Ask Sal Anything! Homeroom - Tuesday, September 22

- Hi, everyone, Sal here, I
was enjoying the view outside,

when you caught me.

Welcome to today's Homeroom Live Stream.

Today, we're going to have
a, just an ask me anything.

So if you already have some questions,

feel free to put them into

the message boards on
Facebook and YouTube.

And we have team members who
will surface questions to me

and feel free to ask
literally about anything.

But before we jump into that,

I will make my standard announcements

or reminder that Khan Academy

is a not-for-profit organization.

We can only exist through
philanthropic donations.

So if you're in a position to do so,

please think about going
to khanacademy.org/donate

and make a donation.

I also want to give a special shout out

to several organizations
that have helped Khan Academy

over the years, but
especially through COVID,

you can imagine we were already
running a deficit pre COVID,

and that deficit only accelerated

as our server costs went up.

We wanted to accelerate a
whole series of programs

and content so special,
thanks to Bank of America,

Google.org, AT&T, Fastly, Novartis,

and many others for helping us close some

of that gap during this
hard time for the world.

But especially COVID is
we've tried to support folks,

but we still have a gap.

So anything you can do to
support us would be very,

very much appreciated.

So with that,

I am eager to take all of your questions

about literally anything,

so we're waiting for some
of the questions to come in.

Sometimes, you know, I
have to get more used

to just being comfortable with silence.

So maybe I should just be
silent for a little bit

while we wait for some,

while we wait for some questions.

So let's see, I could go to the previous,

ask me thing and find
some of the questions

that we have from there.

Let me see if I scroll
back to the previous AMA.

Okay, so from YouTube
Mananawar Aurora is asking,

hello Sal, I have a question for you.

Do you have distractions

or simply can we manage distractions?

No, I have no distractions.

I'm always laser focused on
exactly what I need to do.

No, I have, I have plenty of distractions.

I would say for me, the things
that I find myself doing,

when I'm procrastinating
is, well, you know,

I would say there's good distractions

and maybe less good distractions.

The good distractions are, I like to read.

And so I'm doing a lot of reading.

I'm actually just started
on Viktor Frankl's,

Man's Search for Meaning,

some really profound quotes in here

that I've always heard about.

So I thought I would read the actual book.

So that I would categorize
as a good distraction.

It's the type of
distraction that you need so

that it expands your mind.

You're not just always
laser focused on school

or on work and you can
kind of think more broadly.

I, you know,

I am guilty of watching a
little bit more TV sometimes

than I should,

but even there there's
some good distractions

and not so good distraction.

So anyway, there's that
I try to avoid things

like social media and text messages

and that I'm very utilitarian
about those things.

I use social media,

some of y'all might've noticed primarily

that just kind of get word out
on things that are going on

at Khan Academy or things
that folks should know about.

And I'm infamously bad at
responding to text messages

from friends and family,

because I find that phones
pull you in and make you

and distract you from your life.

So, yeah, so those are,

so I would say generally speaking though,

I do pride myself on being a pretty,

pretty good at not being
distracted by distractions.

One of the things that
really helps is meditation,

which I've talked about
before, which is, you know,

oftentimes your biggest
distraction is your own mind.

You're we all have these
little parts that are surfacing

from our subconscious
reminding us to think about

that or worry about that,

or worry about the future or
regret something in the past.

And you need that every now and then,

but every now and then you
need a break from all of it

and you just need to be
in the present moment,

let your mind still, and just
kind of sit in your awareness.

And when you do that, I
actually think it makes your,

your brain better at not
being distracted in general.

Cause if you can't get
distracted by your own brain,

it's going to be a lot more
difficult to be distracted by,

by other things.

So from YouTube Humble Harry says,

what is the next revolution
in education after YouTube?

Well, Humble Harry, give YouTube credit.

YouTube has created
something over evolution.

You know, the other day I had
to fix a sink in our bathroom

and I was able to go to
YouTube and figure out how

to do it by myself, with
the tools we had at home

versus having to hire
an expensive plumber.

And obviously there's many other things

you can learn on YouTube.

A lot of our videos from
Khan Academy are there,

but you know, one thing
I always point out is

Khan Academy is much, much
more than the YouTube videos.

That's really, you know,

even when I first made
them for my cousins,

that was meant to just be a
supplement for the exercise and

the feedback of doing problems.

