Book picks similar to
Better Than College: How to Build a Successful Life Without a Four-Year Degree by Blake Boles
education
non-fiction
nonfiction
homeschooling
Principles: Life and Work
Ray Dalio - 2011
Forty years later, Bridgewater has made more money for its clients than any other hedge fund in history and grown into the fifth most important private company in the United States, according to Fortune magazine. Dalio himself has been named to Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Along the way, Dalio discovered a set of unique principles that have led to Bridgewater’s exceptionally effective culture, which he describes as “an idea meritocracy that strives to achieve meaningful work and meaningful relationships through radical transparency.” It is these principles, and not anything special about Dalio—who grew up an ordinary kid in a middle-class Long Island neighborhood—that he believes are the reason behind his success.In Principles, Dalio shares what he’s learned over the course of his remarkable career. He argues that life, management, economics, and investing can all be systemized into rules and understood like machines. The book’s hundreds of practical lessons, which are built around his cornerstones of “radical truth” and “radical transparency,” include Dalio laying out the most effective ways for individuals and organizations to make decisions, approach challenges, and build strong teams. He also describes the innovative tools the firm uses to bring an idea meritocracy to life, such as creating “baseball cards” for all employees that distill their strengths and weaknesses, and employing computerized decision-making systems to make believability-weighted decisions. While the book brims with novel ideas for organizations and institutions, Principles also offers a clear, straightforward approach to decision-making that Dalio believes anyone can apply, no matter what they’re seeking to achieve.Here is a rare opportunity to gain proven advice unlike anything you’ll find in the conventional business press.
The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home
Susan Wise Bauer - 1999
Two veteran home educators outline the classical pattern of education—the trivium—which organizes learning around the maturing capacity of the child's mind: the elementary school "grammar stage," the middle school "logic stage," and the high school "rhetoric stage." Using the trivium as your model, you'll be able to instruct your child in all levels of reading, writing, history, geography, mathematics, science, foreign languages, rhetoric, logic, art, and music, regardless of your own aptitude in those subjects.Newly revised and updated, The Well-Trained Mind includes detailed book lists with complete ordering information; up-to-date listings of resources, publications, and Internet links; and useful contacts.An excellent resource for any family with a desire to incorporate a classical education in their home, whether as a curriculum or as a reference. (Educational Freedom Press)
The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn
Richard Hamming - 1996
By presenting actual experiences and analyzing them as they are described, the author conveys the developmental thought processes employed and shows a style of thinking that leads to successful results is something that can be learned. Along with spectacular successes, the author also conveys how failures contributed to shaping the thought processes. Provides the reader with a style of thinking that will enhance a person's ability to function as a problem-solver of complex technical issues. Consists of a collection of stories about the author's participation in significant discoveries, relating how those discoveries came about and, most importantly, provides analysis about the thought processes and reasoning that took place as the author and his associates progressed through engineering problems.
The Four Tendencies: The Indispensable Personality Profiles That Reveal How to Make Your Life Better (and Other People's Lives Better, Too)
Gretchen Rubin - 2017
During her multibook investigation into understanding human nature, Gretchen Rubin realized that by asking the seemingly dry question "How do I respond to expectations?" we gain explosive self-knowledge. She discovered that based on their answer, people fit into Four Tendencies: Upholders, Questioners, Obligers, and Rebels. Our Tendency shapes every aspect of our behavior, so using this framework allows us to make better decisions, meet deadlines, suffer less stress, and engage more effectively. More than 600,000 people have taken her online quiz, and managers, doctors, teachers, spouses, and parents already use the framework to help people make significant, lasting change. The Four Tendencies hold practical answers if you've ever thought...· People can rely on me, but I can't rely on myself.· How can I help someone to follow good advice?· People say I ask too many questions.· How do I work with someone who refuses to do what I ask or who keeps telling me what to do?With sharp insight, compelling research, and hilarious examples, The Four Tendencies will help you get happier, healthier, more productive, and more creative. It's far easier to succeed when you know what works for you.
