Northwest Educational Services

Life is full of asymptotes: mastery, knowledge, love, wisdom. Understanding this math concept will make you a better human.
(3-minute read)

Life’s Asymptotes Contents hide Mastery Knowledge Perfection Health and Fitness Love and Kindness Wisdom There’s a math concept that I keep seeing in real life. It’s a weird one: the asymptote. An asymptote is a line that a graph curves towards but never reaches. The graph gets closer and closer, but it can never...

"But when are we going to use this math in real life?"
The correct answer is:
“Probably never. But also, ALWAYS.”
Because it's not about the math. It's about the brain training.

It Was Never About the Math Contents hide Brain Muscles Logic Problem-Solving Flexibility It’s Never Been About the Math Most people don’t use math in their careers. Most people rarely use anything other than basic math in their daily lives. So, for most people, learning math is a waste of time, right? Nope. Nearly all of ...

The primary purpose of studying history is to practice shifting perspective.

And that's a skill we need every day.

(4-minute read)

The Secret Reason We Study History Contents hide Perspective Progress for Whom? Perspective-Shifting in Our Daily Lives Perspective-Shifting About Ourselves This Makes You a Better Person It is often said that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.1 On the other hand, Aldous Huxley famously quipped: “That men ...

STEM careers are consistently among the most in-demand and high-paying professions, and many children dream of becoming scientists, engineers, or doctors because the jobs sound interesting. But as they go through school, many of these students ultimately give up on STEM.

Why?

The answer has a lot to do with how we prioritize going fast over developing mastery. Students skip a year (or two) in math to get ahead. We push them forward, year after year, without addressing their knowledge gaps. Eventually, students hit a wall and give up.

We can do better. Here's how.
(3-minute read)

Why Do Students Give Up on STEM? STEM careers are persistently among the most in-demand and high-paying professions out there, and many children dream of becoming scientists, engineers, or doctors because the jobs sound interesting. But as they go through school, many of these students ultimately give up on STEM. There are many rea...

Practice getting the details right when it doesn't matter, so you can get them right when it does.

Getting the Details Right One of my dad’s favorite sayings is, “It’s not a piano.” He says this when we’re working on a project that doesn’t require a great deal of precision, such as building something that doesn’t need to look good. There’s a threshold of functionality that’s good enough, and once that’...

Once again, what you learn in school isn't about the particular subject. Math classes give you "extension questions" because LIFE is full of extension questions.
(4-minute read)

How to Handle Extension Questions Contents hide What are extension questions? Extension questions are about mastery. Extension questions are a form of guessing. Extension questions earn good money. Life is full of extension questions. “But they never taught this! How can it be on the test?” This is a common complaint in higher-l...

New podcast interview: relationships, habits, and parenting.

E119 | Why 50/50 Relationships Don’t Work | Chris Loper Struggling to feel like things are truly fair in your relationship? Wondering why 50/50 never works out the way you imagined? In this episode of The 4 Habits...

I only knew 25% of the material, but I got the only A out of three honors classes.
How?
By treating guessing like a skill rather than like a lottery.

Guessing is a Skill Contents hide Story #1 Story #2 I’m a Good Example of a Bad Example Guessing is a Life Skill Guessing is Most of What Your Brain Does Elements of the Skill of Guessing I sometimes joke that guessing is my superpower. Usually, this is after my wife has asked me a random question on a Read More

"99 percent of the daily experience of professional mathematicians working at the top of their fields is getting problems wrong.” -David Yeager, from 10 to 25

(4-minute read)

How Often Are Experts Confused? Contents hide But surely experts don’t struggle like this? 99 percent?! It’s not supposed to all make sense. Life isn’t full of easy problems. We need to teach resilience. Too often, when students are confused by what they’re trying to learn, they feel like something is wrong with them, like...

Stop trying to write in a way that's FANCY.
Write in a way that's CLEAR.
(2-minute read)

The Secret to Better Writing The most common mistake I see in students’ writing is trying to cram too many ideas into each sentence. They write a decent sentence, but then they don’t stop. They continue the sentence with a rambling series of phrases that add so many additional ideas that the reader gets lost. Suddenly, what...