And so the real part of the
learning process is that ability

to work at your own time
and pace and do exercises

and get immediate feedback.

And if you have a teacher
who can support you for them

to know where you are, so
when you get to the classroom,

they can dig a little bit
deeper in and unstick you.

So I'd like to believe

that personalization and
mastery learning, which is,

which are things that Khan
Academy's very focused on

are really hopefully
helping bringing out a world

where everyone has access
to their potential,

whether you know, early
learner on Khan Academy kids

or whether you're on kind

of the main Khan Academy for, you know,

that goes all the way
through early college.

I think other revolutions in education,

I've talked about some of them, you know,

I have a separate project, it
is not a Khan Academy project.

It is a separate non-for-profit
called schoolhouse.world

to pair students who
need help with tutoring,

with volunteer, vetted tutors were willing

to run group tutoring sessions.

So encourage folks to go
there if they're interested

in either being a tutor
or a student or both,

but related to that,

we're also thinking about ways
to certify your knowledge.

Are there ways that let's
say you go on Khan Academy

and you're able to record yourself getting

90% plus on a unit test
or a course challenge,

are there are ways to use
community to validate that?

And then maybe use that for
things like college admissions,

you know, really moving towards

what you could call a
competency based system.

So that's another thing that I'm working

on a little bit outside
of Khan Academy right now,

but I think that could be
a pretty valuable thing

for the world over time.

So, you know, these general
ideas, personalization,

mastery learning, education
not being bound by time

or space, and then ways
to prove ways to get help

from a community wherever you are.

And then also ways to prove what you know,

so that it can get you opportunities

like hire know college admissions or a job

or apprenticeship.

And so, you know, stay tuned,

especially on the schoolhouse.world site

over the next couple of weeks,

you might hear something about

that around college admissions.

Let's see other questions.

So from YouTube, Susanna Garcia Dumangas

who I feel like I know even
though we've never met,

but she always asks great questions.

Hey Sal, you mentioned
that you went camping.

Can you share a little bit of that trip?

Well, I wish I had kind of
made a slideshow at a time.

I could have shared that,
but yeah, it was my family.

We went to Yosemite and you know,

the it's called Half Dome Village, now.

It used to be called Curry Village,

but we, you know,

we book it, you have to book
it like a year in advance

and we were unsure whether
we should go because of COVID

and whether it would be COVID
safe, but we went, you know,

we had a little tent cabin, it
was pretty, you know, basic,

but it was a great time and,
you know, knock on wood,

you know, it all felt pretty safe.

And I think it turned out safe.

This was about a month ago,

but yeah, it was, I
can't highly, you know,

I'm probably ruining my own ability to go

to Yosemite when it might
be a little bit more quiet,

but I can't highly,

I can't recommend Yosemite enough.

It is really just one of
those places where you go

and it's both intimate

because you're surrounded
by these huge kind of cliff,

like formations that were
formed by ancient glaciers.

So it feels kind of intimate,

but the scale of things
are also just massive.

So yeah, we did a little
bit of everything, you know,

my wife and I actually,
when we were engaged,

we went and this was 18 years ago.

We did Half Dome when we
were younger and more and,

and maybe more foolish cause it,

I remember I did it on
brand new hiking boots

that hadn't broken in, so my
feet hurt for several days.

But this time with the
kids, we just, you know,

we didn't go all the way up to Half Dome.

We just kinda went up kind
of that four mile loop there.

Then we went to Glacier Point, we,

and then we rented
bicycles and we, you know,

in hindsight I should
have brought bicycles.

I have a bike rack, but
we rented them there.

It's actually a very nice
place to bike around in

and weighed in the rivers.

So yeah, it's unfortunate right now.

I think they just had to close it down

because of the fire South of it.

So Yosemite the air is
as far as I can tell.

Very not so good right now,
but yeah, beautiful place.

So from Facebook, Neyha Dayal says,

thanks for bringing in this
wonderful platform for kids.

I'm finding it hard to
have a defined curriculum

for both my kids while homeschooling them,

eight and six years old, any pointers?

Well Neyha for your six year old,

well, your six year olds
probably at the upper end

of Khan Academy kids.

So for any student who is kind

of just getting their basic literacy,

their basic numeracy or earlier,

I think Khan Academy kids is great.

And the Khan Academy kids team,

I hope is going to be able
to move into first grade.