How to Be an Imperfectionist: The New Way to Fearlessness, Confidence, and Freedom from Perfectionism
Stephen Guise - 2015
Perfectionism is a naturally limiting mindset. Imperfectionism, however, frees us to live outside the lines, where possibilities are infinite, mistakes are allowed, and self-judgment is minimal.The old way to approach perfectionism was to inspire people to “let go” of their need for perfection and hope they could do it. The new way is to show people how simple but highly strategic "mini actions” can empower them to gradually and effortlessly “let go" of perfectionism. This book applies the science of behavior modification directly to the roots of perfectionism, resulting in a new and superior method for change. Imperfectionists aren’t so ironic as to have perfect lives: they’re just happier, healthier, and more productive at doing what matters. ***Stephen Guise has been writing about and researching personal growth strategies since 2004. His first book, Mini Habits, has become an international bestseller and is being translated into more than a dozen languages. Stephen enjoys minimalism, playing basketball, and exploring the world.
Find Your Why: A Practical Guide to Discovering Purpose for You and Your Team
Simon Sinek - 2017
However, many people have had trouble bringing the book's message into their own career and company. Now, along with two of his colleagues, Peter Docker and David Mead, he has created a guide to the most important step any business can take: finding your why. This easy-to-follow guide starts with the search for your personal why, and then expands to helping your colleagues find your organization's why. With detailed instructions on every stage in the process, the book also answer common concerns, such as: What if my why sounds like my competitor's? Can you have more than one why? And, if my work doesn't match my why, what do I do? Whether you're entry level or a CEO, whether your team is run by the founder or a recent hire, these simple steps will lead you on a path to a more fulfilling life and longterm success for you and your colleagues.
Homeschooling 101: A Guide to Getting Started
Erica Arndt - 2013
Delving into the unknown can also create an element of self-doubt that fills your mind right off the bat. That coupled with an overwhelming task of choosing and gathering curriculum, creating lesson plans, organizing supplies, and teaching multiple grade levels can be quite disheartening.Don't worry! Homeschooling 101 is a step by step practical guide that will help you to get started, and continue on in your homeschooling journey. It is designed to help guide you through all of the steps to getting started, choosing and gathering curriculum, creating effective lesson plans, scheduling your day, organizing your home, staying the course and more! It even includes helpful homeschooling forms!
Get Rich, Lucky Bitch: Release Your Money Blocks and Live a First Class Life
Denise Duffield-Thomas - 2013
Why do most women settle for pennies instead of embracing true wealth? It's not because you're not smart or ambitious enough. You've just been programmed to block your Universal right to wealth with guilt, shame, or embarrassment. Even if you're unaware of these blocks and fears, you're probably not earning what you're really worth. Join Lucky Bitch author Denise Duffield-Thomas on a journey of self-discovery so you can smash through your abundance blocks and join a posse of women all around the world who are learning to live large and become truly lucky bitches. Are you ready to get rich, you lucky bitch?
