Benjamin Riley

You need to be capturing everything you do behind a screen. Every decision, edit, process. The sooner you start doing that, the sooner you’ll have the training data to not have to do those things anymore.

I'd sooner wear a sticker that says, "I Went to a Strip Club!" than one that says "I Voted!" OK sure, I'll vote. But I'm not proud of it and sure as hell not going to brag about it.

The most valuable thing @Alphaschool taught me is acting with high agency and high urgency. Sophomore year, I got into a long email war with one of Alpha's academic leads. Advanced Placement courses, the college-level classes you can take in high school, took us 80 to 120 hours each. I was sure we could do it in 40. Weeks of back and forth ended with: "You're a kid. I have a Harvard degree." My guide (@em_findley)'s response: "If you really believe you're right, stop arguing and go prove it." Two weeks later, a small team and I launched our own AP courses. In about four weeks, students went from the 35th percentile to the 85th, with under 40 hours of work. Today, I do that academic lead's job, without the Harvard degree (yet). With high agency and high urgency, I didn't need it.

Is this your definition of "fighting fascism"? I'll save you some time. Yes I do some part time curriculum work for Alpha.

The idea that Alpha students don't read books is just anti-AI propoganda. I run @alpha_founders, one of the Alpha high schools. We have a dedicated 30 minute block after lunch each day to read books, and students finish one every ~2 weeks for a group discussion or workshop. Last one was Meditations, current one is Never Split the Difference. What some people get confused is that we use apps which deliberately push a student's reading level through carefully structured passages, since those allow us to be highly tactical in advancing their reading level in a way normal reading cannot do. But then we ALSO have normal reading. It's not either or.

The idea that Alpha students don't read books is just anti-AI propoganda. I run @alpha_founders, one of the Alpha high schools. We have a dedicated 30 minute block after lunch each day to read books, and students finish one every ~2 weeks for a group discussion or workshop. Last one was Meditations, current one is Never Split the Difference. What some people get confused is that we use apps which deliberately push a student's reading level through carefully structured passages, since those allow us to be highly tactical in advancing their reading level in a way normal reading cannot do. But then we ALSO have normal reading. It's not either or.

I'm not sure what to do about this over the long run, but for now it would be smart to keep your kids away from AI while they are young @benjaminjriley writing in @EducationNext

Really highlights a political divide between progressives willing to send their kids to public schools they know are terrible in a vain hope the system can be fixed via participation and the tech right who want to experiment on their kids by moving fast and breaking things

Alpha Slice A product to onboard parents whose kids attend other schools into Alpha: (Alpha has 7 academic subjects / rings to fill inside it's software - Reading, Writing, Vocab, Language, Math, FastMath and Science; 120 XP / day is full time Alpha, 140 XP is full time for GT - Gifted & Talented) Month 1 is $200 and you hit 3 rings: Fast Math, Vocab (10 XP each) and a ring of your choice @ 20 XP, so 40 XP total per day. Month 2 is $350 and you add a ring and 20 XP per day so up to 60 XP / day. Month 4-7 adds $150 and a ring every month, so $500, $650, $800, $950 and 80, 100, 120, 140 XP, getting all 7 rings and 140+ XP total per day. At the end of 7 months, you are ready for Alpha School. Once 6 students in a geography are doing this, you can add weekly study sessions and accelerate the momentum, etc. It's a top of the funnel way of cultivating a group of parents who love the idea so they can get further and further invested into it over time. Who would sign up for Alpha Slice?