The Identity Matrix

Personality > Behavior

The overarching framework of teaching and our proprietary method to get to the heart of what’s holding you back and to help you become the kind of person who can succeed. It’s not ABOUT your intelligence or willpower. It’s about the person you’re becoming.

1. Identify self-limiting beliefs

2. Adopt new, positive identity traits

3. Track your progress with small victories

4. Focus on a robust system over fragile goals

Scaffolding

I do, we do, you do

A simple but powerful three-step method ensures that students actually learn and understand new concepts. I make sure each student can not only solve the problem but also explain it back to me before we move on to another topic.

1. I DO: Demonstrate how to solve the problem.

2. WE DO: Collaborate on the problem together.

3. YOU DO: Emulate by solving a similar problem.

Disfluency

Leading, not feeding

Unless they’re totally unfamiliar with the problem, I don’t give my students the answer to a problem right away. I’ll ask them leading questions until they figure it out for themselves. That way, they’ve proven they can do it by themselves and follow the same process the next time they’re stuck. Also, difficult or painful experiences are cemented in our brain; easy stuff fades away.

1. Never give the answer right away.

   • Even for simple things, such as putting numbers into a calculator or looking it up on Google first.

2. Ask increasingly leading questions.

3. Do the hard way first.

   • If there’s more than one way to solve a problem, teach the harder way first—it’s usually more universally applicable.

4. Push boundaries.

   • If a student is struggling with a problem or concept, make them do an even harder one. The original problem will seem much easier when they come back to it.

The Toolbox

The right tool for the right project

A mental model to focus on what matters and solve difficult-seeming problems. While there are countless grammar rules and math formulas, there are only ever a handful that are relevant to the problem at hand. The rest should be ignored. For example, if I’m looking at a slope-intercept problem, I should probably be focusing on the slope or the y-intercept—not thinking about circles. Similarly, when you’re eating dinner, you’re focusing on fork, spoon, and knife—not screwdrivers and toothbrushes. Why would math or English or graphic design be any different?

1. Build the toolboxes: What few concepts, rules, and formulas are applicable to each problem?

   • For example, on an algebra problem, there are only 3 strategies:

   1. Get to 1 variable.

   2. Simplify.

   3. Do the opposite.

2. Identify the project: Look for key details and clues to figure out which toolbox is applicable.

3. Try each tool: If you’re stuck, try out each of the tools for this project—one of them has to be the answer.