Well, they already have
first grade standard.

So if you're a six year old
is working on first grade

standards, I highly
recommend Khan Academy kids.

It covers reading, writing, math, social,

emotional learning.

So all of the major common
core standards you need.

But if your child is a little
bit more precocious getting

into second or third grade
standards, especially in math,

I highly recommend, you know, doing 20,

30 minutes a day on Khan Academy,

if your six year olds a
little precocious, second,

third grade, if you know, they're,

they're still kind of getting over some of

the motor skills of using
a keyboard or mouse,

you can sit with them
and help them through it,

but let them kind of think through

and struggle through
the problems their own.

An eight year old, same
thing, get them on.

You can get them on third
grade or fourth grade,

depending on their level.

If you're not sure
about their foundations,

you can use our get ready
for grade level courses so

that you can understand where they are

and fill in the gaps as necessary.

And if on math that
they're able to put in,

I would argue 30 minutes a day, engaged,

if you're sitting next to them,

it sounds like you're homeschooling them.

I have a lot of confidence
that they're going

to progress a lot in mathematics

and reading there's a
lot of tools out there.

Khan Academy has some English
and language arts reading,

comprehension things.

There's other tools,
Lexia, Raz-Kids, Newsela.

But a lot of it is if you
just find kind of Lexile,

Lexile level appropriate
reading for your children

and have them read it,
discuss it over lunch,

even that can be a big
deal on the writing.

Do some journaling, having a
writing project of the week,

maybe a blog that you share with friends

and family on social media.

I think that could be really
motivating for your kids.

One thing that I've, I really liked,

let me see if I have the books here.

There's a curriculum.

I thought I had some
of the books over here.

It's by E.D Hirsch.

And you know,

it's like all things in
education is probably more

controversial than it should be.

E.D Hirsch is a little bit,

I guess you could call a
traditionalist, you know,

a big believer that you do
need the intuition for things,

but you also need a lot
of content knowledge.

And, you know, I think he makes,

I think a very compelling argument

that our education system, you know,

traditional education system,

Victorian Era Education was
all about memorizing facts

and probably not enough
about connecting the facts,

and building an intuition and,

and making things and having creativity.

But sometimes, you know,

the pendulum might have swung too far

where the kids aren't getting
enough content knowledge.

And so I'm a big fan

of E.D Hirsch's core knowledge curriculum.

You can get those books, you know,

there's like what,

every fourth grader needs to know,

what every fifth grader needs to know,

what every sixth grader needs to know.

And I actually think
you'll enjoy reading them

because they are kind of the essentials

of what you need to know.

But I think you're going
to find that there's stuff

that even as an adult, you're like, yeah,

I should have known that in
fifth grade, but I didn't.

So I'm a big fan of that as well.

If I were doing a home
schooling curriculum,

I would use some
combination of Khan Academy,

E.D Hirsch's, A Core Knowledge Curriculum

and then supplement with
other enriching things

that I find maybe some other tools.

So from Facebook, Sumith chatter G says,

what suggestions you have
for youngsters about money.

So this is something that I
have a strong opinion about

because I see so many folks, frankly,

make bad decisions around money.

I would say that the two biggest
levers you have, you know,

people are, you are led to believe

that there's all these secrets

and there are these get
rich, you know, get rich,

quick schemes or that, you know,

people got wealthy by somehow
cutting corners on their taxes

or having incredible
lawyers or tax accountants.

And there's these loopholes.

That's not really what really allows folks

to do okay financially.

What really is, you know,

your career is going to
make a big difference,

and being able to be kind
of gainfully employed.

And then the next one is
living below your means.

If you do those two things,

you're going to be fine financially.

And you know, the career
one I'll highlight

because I know folks who, you know,

they'll get an education,

but they get a little bit, I would say,

precious about what
they want to do in life.

And that you should be,

you should think a lot about
what you want to do in life.

But when I say precious, you know,

they might've gotten
a degree in something,

but they're like, oh,

I'm not going to apply for a
job until it's the perfect job.

And I do sometimes get afraid
that it's not of a fear

of rejection, but you know,

you really have to put yourself out there

and be willing to embrace
that people are going

to reject you as part
of a job search process.

And then once you're in a job, you know,

sometimes the jobs,

especially at the early phases
or even at the later phases,

aren't always ideal.

