8 Things School Didn't Teach You That You Need To Know
The skills you were taught in school are mostly not that useful anymore.
- You don't need to know that the Mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell.
- You don't need to know that Neptune is a gas planet.
- You don't need to know that an isoscolese triangle has two sides of equal length.
What you DO need to know is now up to you.
Until we change what we teach in schools, no one else is going to teach you what you actually need to know.Here are 8 examples to get started:
- History has been written by the winners, and you can either sit still or help the rest of us re-write it.
- Good guys think they are the good guys and bad guys think they are the good guys, so it's up to you to question authority and question yourself.
- There is a 0% return on investment for complaining, so you'd better turn that into motivation or you'll be stuck.
- A spreadsheet is simple and incredibly useful--you need to know how to use one effectively.
- Heart disease is the most common (1 in 4) causes of death in the U.S.--so, yeah, learning to cook and eat healthily is a life-changer.
- The most common regret of the dying is "not having the courage to live a life true to themselves," so maybe you should figure out what that means and how to get it.
- There are a lot of different personalities out there and you're going to have to work with them, so you'd better learn to negotiate and operate alongside them.
- It's hard to know when to put yourself first and when to put others first, but with some practice, you can figure it out.
This is just a quick list of things that have been on my mind.These "soft" skills are so critical in our world and they're not part of any curriculum I've seen.Until they're taught in schools, it's up to you to teach yourself (and those around you).
2 Minute Action
Pick one from the list that is resonating with you.I want you to take real action this time--not self-reflection or setting up bigger tasks for later.Ask yourself right now what you can do to move closer to your goal in 2 minutes.It's okay if it's small, in fact, that's the point.Everyone has 2 minutes.Let me know what your action is in the comments or if you have any other life-skills that should be added to this list.
Where Have All The Geniuses Gone?
You've been taught that there's a right answer and that there's a way to get there.Transitive Property.Pythagorean Theorem.Grammer.There's a right way and there's a wrong way.We're only going to ask you questions to which we adults already know the answers.But when was the last time school taught kids to work on problems that had no right answers?When was the last time we prepared them to fail again and again and again, without knowing when it would finally make sense?School was designed to create compliant factory workers, not geniuses.If I asked you to name a genius, you'd probably say Einstein.And you'd probably say that he was a genius because of his DNA.Almost no one would refer to an idea as genius, but would rather refer to the person as one.And the statistical probability of having more geniuses is higher than ever, now that we're around 8 billion people on the planet.So we know it's not the DNA.
So then where are all the benevolent geniuses?
The problem isn't the DNA, the problem is the system with which we're educating.And if you want to have a society where people have genius ideas, relentless execution, and profound social impact, we're going to need a system that's thoughtful, enriching, and practical enough to give people a chance.There are geniuses all over the place, we just never notice in the Age of Distraction.And the cool thing is that anytime you've had an original idea, you've been one, too.
2 Minute Action
When was the last time you put your phone down for 5 hours so you could zoom out, identify and solve problems you're facing?Perhaps a better question is: when will you?It takes 2 minutes to look through your calendar and block out the time.You're ready.You don't need to "know what you're doing," because no one does.That's just the reflex your schooling has installed in your brain.You're ready.You have everything you need to start.Go.
When Am I Going To Use This?
When am I going to use this?It's the number one question I heard as a student, as a speaker, and as a teacher.School doesn't teach the skills you need to be successful, it teaches the skills needed to a compliant worker.Sit for 8 hours, follow the formula, fill in the bubble, submit your application, wait for someone to pick you.School was built on the industrial model, a powerfully effective engine that pumps out workers. It works incredibly well.Until we change this, you are responsible for your education.
"I've never let my schooling interfere with my education" — Grant Allen
You're responsible for figuring out what skills are valuable in the context of what you do for a living (or what you wish you were doing for a living).It's up to you to answer the question: When am I going to use this?
2 Minute Action:
What's a skill you need to learn but didn't in school?What's a skill you learned in school and need to unlearn?Can you sign up for a course? Join a facebook group to ask questions? Go to a local meetup of like-minded people?These actions can take 2 minutes to execute, but can massively alter your trajectory.
“The illiterates of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” — Alvin Toffler