Shit You Don't Learn in School

One of the most important decisions in life is who you choose to spend your life with, yet it's also one of the hardest things to get right. Inspired by a recent conversation with a friend that may have unrealistic expectations, Cal and Steph discuss the data behind dating, but also their own very different approaches to it... and if they ever ended up back on the market, how they might do th...

Have you ever looked around your home and thought, "Where did all this stuff come from?!" Cal and Steph are currently going through this exercise, as they go through their first move in years. It turns out they're not alone in this feeling of overwhelm and is shared by many others who used to be nomads. The need for *things* is universal, but so is the slippery slope to acquiring to...

Each January, Steph and Cal sit down to reflect on the prior year and this one is no different. You'll find out their... Best New Idea Best New Life Hack Best New Experience Best/Worst Purchase Best/Worst Trend Best Personal Win/Accomplishment #1 Goal for Next Year Prediction for the New Year Jumpstart 2023 by doubling down on the best activities and avoiding the worst. It's going to be...

A few weeks ago, Steph and Cal had a locksmith come in. It cost $185 and was shockingly quick... just 10 minutes! Little did they know it would also be the fodder for one of Steph's most popular tweets of all time. Perhaps it shouldn't be surprising – people love learning about new opportunities. That's why they decided to record this (hopefully) recurring segment where they share v...

There has been a wave of recent cheating scandals, from chess to poker to fishing. But cheating is not new, nor is it a rare occurrence. In fact, some articles sport stats like "75 to 98% of college students have cheated" or "over 46% of respondents in a monogamous relationship said they had affairs." In this episode, Cal and Steph discuss when – if ever – cheating is okay. The...

For years, people thought that artificial intelligence would wipe out repetitive tasks, but leave the creatives untouched. But recent developments have left many people surprised and taken the creative world by storm.  Tools like DALL-E, Midjourney, and Stable Diffusion gave anyone with a keyboard and a wifi connection the ability to spin up images from text prompts, far earlier and higher quality...

It's human nature to worry about the things that can go wrong. But often overlooked is the mentality of attraction instead of detraction, or in other words focusing on what you can bring to the table instead of what you can prevent from happening. While so many companies signal they want entrepreneurial candidates yet don't allow side projects, want out of the box thinkers yet expect the...

Money is a leading cause of problems in relationships. It’s not just not having money, it’s conflict around money, lack of alignment, and the downstream effects of that. Money is complicated because it’s influenced by your direct circumstances, but also by your childhood, psychology, and trajectory. It's also complicated because so few people talk openly and honestly about money. In this epis...

In part 3 of our 3-part series, Steph and Cal discuss how they planned a wedding in 10 days, what they did (including traditions kept and scrapped), and the pros and cons of taking a less conventional approach to marriage.

In part 2 of this 3-part series, we decided to re-air part of our most popular episode, #35: Does Marriage, Retirement, or the 40-Hour Work Week Still Make Sense? In this segment, we share: How humans are actually not wired for monogamy What animals within the animal kingdom are monogamous The history of marriage and when marriage started to be associated with love Explore the concept of love and...

In part 1 of our 3-part series, we're joined be Amanda Natividad and Marissa Goldberg – two friends of the podcast – to discuss the traditions that surround love. After getting engaged last year, Steph found herself in a place she didn't expect and with emotions that she didn't feel entitled to have. That led her down a deep rabbit hole of questions, ultimately ending up in a bunch...

In this special episode, Cal and Steph answer audience questions across a wide range of topics including writing, relationships, finances, and even death. Listen in to find out. Next Steps Essay about the nuance of privilege If you liked this episode, make sure to subscribe and leave a review .  To receive the latest updates, follow The Sh*t You Don't Learn in School on Twitter .

Steph has some exciting news to share in today's episode! Listen in to find out. In this episode, Cal and Steph also cover the rise of the creator economy -- both its promise and pitfalls. They breakdown why the heightened attention toward creators, whether we can expect a creator "middle class" anytime soon, the importance of IP, and even explore what it truly means to be a "c...

We all know that where you live is one of the most important decisions you can make, but it may be more important than you think. And with more people working remotely, there is no more freedom than ever in deciding where you call "home." In this episode, Steph and Cal discuss how to think about where you should live, why it matters more than you think, and how you can make a decision wh...

Life feels like a bunch of micro-decisions, yet a few macro-decisions often end up determining how you spend most of your time. Perhaps one of the most significant are the degree you choose and the first job you take. The decisions that follow those are inevitably pulled by their inertia. In this episode, Cal and Steph discuss the importance of exploring the diversity of jobs out there and how man...

We believe that the desire to give is universal, but is just as much a skill as anything else in life. In this episode, Cal and Steph discuss the how you can make a difference during your limited time on this earth, with the limited resources you have -- especially during times like these. They dive into... Creative ways that people have supported Ukraine Striking a balance between hedonism and al...

Language is one of the most powerful tools that humans have accessible to them. Don't believe us? Consider the fact that someone could walk up to you and say something that could immediately change your mental state. Nothing around you has changed, other than the words echoed through the air. In this episode, Cal and Steph discuss the power of words and how language can shape the way we think...

The allure of getting rich quick is intoxicating. It's even more intoxicating when you're trapped inside and it seems like all your friends have cashed in big. In this episode, Cal and Steph discuss Cal's experience with active investing over the last 20 months and ultimately, why it's time to walk away from the casino. If you liked this episode, make sure to subscribe and leav...

"The only constant is change", they say. In this episode, Cal and Steph discuss just how drastically the world has changed and will continue to change. From the iPhone... to the Internet... to antibiotics... to human flight... to to the sequencing of DNA... to perhaps the most important fact that humans now live more than double as long... these developments all happened within the last...

There's an endless sea of advice online. Whether it's from a vague Twitter thread or a clickbait blog post, the advice sounds catchy, but if we're honest... often holds little water. However, we all know from experience that the right lessons, sometimes even sitting in plain sight, can genuinely change the trajectory of one's life. In this episode, Cal and Steph discuss the few...

In this episode, Cal and Steph discuss the hidden side of risk: the infrequent, often unpredictable events that make the biggest differences in our lives. If you look around, rare, high-impact events are everywhere.  A small number of days in the stock market drive the bulk of the returns. Large businesses like Google, Amazon, and Best Buy have tested thousands of products, yet have a single profi...

In this episode, Steph and Cal break down the best of 2021. You'll find out the... Best New Idea Best New Skill Best New Life Hack Best New Experience Best/Worst Purchase Best/Worst Investment Best/Worst Trend Best Podcast Creator of the Year Best Personal Win/Accomplishment #1 Goal for Next Year Prediction for the New Year Jumpstart 2022 by doubling down on the best activities and avoiding t...

What do airplanes, railroads, and jazz music have in common? They were all innovations that people feared. In fact, if you look into any key technology shift from the past, you'll find a wealth of fear, uncertainty, and doubt surrounding it. And while this shouldn't be surprising, we can still learn from the skeptics of the past. We can learn just how difficult it is to predict what&apos...

Death is universal part of the human experience. During our lives, we often must confront the painful reality of death around us, and eventually, we face that reality ourselves. What's odd is that despite death being at the core of the human experience, many people avoid talking or thinking about it. So when people pass away or we face a health scare that brings us into contact with the fragi...

In the second part of this series on the future of work, Steph and Cal dive into new products and services, alongside macro trends that they predict are in full flux. These include mass migration, global tax infrastructure, opportunities for services to specialize, increased isolation, UBI, and of course... the metaverse. :)