And you know,

there's things about it
that will frustrate you.

There will be days that
your manager says tells you

something that you don't like,

there's parts of your job that
you're not going to enjoy.

And if it's miserable, you should,

you should think about making a change.

But if it's, but you know, those,

those aspects of work that
feel a little bit difficult,

that feel a little bit frustrating,

that you're a little impatient to,

with those are the ones

that are actually really growing you.

And, you know, as long
as you have a manager,

that for the most part is a good person,

but every now and then my kid
might annoy you a little bit,

that also will grow, you, grow you.

If they, you know,

sometimes they're growing
you in a positive way.

And sometimes you're
having to sort with, okay,

that feedback, they give me
how much of that is real,

how much of that is in
their head or whatever.

But these are the types of struggles

that really make you grow.

But from a financial point of view,

if you're not working,
you're really, you know,

the opportunity cost
is really, really high.

I remember when I, you
know, was leaving college,

I was blown away by a friends
of mine that said, oh, well,

you know, I've worked so hard, four years.

I'm gonna take three months off.

And for me,

I looked at the opportunity
costs of those three months.

I was like, wait, that's
going to be like many,

many thousands of dollars.

And I had a lot of debt and, you know, we,

I didn't have a lot of money growing up.

So I was like, that's not acceptable.

So I remember I graduated on a Saturday

and then I started work on a Monday

and I don't think I've
allowed myself to, you know,

I've taken vacations,

but I haven't kind of taken
breaks from work since then.

So anyway, that's my two cents.

You might have other
viewpoints there, but I've,

I've always been pretty
conservative when it came to money,

is that, you know, be employed
in some way, shape or form,

if it's not the perfect job,

stick with it until you find another job,

I've never been a subscriber of, you know,

quit a job just cause you don't like it

and then try to find another job later.

And I'll tell you a secret,
employers, you know,

sometimes if you have gaps
in your resume, they'll say,

okay, was that a gap they
were just taking a break

or was that, you know, they'll
try to read into things.

So it'll also help you if you don't,

the more that you can avoid
those gaps the possible.

And then the other thing is just really,

really live below your means,
you know, budget things out,

if you can, but I'll tell
you if you really live below

your means even like
getting a detailed budget,

isn't as important
because you're just going

to naturally save money.

That's the money is going to
be helpful for a rainy day,

helpful to save up for a
house, pay off your debt.

And if heaven forbid you get,
you know, you lose your job,

you get laid off, you have
a emergency and you know,

then you have a cushion to rely on.

You know, Khan Academy at some point,

I did have to quit my day job

to work on Khan Academy full time.

But it was because I, you know,

we had lived below our means
for many, many, many years.

And we had been able
to save up enough money

that it was going to be a
down payment on a house,

but it also allowed us to live
off of that a little bit as

I've tried to get Khan
Academy off the ground.

So that living below your
means can also make you

a much more resilient entrepreneur,

whether you want to be a for profit

or not-for-profit you kind of in your mid,

mid or later career.

So from YouTube, ZF says, hello,

I'm a seventh grader
that struggles on math.

Are there any crucial things
you need to know when solving

math problems and making the
most out of math class time?

Well, Z what I would recommend
if you're a seventh grader

who struggles in math go to Khan Academy,

I would start with the get
ready for seventh grade course.

And I would take the course
challenge of the get ready

for seventh grade course.

And if you're struggling
in seventh grade math,

I suspect that's because
you have gaps from

before seventh grade.

And when you take that course
challenge in the get ready

for seventh grade course,

it's gonna sample a lot
of the prerequisite skills

for seventh grade.

And so the things, the units,
the skills that you get wrong,

go back to those units and
try to get mastery in those.

If you can spend 20,

30 minutes a day above and
beyond your schoolwork,

I know it's extra work, but
trust me, it will pay off.

If you can spend 20, 30 minutes a day,

maybe four or five days
a week, doing that,

working at your own time and pace,

trying to at least get
familiar or proficient,

ideally mastery in
everything on the get ready

for seventh grade course.

And then once you're about 80
or 90% mastered on that move

on to the seventh grade course
and just keep working at,

you know, 20, 30 minutes a day.

I strongly believe that you in
a matter of months are going

to become much more confident in math

and not only build strong foundations

eventually catch up to your class.

