What makes your kid interesting?

Hi friends,

This is Ivy, founder of Prequel. As of today, I am taking back this weekly newsletter to better connect with you and the rest of our 130k+ subscribers.

I spent this week in Basque Country, Spain, eating through pintxo bars during the day and working remotely in the evenings from a cute Airbnb.

My 21-year-old college intern, Dylan, told me I opened his eyes to a completely different way of life and what is possible with my remote work lifestyle.

It made me think about how kids decide what is possible for them.

Mass Producing Futures

From the time we are kids, we enter a factory line:

• We learn the same curriculum in school at the same pace

• To fit in, we like the same things considered cool—we listen to the same music, play the same video games, and talk about the same gossip.

• We all have the same goal: to get into a top college.

When children have always been told precisely what to do, what to study, and where to go, they are easily pushed by forces to follow tracks laid by others rather than charting a course for themselves. 

Take Dartmouth’s class of 2023 as an example: 49% went into finance or consulting. I suspect numbers are similar at other Ivy League and T20 colleges.

Top colleges deliberately don’t accept too many people who say they want to do the same thing on their college apps to create a well-rounded class. So, the transition to desiring finance or consulting jobs happens on campus.

Funny enough, my first internship was in consulting. I chose it because it was the most prestigious, coveted job title that all my classmates wanted. It elevated my social status.

It was easier to set a goal to get the most competitive role than to figure out what I wanted to do.

I bet that is the case with most new grads, too. There is no chance 50% of the kids from all the top schools in the country are passionate about investment banking. They were told that this was the best path.

So, how do we help kids find their unique path?

One of the most important things to prepare your child for success is to help them define what makes them interesting.

Key emphasis is on what makes them interesting, not what they are interested in.

Kids can have a lot of different interests, like soccer, baking, drawing, and video games. 

Knowing your interests is a great start. However, simply having interests does not help kids gain the confidence to take a different path than everyone else. Millions of people have the same interests, but few go deep enough for others to find them interesting.

Ask your child: In their list of interests, what are they better at or know more about than others?

Find something your child naturally wants to be an expert in.

This can be about anything. At Prequel, we have kids who are deeply knowledgeable about mental health in kids, dirt for mountain biking, and the music record label business.

But knowing more than others is not enough.

Interesting people build and create; they push their areas of interest forward where others do not:

• Playing video games does not make you interesting, but making a video game that gets lots of downloads does.

• Being on the soccer team does not make you interesting, but hosting soccer tournaments for your community does.

• Playing an instrument does not make you interesting, but composing music that is performed on a Broadway show does.

Being interesting is a huge social advantage that draws people in.

Top colleges seek interesting students who add unique perspectives and value to their community.

But most of all, interesting people know how they stand out. Therefore, they are less inclined to follow the crowd and more likely to blaze their own path.

^{A Prequel Example}

Meet 13-year-old Viktoria

What are you interested in?

What makes you interesting?

1. I like working and fixing cars (Pontiac Aztek being my favorite). I love it because I work on my own car (that I bought) and also I’m learning new things.

2. I love going on nice nature walks by walking and biking (200 miles). I love being in nature because it’s refreshing. I have ridden my bike over 100 miles in two days with my parents and four brothers. We also had to come back 100 miles.

What are you going to do to stand out?

Viktoria is still figuring this out!

Next week at Prequel, Viktoria will battle out her interests using frameworks like Ikigai to define what she wants to do in either cars, long-distance cycling, or something else!

^{IVY’S IVY LEAGUE NEWS}

Ivy League students are struggling with reading.

This article interviews Columbia, Princeton, and Georgetown professors about how their students cannot keep up with the reading load in college courses.

I didn’t realize how critical reading skills were until I read this article:

“Anthony Grafton, a Princeton historian, said his students arrive on campus with a narrower vocabulary and less understanding of language than they used to have…finds his students “shutting down” when confronted with ideas they don’t understand; they’re less able to persist through a challenging text than they used to be…students even have trouble staying focused on a sonnet…Now, his students tell him that the reading load feels impossible. It’s not just the frenetic pace; they struggle to attend to small details while keeping track of the overall plot.”

We live in a world of information overload. To be successful in any role, we need to be able to quickly process information, distill it, and take action on it. Reading not only serves as the foundation for our understanding of the world, the way we communicate, and critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

K-12 data backs this up. Nearly 1 in 3 13-year-olds “nearly or hardly ever” read for fun. Only 14% read every day, down from 35% in 1984.

This is really bad. 54% of US adults read below the 6th grade level, and 20% read below the 3rd grade level, and it’s getting worse. Middle and high school teachers are reducing English assignments for fear of ChatGPT.

What this means for you and your child

1. Your school is likely failing your child in developing their reading and writing skills. Make sure you are supplementing outside of school.
   
   Our Prequel alum and current Stanford student Kate wrote a great piece on how to get your kids to read more.
   

2. Reading and writing are now skills you can use to stand out for the Ivy League. It’s time to encourage creating projects that showcase exceptional writing skills - screenplays, poetry, books, and newsletters.

Until next time,

Ivy

CEO — Prequel

Follow my journey on LinkedIn