Leveraged Learning: How the Disruption of Education Helps Lifelong Learners, and Experts with Something to Teach
Danny Iny - 2018
The name of today's game, both personally and professionally, is to be constantly learning: just enough, just in time, and never stopping. But where can knowledge workers, professionals, and lifelong learners go to find the training and education they need to stay current and thrive?It's no secret that universities and colleges are struggling to keep pace and stay current. Often out of touch, exorbitantly overpriced, and slowed by unwieldy infrastructures, bureaucracies and tenure, these institutions are fundamentally designed to deliver a mode of education that still serves an important purpose, but leaves many of our individual and collective needs for learning and growth sorely unmet.This crisis is an opportunity for the experts and professionals who possess the knowledge and skills that are so sorely needed by so many. The solution is to package their expertise into leveraged learning programs that create transformation for the lifelong learners who need them, and profit for the experts who create them.Danny Iny, a successful educator entrepreneur, has been leading the charge on this growing movement. And in Leveraged Learning he lays out the guidebook for navigating and thriving in this new world – both as a lifelong learner, and as an expert with something to teach.As a lifelong learner, you'll gain the skills and acquire the tools that you need to grow and thrive:* How education has changed, and the implications for knowledge workers and professionals.* Why the education system is failing you, and what alternatives to consider.* How to hack your patterns of behavior to support and accelerate your learning.* The two layers of learning that you must stack together to achieve mastery.* Which mental habits are critical to achieving ongoing, sustained success.* How to tell which online courses are worth taking, and which to avoid.* Why most online courses have single-digit completion rates, and how to transcend the statistics.And as an expert with something to teach, you'll learn how to package your expertise for others' benefit, and your profit:* What it really takes to develop a lucrative revenue stream from your expertise.* The piloting methodology that has worked for thousands of successful online course creators.* How to design a curriculum that engages students and leads to mastery.* What to test, measure, and iterate as your course grows and evolves.* Research-based techniques to help every student perform at the 98th percentile of success.* Methodologies for peer-based feedback that cost-effectively support student learning.* How to engineer student success with accountability, gamification, and artificial intelligence.All this and much, much more is yours for the taking. Leveraged Learning is your indispensable guide to staying current, growing, and thriving in the modern world.From the book:"The current dysfunction of education is so egregious because it hurts so many of us. Most obviously, it hurts the graduates who find themselves with a degree that has practically no market value, forced to make ends meet as Starbucks baristas or Uber drivers.It hurts the bearers of a combined $1.4 trillion of student debt. For those keeping score, that’s more than credit card debt... and unlike credit card debt, you can’t even declare bankruptcy and free yourself of the potentially lifelong consequences of a bad decision you might have made as a teenager.It hurts the employers who are starved for talent. Education hasn’t prepared job seekers with the skills to fill more than six million open jobs in the United States alone, even as almost seven million Americans are unemployed and looking for work. It hurts the learners who seek alternatives. They waste enormous amounts of time and money bouncing between a host of imperfect options like MOOC programs with completion rates that max out at 15 percent, overpriced continuing education programs offered by universities, and courses provided by private instructors of varying quality.And it hurts educators and learning professionals. They labor heroically to brighten their students’ futures, but often that their best efforts can’t overcome the inertia and challenge of the systems in which they operate.We all hurt from the broken nature of modern education, that no longer prepares us for success. And we all need a solution that is more than just a band-aid.Thankfully, such a solution exists. That’s what this book is about."
Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life
William Deresiewicz - 2014
His students, some of the nation’s brightest minds, were adrift when it came to the big questions: how to think critically and creatively, and how to find a sense of purpose.Excellent Sheep takes a sharp look at the high-pressure conveyor belt that begins with parents and counselors who demand perfect grades and culminates in the skewed applications Deresiewicz saw firsthand as a member of Yale’s admissions committee. As schools shift focus from the humanities to "practical" subjects like economics and computer science, students are losing the ability to think in innovative ways. Deresiewicz explains how college should be a time for self-discovery, when students can establish their own values and measures of success, so they can forge their own path. He addresses parents, students, educators, and anyone who's interested in the direction of American society, featuring quotes from real students and graduates he has corresponded with over the years, candidly exposing where the system is broken and clearly presenting solutions.
The Fire Starter Sessions: A Soulful + Practical Guide to Creating Success on Your Own Terms
Danielle LaPorte - 2012
As the creator of DanielleLaPorte.com--deemed “the best place online for kick-ass spirituality,” Danielle LaPorte’s straight-talk life-and-livelihood sermons have been read by over one million people. Bold but empathetic, she reframes popular self-help and success concepts: : Life balance is a myth, and the pursuit of it is causing us more stress then the craving for balance itself. : Being well-rounded is over-rated. When you focus on developing your true strengths, you enter your mastery zone. : Screw your principles (they might be holding you back). : We have ambition backwards. Getting clear on how you want to feel in your life + work is more important than setting goals. It's the most potent form of clarity that you can have, and it's what leads to true fulfillment.
