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- 🐴 Skip Stanford, Buy a Business: The New Success Formula (#118)
🐴 Skip Stanford, Buy a Business: The New Success Formula (#118)
The unexpected path from honey to geometry, why plumbers might be the new tech bros, and the secret sauce for spelling success.
Charlie Deist
January 22, 2025
In this edition:
Why your kid's next obsession might be Ancient Greece
The "boring" path to millions (no hoodie required)
Spelling struggles? We've got solutions
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💡 THOUGHT
When Bees Lead to Euclidean Geometry
if you read a book about bees, they’re going to ask about honey, in which case you must discuss hexagons
which leads to discussion of angles, which of course leads to discussion of triangles.
And since we’re a classical school, we discuss the history of Euclid.
Finally, when… x.com/i/web/status/1…
— em (@eckiam)
10:47 PM • Jan 21, 2025
The best learning moments are rarely planned a semester in advance. One curious question snowballs into a geometry obsession, and suddenly you're ordering Euclid on Amazon Prime. That's open education done right.
📊 TREND
Main Street Millionaires
While most career counselors are still pushing the "college or bust" narrative, Codie Sanchez is building a media empire around a contrarian idea:
For most people, "boring" businesses like plumbing, electrical work, and local services are a faster and safer path to wealth than fancy degrees or Silicon Valley startups.
She’s on “a mission to help 1 million people become financially and philosophically free.”
In her new book Main Street Millionaire, Sanchez demolishes the myth that you need a revolutionary app idea or a prestigious MBA to build wealth. Instead, she advocates for buying existing, profitable businesses – the ones providing actual services people need – and then growing them.
For a taste of her trademark contrarian thinking, check out this recent thread on a British entrepreneur who turned a wire basket manufacturer into the world’s largest ad agency.
🛠️ TOOL
When Writing's a Wrestle
An OpenEd parent recently reached out about their second grader struggling with writing and spelling (while crushing it at reading). If this is you, here's our crowd-sourced wisdom from our parent/teacher community:
Top picks:
The Good and the Beautiful: Lives up to its name with gorgeous materials and systematic instruction that somehow manages to make spelling... dare we say it... beautiful?
Spelling Power: The Swiss Army knife of spelling programs - one book, all grades, and activity cards that turn practice into play
IEW (Institute for Excellence in Writing): Because sometimes structure is your friend
Night Zookeeper: For when you need spelling practice with a side of whimsy
(MEME) OF THE DAY
The scientific method in action.
That’s all for today!
– Charlie (the OpenEd newsletter guy)
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