Austin Scholar #159: Lessons you can learn from my first two quarters at Stanford
& my life razor
Hey, y'all!
This week from Austin Scholar...
Austin’s Anecdote: My life razor
Lessons you can learn from my first two quarters at Stanford
Scholar’s Sources: What I’ve been thinking about…
Today is my birthday! I’m officially nineteen years old. It really is crazy how much time has passed since I started writing this newsletter – I was fifteen when I wrote my first edition and sixteen when I was able to publish it on Substack. I thank each and every one of you for supporting me throughout this journey.
Tomorrow, my third quarter at Stanford begins. So far, I’ve made it through two rounds of finals and gotten to know over a hundred Stanford students in my hall and dorm, and through my classes and extracurriculars. One of the most common questions I’m asked by my readers is what they should be teaching their kids so they can get into and do well at an Ivy-Plus school. And well, that’s what I’m going to be talking about in this week’s article.
Austin’s Anecdote: My life razor
I hung out with Sahil Bloom a few days ago, so I thought I’d talk about one of my favorite ideas from his book, The 5 Types of Wealth.
One of the first concepts Sahil talks about in The 5 Types of Wealth is your “life razor.” He defines a razor as “a rule of thumb that simplifies decision making” (pg. 35), and a life razor as one that will “allow you to navigate the uncertainty and trials of life with the confidence of an experienced explorer” (pg. 37).
Basically, having a life razor will help make decisions about your actions easier.
Sahil’s life razor is “I will coach my son’s sports teams.” When he is faced with making a tough decision, he asks himself “what would the type of person who coaches his son’s sports teams do in this situation? How would they act?” (pg. 38-39). His answer is that this type of person will always put his family first and is the kind of man that his son wants to have as a coach – and if that person would turn down a financial opportunity in order to spend more time with his family, so would Sahil.
I love this idea because we all have that ideal version of ourselves – someone who shows up in our vision boards and who we can see in the far, far future of our lives. But this razor implies that you already are that person – you have the capacity to make the decisions that build you into the person you want to be. I find this idea super inspiring and a lot easier to relate to than some motivational TikTok video trying to coach me into chasing my dreams but not giving me a frame to think about how.
This concept is especially important for kids who are trying to figure out who they are. They don’t have to wait until they’re twenty years old to become their dream self – they can start now.
Here’s how they can create their life razor:
The goal is to complete this sentence: “I am the type of person who [blank].” To do so, write down the actions and character traits that capture your ideal identity (page 40).
Ask yourself questions like:
What are the traits of the friend who I admire most?
Who do I envy on social media? Why? How do they act?
What do I want to do next year? What are the traits of someone who has already done that?
What is my favorite thing about my parents?
Once you do that, try to identify the common link between these traits. Here’s an example in my life to show you how it works:
The friends I admire most are always trying to learn new things and take advantage of every opportunity they are presented with.
I envy content creators who always look put together and are doing interesting things.
Next year, I want to be constantly working towards cool projects while at the same time meeting as many new people as I can. The people who I know who have done this are excellent managers of their time and take every small window of opportunity to be social.
My favorite thing about my parents is how they always make time for me.
These may sound disconnected, but these all lead to my life razor: I am the type of person who my sister and her friends look to for advice.
This version of me not only prioritizes connecting with friends and family, but is also constantly learning to ensure she will be able to answer any question her younger sister might have. This is also the type of person who is interesting enough that her sister not only feels comfortable asking for help, but actually wants to come to when she or her friends need support. So when I’m faced with a tough decision, I’ll ask myself what someone who my sister and her friends look to for advice would do. And that’s what I do.
Lessons you can learn from my first two quarters at Stanford
I’m only two quarters into my time at Stanford, but I already have some insights. When you read about Stanford explaining how they won’t admit students just based on their test scores (60% of people who got a 1600 but didn’t get in), you have to wonder, what does it mean to be a “stand-out” kid?