Raise a Smarter Child by Kindergarten: Raise IQ points by up to 30 points and turn on your child's smart genes Points
David Perlmutter - 2006
Scientists now know that the human brain is undergoing a constant and dramatic transformation in the first years of life. During this peak time of development, every activity and experience leaves an indelible mark on your baby’s brain, for better or worse. The right kind of stimulation and nutrition will create connections in the brain that promote intelligence and raise IQ. The wrong kinds of activities and foods can stifle intellectual development, destroy brain cells, and leave your child more vulnerable to learning or behavior problems down the road. So, what can you do during the first five years to ensure that your child is primed to excel?The good news is that raising a smarter child is easier than you think. It doesn’t require making an investment in expensive equipment or high priced tutors. It’s as simple as playing the right games, serving the right foods, and maintaining a brain-enhancing environment in your home by eliminating common household toxins. In Raise a Smarter Child by Kindergarten by Dr. David Perlmutter, you’ll learn easy and highly effective strategies that can vastly improve your child’s brain power and reduce his or her chances of developing ADD and ADHD. For example, you can:• Stimulate Memory: Changing a component on the over-the-crib mobile every week makes the baby compare what was there before to what’s there now, reinforcing memory pathways in the brain that are critical for learning.• Spread out those shots: Schedule more frequent trips to the pediatrician for vaccinations, so that fewer shots are administered at once. Flooding the immune system with a cocktail of different vaccines can damage the nervous system. • Get rid of toxins: Protecting a child from neurotoxins found in foods, toys and even baby bottles can help preserve precious IQ points. Dr. Perlmutter provides a scientifically backed food and supplement plan for children and nursing mothers and details the many brain-building activities that you can do with your child. In addition, he reveals the numerous toys and household products that contain harmful, brain-damaging toxins and shows how to identify and combat common childhood problems like ADD and food allergies that may affect your child’s development. Your job over the first five years is to help your child build the best brain possible. With Dr. Perlmutter’s help, you can mine the countless opportunities you have each day to make your child smarter, happier and better prepared to excel.
Secrets of a Buccaneer-Scholar: How Self-Education and the Pursuit of Passion Can Lead to a Lifetime of Success
James Marcus Bach - 2009
In today's volatile job market, ideas are more important than training, innovation is more important than credentials; traditional schooling may no longer be necessary or even useful. The ability to educate oneself 'to learn how to learn' is crucial. In Secrets of a Buccaneer-Scholar James Bach demonstrates how to nurture one's natural curiosities and passions through the whimsical learning process he calls 'buccaneering' demonstrating that those who understand this fundamental principle will come to dominate this new world.
Creating Magic
Lee Cockerell - 2008
The secret for creating magic in our careers, our organizations, and our lives is simple: outstanding leadership--the kind that inspires employees, delights customers, and achieves extraordinary business results. No one knows more about this kind of leadership than Lee Cockerell, the man who ran Walt Disney World(R) Resort operations for over a decade. And in Creating Magic, he shares the leadership principles that not only guided his own journey from a poor farm boy in Oklahoma to the head of operations for a multibillion dollar enterprise, but that also soon came to form the cultural bedrock of the world's number one vacation destination. But as Lee demonstrates, great leadership isn't about mastering impossibly complex management theories. We can all become outstanding leaders by following the ten practical, common sense strategies outlined in this remarkable book. As straightforward as they are profound, these leadership lessons include: Everyone is important.Make your people your brand. Burn the free fuel: appreciation, recognition, and encouragement. Give people a purpose, not just a job. Combining surprising business wisdom with insightful and entertaining stories from Lee's four decades on the front lines of some of the world's best-run companies, Creating Magic shows all of us - from small business owners to managers at every level - how to become better leaders by infusing quality, character, courage, enthusiasm, and integrity into our workplace and into our lives.
The Elephant in the Classroom: Helping Children Learn and Love Maths
Jo Boaler - 2009
Techniques and strategies for teachers to use in interesting their pupils in mathematics.