But I would guess that you're
probably going to get ahead

of your class and the reason
why I'm so confident here

as I've seen this over and over again,

my first cousin that I was tutoring Nadia,

she was your age when I
started tutoring her in 2004,

she was 12 years old.

She was a seventh grader
and she didn't think

that she was a good in math.

And there was no Khan Academy at the time.

You know, just me as her
cousin was, was what,

all that was all that
existed of Khan Academy.

But I worked with her 20 minutes every day

for her to get that help.

Yeah, that's the thing I would recommend.

Another thing, you know, I
talked about schoolhouse.world.

Feel free to go there.

We're accepting kind of
these registration process.

If you want to be to
participate in group tutoring,

that's a project outside of Khan Academy.

But look for that for some extra tutoring,

if you're interested.

So let's see Nischala from Facebook,

how to help kids not make
silly mistakes in subjects

they understand well.

This is a good question.

You know, I think, you know,

it's easy sometimes to get over confident.

I was definitely one of those
kids that somehow wanted

to go through my math test really fast.

And then I would be like upset
when I got a question wrong

because I made a careless error or,

or I didn't read the prompt correctly.

You know, that's a skill of just being,

having an attention to detail.

And so, you know,

I think the best way to not
make silly mistakes is to keep,

take, getting practice with things

and that when you miss things,

because you made a silly mistake,

that's a good part where
your brain says, ah, brain,

we've got to stop doing that.

We got to start reading the
question prompt a little bit

better, or we got to not rush
the question and make sure,

and maybe check our work a little bit.

Cause it's a very,

very valuable skill in life, generally.

Obviously if one day
you're designing a bridge

or you're operating on someone,

even if you know what you're doing,

if you're rushing through it,

or if you didn't read
the directions properly

or if you didn't do the
analysis exactly right,

it could be a disaster.

So it's an important skill,

but you know, that's what
Khan Academy's there for.

Cause you're going to get as much practice

and feedback as necessary.

You know, I've,

I sometimes watch my own
kids on Khan Academy.

You know, they know the
material on that third question,

they get it wrong.

It's like, oh, that was
just a careless mistake.

I was just like, yeah, it
was a careless mistake.

So you have to learn to be
more careful, which is a,

which isn't, which is a skill above

and beyond the academics as well.

From Facebook Resh Mahaidha asks,

our college is going to be obsolete.

What about ingenuity, ethics and morals

taught at legendary
institution or institutes?

I don't think college
is going to be obsolete.

I think there,

I think some form of
college will always exist.

I think college is going to
adapt and I think there's going

to be alternative paths, you know,

right now the narrative
is you pretty much have

to go to college in order to have a,

a decent shot at a middle class

or an upper middle class lifestyle.

And that is for the
most part true, I think.

But we're also seeing that
the cost of college is so high

that people are going and
getting a lot of debt.

Sometimes they don't graduate

because they might've not
had strong foundations

going into it or they do graduate

and they're underemployed or they're not,

they're having trouble getting
a job for various reasons.

You know, they major in, you know,

some degree and they thought,
hey, I can, you know, it's,

I can become a whatever doing that.

But then realizing that the job markets

maybe a little bit more
difficult than expected.

And so I think all of that says,

are there other paths that could be,

maybe it doesn't even have
to be instead of college,

it could be on top of college.

You know, you went to college,
you didn't get the skills,

you need to get a job.

There could be another path
where you can get those skills

and then get an apprenticeship, get a job.

Hopefully those paths are
lot cheaper than college.

And for some folks,

they might just go
straight into those paths

and say, look, given
the opportunity costs,

given the constraints in my life.

It's just really important
for me to get that,

that gainful employment
sooner, sooner than later,

I also think colleges are
going to adapt, you know,

right now colleges,

whether it's two years
of community college,

associate's degree or four
years in a regular college,

you know, they've kind of just
been engineered around, okay,

let's keep people here for four years

and then fill it up with
things, some of which is useful.

Some of which is not.

I'd like to believe that
colleges will unpack

that a little bit.

That things will be a
little bit more unbundled

that employers won't just say,

do you have a bachelor's degree?

They will say, what are
the skills you developed?

And they might not even care as much,

whether you spent four years or two years

or got kind of the Meta-diploma.

They care more, whether you
built the skills that you need.

And those don't have to
all be quote hard skills.

