Austin Scholar #95: A year in review
& looking towards 2024
Hey, y'all!
This week from Austin Scholar...
A year in review
Looking towards 2024
As this year comes to a close, I thought I’d change up the format of this newsletter and write a 2023 Austin Scholar year-in-review, inspired by the fantastic Stratechery yearly review. Below you'll find a summary of all my favorite things I've done this year, and links to this year's favorite newsletters.
But before we dive in, I’m extremely happy to report that I got into Stanford!! I’m so beyond proud and excited – and just know that I couldn’t have done it without each and every one of you. Just by subscribing to this newsletter, you help me achieve goals I never thought possible, so thank you for being along for the journey.
(The video of me opening my acceptance letter is absolutely hilarious – and was a complete comedy of errors. I couldn’t log in, my sister was explaining that it’s okay if I don’t get in ‘who cares about Stanford?’, and my mom had her ear pressed up against the door waiting to hear the results. It’s now one of my treasured memories, and another thing I wouldn’t have without all of your help.)
A year in review
The most popular Austin Scholar newsletters
Coming in first, my most popular Austin Scholar newsletter this year also happens to be my favorite piece I’ve ever written. I’m obsessed with the connection between my two favorite subjects: writing and math–and in this piece, I explore how we should teach math through imagination and experimentation, and writing through logic and equations.
On my one-year Austin Scholar anniversary, I let out my vulnerabilities and described my writing journey. I also shared the five things I learned from that journey (that still apply):
If you don't like what you're doing, you're not going to do it
Grow in public
Have ambitious friends
Learning how to learn will change your life
Experiment and try new, cool things
Snatching the bronze medal, this newsletter dives into all of my education secrets: how I truly learn all of my academics in just 2 hours every day (hint: it’s by using apps and learning science).
My most viral threads
In this thread, I expose the truth behind our K-12 education system: that kids aren’t learning and that school is wasting 12 years of kids’ lives. The average graduating high school senior knows as much as the highest performing 3rd grader, among other terrifying statistics.
Here, I talk about a new idea for a high school: to create a program like Y Combinator for ambitious kids who want to create an Olympic-level project.
In this post, I dive into my own story of going from traditional school to the innovative, incredible model that changed my life.
My favorite posts on education
Y School – how a school inspired by Y Combinator might look, with the following pillars: Olympic-level projects, passion and purpose, becoming an expert, building an audience in public, and monetization
Why (And How) Your Kid Should Use AI to Study – how I studied for my APs using ChatGPT, prompts your kid can use to do the same, and the best Twitter accounts for following AI
How I got a 1600 SAT score – aside from the daily mastery I achieved through 2 Hour Learning, here I shared the best tips that your kid can use to crush the SAT
My favorite posts on life skills
Helping 500 Ukrainian refugee kids – with our Learn and Earn program, my sister, our friend, and I traveled to Ukraine over the summer to help refugee children get their educations back on track
How my friends and I built an online course in 48 hours – using the Y-School framework, my friends and I utilized AI and each other to create an online course in 48 hours and how your kid can do the same
My favorite posts on mental health
How Texting Saved My Relationship with My Parents – why writing things down helped my anxiety and allowed me to better communicate with my parents, how you can create a similar system, and advice from Lynn Lyons (a famous family psychotherapist)
The 50 Green Things – how I used the 50 Green Things to raise my baseline to happiness, how (and why) you can set up your own 50 Green Things, and what to put on your list
My favorite posts on parenting
How to intentionally build a relationship with your kid, even if they’re angry at you – the yearly baseball tradition, why you should create your own commitments with your child, and what those traditions should be
The three equations you need to connect with your kid – my own communication failures with my parents (and how I used a DBT skill to overcome them), three INCREDIBLY EASY AND SIMPLE formulas you can use to improve your connection with your child, and how they could be applied
Looking towards 2024
Now, I had some great stuff going on in 2023, but that’s got nothing on 2024.
My lovely Austin Scholar subscribers can expect to read about…