The Credential Trap
The babysitter test nobody applies to their own kid
You'd never hire a sitter based on a diploma. So why do we tell teenagers the opposite?
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Short, story-first essays on raising self-directed kids, the credential trap, and a working world that keeps changing faster than the advice we hand our teenagers. Published weekly on Substack — every post lands in your inbox.
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Why I'm Here and What This Is
When my daughter Brooke was nineteen, my wife and I kicked her out of the house. Here's why — and what these conversations are about.
Mindset
Happiness = Reality − Expectations
The formula I taught my daughters — and why I taught them to run it backward.
The Future of Work
I mentioned AI exactly once. Then everything changed.
I wrote the book in 2024 and named AI once. Two years later, it's the whole argument.
The Credential Trap
Twice as common, twice as expensive
In 1985, 1 in 5 adults had a college degree, at an all-in cost of about $64,000. Today it's 2 in 5 — at $140,000.
The College Question
We go back to App State every fall
I'm not anti-college. I went. We still go back. I'm anti-sending a young adult out there unprepared.
The Real Cost
The costs teenagers are never taught to weigh
Hard, soft, time, opportunity. We ask kids to make the biggest financial decision of their lives having considered roughly none of them.
Self-Direction
What do you want to try first?
"What do you want to be?" is an impossible question. Here's the one we asked instead.
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