A lot of what happens in
college is a socialization

being part of a community,

having peers around that push you.

And I try to think that's
the part of college

that it will be the
hardest to replace with,

you know, I guess you could
say just pure technology.

I think technology in conjunction

with a really good community
and peers can, you know,

might be a really good
model for some folks.

And I think some colleges
are already thinking

about blending in that way.

So, The Friendtastic from YouTube,

when is AP computer science
A coming on Khan Academy?

So we do have AP principles,

Computer Science
Principles on Khan Academy.

So that already exists, but the, you know,

the computer science and
I always forget the A,

the B on the terminology,
we don't have those yet.

You know, I hope in the future,

that is something that we
might be able to address,

but unfortunately it's not
currently on the roadmap.

So let's see other questions,

from Facebook Bernie Killingsworth.

How do you fit all that
knowledge in your brain?

Because you seem to know
about just about any,

and every topic.

Well, you know, Bernie,

I'm glad that I was able
to project that impression.

And what I would say is I
actually think most people's

brains are capable of, I mean,

the brain is this incredible instrument

that we don't understand.

I mean, we're really,

if you really think about
it, your sententiousness,

your consciousness, you know,

that part that you're
aware of is sitting on top

of or within, however you
want to conceptualize it.

This incredibly sophisticated
tool called your brain.

And I've over time learned
to actually not view

my brain and my subconscious as me.

I've started to view it as my helper.

And so, you know, even when I
have a hard problem, I don't,

I don't hit my head against the wall.

I don't get frustrated if
I don't have a solution

immediately, or if I'm having
trouble learning something,

I just try to think about it a little bit.

And then I say,

okay, I'm gonna delegate
this to you brain.

And then I do tend to find
in, you know, 48 hours,

it just kind of says, okay, here's a memo,

here's the solution, have
you thought about this?

I'm like good job brain,
you know, pat on the back,

you know, I don't know how
to treat my brain just yet.

You know, here's a little, you know,

Scooby snack for you, but it works.

You know, I found that
sometimes we've all had

the experience where you have
trouble remembering a name or,

you know, who sang that song or some fact,

instead of getting
frustrated about it now,

I just say, you know
what, brain, you know,

you have to figure it out,

go into the deep archives, you know,

get it to me within the next hour or so.

And that your brain
actually does tend to do

that type of thing.

And we all know folks who, you know,

you might not view as
kind of the jeopardy,

the jeopardy champion or the,
you know, the academic person,

but they know all sorts of facts about

whatever it's video games or pop culture,

or they memorize a song
lyrics or whatever it is.

So our brain can store a
lot, a lot of information,

not just information, but
connections and intuition,

which is really, I think how
the brain processes things,

I think even facts exists
because of connections

that it's able to draw with other,

with other facts or other knowledge,

however it's represented.

So what I would say is, you know,

keep giving your brain practice
and delegate to your brain,

challenge your brain.

And then I think you'll see
and actually get enough sleep.

And I think you'll see
that your brain actually,

as you know, as your friend
can do a lot of this a lot,

a lot more than you suspect.

Yeah, that's the best I can.

And, you know, I,

and you would also be surprised

if you're just a curious person

and you're always just looking, you know,

reading and looking up
and looking at geography

and listening, you know,
watching documentaries,

you'd be surprised how many
interesting facts will all

of a sudden surface from
your brain at various times.

And, you know,

I've had the extra luxury of
have been able to being able

to make a lot of content
that obviously I was exposed

to for most part in school,

but now I get to revisit at
a deeper level and, you know,

just that exercise also,

I think draws a lot more connections

and makes it a lot more easy,

easy to surface when I need it.

So let's see, yeah, maybe one, one or,

one or two, so SmartBear wants me

to make more meditation videos.

I should do that, I should do that less.

So I consider that done SmartBear.

I will make more meditation videos.

From YouTube, Rahath Ali says,

how do you keep yourself motivated

and stop yourself from procrastinating?

So I procrastinate like
everyone else, you know,

I am guilty of reading
articles on Quora on how

to escape from bear attacks.

My Quora feed seems to give
me a lot of information on how

to escape animal attacks.

And I think because I click on them,

it's giving me more
information on how to escape

from animal interactions
or, you know, you know,

animal battles that might
not have been possible,

but in someone's imagination Quora,

I do tend to click on that.

