Earth.
But, what’s also interesting is that once the USSR and US understood that a bomb like this couldn’t be used, they began intentionally developing less powerful bombs.
The unintended result? It made using Tsar Bomba conceivable. An interesting case study showing that we can easily escalate to an inconceivable end result by getting there in baby steps.
Philosophy of a Mega Business
Amazon is fascinating. Jeff Bezos is fascinating. I am all-in on some of their business philosophies. Here are a few that I love:
Day 1 - This is Amazon’s core mantra. Every day at Amazon is Day 1. Day 2 means they’re stagnant and declining, eventually toward death. Bezos ends each shareholder letter by saying “As always, I attach a copy of our original 1997 letter. It remains Day 1.”
How amazing is that? It basically tells shareholders that he figured everything out at the beginning and hasn’t had to change his core philosophy that much since he started. What a baller.
High-Velocity Decision Making - Amazon employees are empowered to make decisions quickly. This promotes a “ready, fire, aim” mentality and keeps things from getting bogged down in potentially huge systems within their organization. I’ve been firsthand witness to some paralyzingly slow decision cycles in business and it absolutely ruins work for employees and makes decisions irrelevant for executives. At Amazon, if the answer is unclear you just pick one and go with it. If you have to reverse course later you can you have the means to do so.
No PowerPoints - Another incredible, contrarian decision by Bezos. No PowerPoints allowed in the Amazon! Instead, Bezos requests his employees to write out arguments in essay form. It has to be narrative text, not bullet points. Take a look at this memo Bezos sent informing his team of this decision.
Amazon is the company of our generation and it’s cool to be able to look and see the unique qualities that have made them successful.
Mixology
Let’s end with something light. How about a cocktail?
This website is so ridiculously cool I’m not even sure where to start.
One of the most aesthetically pleasing, simple projects I’ve seen for a while. Use it to make a Sunday cocktail to top off the weekend, or if you’re reading this on Monday, to keep the holiday weekend alive.
Quote of the Week
“The more the internet exposes people to new points of view, the angrier people get that different views exist.” -Benedict Evans
Photo of the Week
I got out of LA for the first time since COVID brought me off the road. My wife and I went to Santa Barbara with my parents for 2 nights.
This is at the Santa Barbara Mission. That building was completed and dedicated in 1820.
That’s all for this week, thanks for attending!
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See you all next week!
-Ryan