On April 17, 2017, my dad passed away For the last 13 months, I worked @CBinsights and also ran his chemical manufacturing biz in India It was acquired on June 1 Lessons, thank yous and observations here cbinsights.com/research/team…

Jensen Huang of Nvidia thinks kids don't need to learn basic math With audiobooks,why even learn to read? ""It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it"

Startup idea: A rigorous college that just admits the most qualified students Oddly, this is a crazy idea

Drone photo of the @ForgePrep campus We signed a lease in November 2025 and then... * gut renovated as 73 year old building including brutal HVAC / ventilation work * recruited 35 amazing students & founding families * built an entirely new type of curriculum * assembled an exceptional team of educators * got into the WSJ and other media pubs * grew our newsletter to 4300+ It's been fun to be back grinding in full startup mode. Stay tuned though...lots more coming

Best reason I've seen that Silicon Valley Jehovah's Witnesses don't really believe their own predictions

Yesterday, we had our first-ever Monday morning meeting and 2 of our students led the whole school in The Pledge of Allegiance. It was awesome. Thx to 2 of our students, Teddy and Arjan, for taking the lead and kicking off this Monday morning tradition.

This was pretty shocking Our students were in school at Forge Prep for 3 days this past week, and... ..for that entire time, they never used a Chromebook or watched a video No phones or smart watches either ...and they survived Oddly, they seemed to actually like it WTF??!!! There were lots of games played (Jenga, Uno, basketball, volleyball and Blokus being favorites)

While people whine about datacenters... ...the actual infrastructure that builds society is crumbling... and there are no protests and zero media coverage of this 67% of Americans are dissatisfied with K-12 education a 27 year low

Yesterday, we welcomed 35 students and their families to @ForgePrep for our first day of school. Your children’s education is the most important investment you’ll make in their future. To our 35 founding families, thank you for trusting us with it. Let’s go Honey Badgers!

"Syracuse increased tuition well above the rate of inflation to $69,180 for this year, up from $40,458 in 2013-14. Total cost of attendance is now $98,544." 🤣“We cannot marginalize and erode the competitive moats [around Syracuse’s best programs] by compromising the selectivity, by compromising the prestige.” -- Syracuse Chancellor Michael Haynie

This is our largest "classroom" @ForgePrep What don't you see? ▪️ Rows & columns of desks ▪️25-30 student seats We call these our seminar rooms A while ago, I'd read a great quote by Loris Malaguzzi, the founder of the Reggio Emilia approach who said "There are three teachers of children: adults, other children, and their physical environment." We've been very purposeful trying to build an environment that lives up to that ideal Our seminar rooms are just one example. Students sit facing each other and often, the Guide is sitting with them right at the table. So in addition to learning from the adult (the Guide), they will from each other. I'm really excited for students to join us next week...and also excited that we'll never subject students to rooms of 25 students sitting in columns & rows of desks #backtoschool

Education should focus on fostering just 4 things: * Adaptability * Creativity * Resilience * Agency Now, companies are waking up to this They will demand this from their educational institutions as well (or those orgs will perish)

💯 Business plan competitions at schools are a waste of time @paulg of Y Combinator with his typical clarity 100% aligned to our philosophy at Forge Prep

If Sam and Dario built this 1 app, they could make Americans love AI The app is called... Fight It What does Fight It do? It helps Americans fight the institutions that are generally horrible to deal with ▪️Medical insurer denied your claim? Fight it. ▪️Student-loan servicer screwed something up? Fight it. ▪️Bank charging overdrafts? Fight it. ▪️HOA levies some BS charge on you? Fight it. ▪️Airline owes you $430? Fight it. ▪️Security deposit withheld? Fight it. ▪️Bank hit you with fees? Fight it. But it doesn't just tell you what to do after you give it the info it needs It saves you the 3 hours on the phone dealing with the chicanery of all these companies Instead, once it tells you what you could get back, you can press a "Fight Harder" button What's that do? It writes the letter or calls the bank, insurer and handles it all. That should be easy for AGI or super intelligence or whatever you've built, right? Save Americans $X000 per year and help them fight the institutions that treat them like isht and people will love AI To make room for this, here is what Sam and Dario should STOP doing ▪️Write dumbass essays that only the media/SV circlejerk read and podcast about ▪️Write and sign letters virtue signaling about some other BS nobody else cares about. ▪️Say AI will cure cancer. Just do it else shut up about it ▪️Show how AI helps plan your European summer vacation or gets you a resevation at some fancy restaurant In addition to building Fight It, they should fire everyone in their comms organization as those people clearly don't know what they're doing

The biggest/most elite colleges are... ...sports programs with a side of education ...hedge funds with education as an amuse-bouche ...consumer debt factories with a touch of education "I'm not a businessman, I'm a business, man."

Random career tips 1. Don't get drunk at company events 2. Never write a business email while mad or frustrated 3. Don't come to 1:1s with manager w/out agenda 4. Don't take 1+ days to respond to work emails 5. Format your emails (no walls of text)