So those are, that's kind of one of my,

maybe not so good distractions,

but there's some
interesting facts I learned

from there as well.

But you know, the way that I
avoid procrastinating is I try,

you know, every day I have,

I have a list of things that I need to do,

and some of them are more
blurry and, you know,

my brain might say, oh, I
don't want to get started.

Cause I don't know how hard it's going

to be while some of them
are a little bit easier,

like making my bed or going
for a run or meditating or,

you know, just getting ready.

And I find that if I,

if I'm pretty good at getting
some of the low hanging fruit,

I make my bed, I go for
my run, I do this or that.

Then I kind of build a momentum,
I start proceeding myself.

And that day is like, this is a good day.

This is a productive day.

So don't be afraid of diving into that.

You know, that thing
that you have to write

that you aren't sure how hard
it's going to be or that one,

you know, you know.

Digging into that one
domain that you would need

to make a video on that you, at first,

you don't fully understand
what you should, jump into it,

it's gonna be fun and I
find that most, you know,

building that momentum and
then just keeping moving

and just forcing yourself to
start does goes a long way

to stopping the procrastination
is my best advice.

So maybe one time for one
more question from Jean Wang,

Facebook, conversations about
college with my high school,

senior goes sour.

How should I talk to my
teenager about college,

especially during this time?

Well, Jean, you know,

take everything I have to
say with a grain of salt.

My kids are five, nine and 11.

So I haven't had that
college conversation yet.

I have talked about it with
cousins and other family,

friends who are the
same age as your child.

But, you know,

I think there's always the
advantage when you are like the,

the uncle or the cousin or
the family friend versus

when you're the parent.

You know, I think kids
tend to roll their eyes

a little bit more with parents.

But one thing that I
try to remind myself is,

you know, when you talk to
them, try not to make it about,

you know, what you are telling them to do.

It's more about that you really
see them as a human being

and you want to understand
what's, you know,

where's their mind and,
you know, listen to them,

listen to what they're thinking.

And I think the more that you,

and I'm not saying that
you're not, but, you know,

really understand, you know,

how are you thinking about things?

And if they're kind of
saying, hey, mom is like,

she's just trying to push me
because all of her friends,

kids went to college or
went to that college.

And you know, she's worried about

what they're gonna think,

then I think a lot of kids,

especially with a rebellious streak

might check out a little bit like, mom,

don't worry about it.

Don't worry about it, mom.

But if it's like, hey, mom's
actually kind of seeing me

for myself and realizing
that I might have, you know,

a different path, but you know,

I think deep down inside, most
kids, most people, you know,

I say, well, you know, okay,

they see me and maybe
they do have something

that's interesting that
I could learn from,

because I am actually a
little bit insecure about some

of these big life changes or decisions

that are in front of me

and maybe mom can help me out.

So that's my best advice is try

to keep it as Socratic as possible.

Kind of more on the question
asking than on the advice side.

Not that I'm saying that you're,

you're telling your child
exactly what to do, but I've,

I've been in experiences
where I've had someone else,

well-wishers say you need to do this.

And why aren't you thinking about that?

And I think all of us are our egos tend

to kind of fight against that.

It's like those force fields you see

in science fiction movies,

that if you hit it really
hard, you bounce off.

But if you go in slowly,

the force field doesn't know what to do.

So that's my best advice.

You have to really have
real conversations with them

and then, and then see,
and then see what surfaces,

another thing that I've been
toying with is, you know,

making videos about your advice

and just sharing it with your,
you know, with your family,

because sometimes people don't
want advice in the moment,

but, or they don't want to
give you the satisfaction

that they're taking your advice.

But if your advice is just sitting there

and they know about it,

everyone has their moments of insecurity.

And they're like, well,

maybe I am curious what
mom has to say about that.

And then it has time to
sink in and they don't have

to feel like they have to rebel

against whatever's being told.

So anyway, that's my pop psychology.

I'm completely unqualified to
give, to answer that question.

So anyway, thanks everyone.

It looks like we're all out of time.

Again, this is always a lot of
fun, but thanks for joining.

And then tomorrow we're
gonna have a Kristin Dicerbo,

who's Khan Academy's
Chief Learning Officer,

and we're gonna talk a bunch
about, as you can imagine,

learning, especially learning right now

in these very interesting and trying time.

So thanks everyone for
joining today's live stream.