People spend too much on babies and learning. We perceive an urgency or risk, and so we let our guard down and accept what the salesman tells us. “Don’t skimp on a new car, your child’s life is at risk.” On the one hand, we […]
Author: Tony
Hi, I’m Tony. I am an engineering professor, family man, and rock climber living in Las Vegas, NV. I write for students, educators, and early-career professionals about how to live a fulfilling life.
How Investments Work
Investments work on a simple principle: forgo consumption today, and reap the ability to consume more later. If we spend a little less from our paychecks, we can save for retirement. After a little effort spent selecting good mutual funds, the magic of compound interest will […]
Who’s in Charge Here? Budgeting Your Time
Students face a number of unique circumstances that create stress in their lives. Typically, effort in any one class comes in peaks and waves. Overlay 5 classes, and you find yourself with a fire to put out every week. It doesn’t take long before you’re […]
Why Time Management Doesn’t Work for Students and Teachers
The promise of most classic productivity books is: “follow my steps and you’ll be able to get more done, faster.” The promise of most recent productivity books is: “follow my steps and you’ll be able to get the right things done, largely by saying ‘no’ to the […]
Course Coordination and Control
Weeks 1-5 of the semester: lectures, reading assignments, homework (some of which is collected and graded). Maybe a quiz or two. Week 6 of the semester: TESTS! Every semester is the same thing. Each class arrives at big assignments at the same time: tests always […]
Unconscious Self-Sabotage
It’s 10:00 PM, you’ve got 2 assignments due tomorrow, a quiz the next day, and an exam the day after that. You haven’t eaten dinner yet, and you haven’t started either assignment. You think to yourself, “if I could just clear this to-do list, I […]
Too Much Coverage
As we gear up for a new semester, teachers and students alike hope that this will be the best semester ever. We’ve got some work to do, or we will find ourselves in the same place as last semester: busy working without learning, stressed, firefighting, […]
New Semester Resolutions
Think back to the end of last semester. How did that go for you? How much sleep did you lose preparing for exams? Were you overwhelmed with coursework and study that needed doing? Did you simultaneously have several projects and several exams to prep for? […]
Pride Kills Connected Learning
If you spend more than a minute with a good search engine, you can find dozens of explanations of just about any topic. Written articles, blog posts, podcasts, videos, books, slides, and infographics are just some of the many formats. Yet when a teacher sits […]
YOUtopia
The factory is empty. Schools make factory workers. Now what?