Over these last six months, I’ve gotten to know so many Stanford students and I have to say that they really are amazingly impressive. Because of my newsletter, I often get complimented by parents on my ability to complete certain tasks or present myself in a certain way. But all I can think is that I’ve met at least three people in the last six months who make me look like a beginner.
So what are these skills that my classmates excel at? What skills allow them to become stand-out students? Well, the answer reminds me of my freshman year of high school when my guide Chloe (herself a Harvard Law School student) explained the life skills we were going to learn throughout our time at Alpha High:
Ambitious goal setting
In K-8 at Alpha we’re taught goal setting, and how to set goals that you know how to hit. I loved that because I was excellent at it. But Chloe explained that ambitious goal setting is when you set a goal so challenging that you have no idea how to attain it – and this was a lot harder for me to do because I love to achieve my goals.
But I’ve noticed that all of my Stanford classmates have the ability to set these ambitious goals that they want to work on for the next few years that they’re not totally sure how to achieve.
For example, one of my project partners in COLLEGE was Rintaro Sasaki, a Japanese baseball player who isn’t just a Stanford freshman, but is transforming college baseball.
So parents, when admissions officers talk about a “stand-out” student, they’re talking about students who definitely know how to set and meet clear academic goals, but also have the passion and fearlessness to try and change the world.
Austin Scholar…
Public speaking
Chloe was clear that learning this skill wasn’t about the traditional debate club public speaking abilities; rather, it was about building and commanding an audience. In high school, this was a huge growth area for me, and I spent months working up the courage to even send one DM to one of my heroes (like Sahil Bloom or David Perell), let alone have a conversation with them or pitch my work.
While that skill wasn’t natural for me, it is a critical life skill that my Stanford classmates have mastered. My roommate will tell me every few weeks that she won’t be around because she’s going to speak at a mental health conference. Or one of my dorm mates, Annabelle, told me that she was flying to my hometown to speak at SXSW about her bookstore.
So far, in fifty percent of my classes, presentation ability can really help out – Stanford professors seem to assume the skill to command an audience (even in my German class).
Austin Scholar…
On Elon Musk’s pitching structure & my rules for public speaking
Be an expert
When Chloe explained “be an expert,” it was clear that she really meant the word “expert.” And the test to prove we’d gained it? We would declare an area of expertise and our classmates would get Google (now updated to ChatGPT) and you would have to know as much as Google or beat ChatGPT’s answers in eight out of ten questions. This absolutely instills the concepts of excellence and mastery for students, and I see it reflected in my Stanford classmates as well.
In the advanced math class I’m about to take, the median test score is a 96/100. The curve doesn’t do anything except hurt. When my classmates talk about the SAT, they talk about the one or two questions they missed. Even when you go to the student-staffed coffee shops, you can count on the fact that your complex, twelve ingredient order is going to be perfectly executed every time. This is a group of people who live with a mastery mindset.
Most high schools don’t teach these skills. But each of these are absolutely teachable for everyone. And if your child doesn’t have these skills, find a school that does, or teach them yourself.
Austin Scholar…
On how to become an expert in anything
Scholar’s Sources: What I’ve been thinking about…
19 things every 19 year old should be able to do
In honor of me turning nineteen today, I thought it was only right that I read an article on things I should be able to do. Here’s what the article says:
Search for job applications
Create a LinkedIn profile
Live on your own
Communicate with loved ones
Use health insurance
Get medical health
Know your health history
Prepare for a job interview
Interview well
Build familial relationships
Buy and cook meals
Fill out paperwork
Time management
Understand current events
Travel on your own
Move into a new apartment
Know how to buy a gift
Conduct your own banking
Self-care
I honestly think this is a great, practical list for a typical nineteen-year-old. But if my newsletter has taught you anything, I hope that you realize that your kid is capable of so much more than just the things on this list. Maybe things like the skills I talked about in this exact newsletter :)
Thanks for reading. Go crush the week! See y'all on Sunday.
Love your work. Btw, I was a freshman in Otero 30 years ago... time flies. Question: What are some ways I can teach my 7yo goal-setting?