Dad of 3. Writing Curiosity Labs - research on raising capable kids in the AI era. Past: Bain, Protocol Labs; led Apartment List research covered by WSJ & AP.
Singapore
Joined December 2009
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I wrote a new post, on Singapore this time!
Singapore's education system gets a lot right, but I wanted to see how good it is for its brightest students.
tl;dr:
- From 1st to 6th grade, I think too much time is wasted on exam prep. I don't love the changes to the Gifted Program.
- From 7th grade onwards, things look much better - peer grouping helps prevent complacency, and students have a wide range of really great academic and extracurricular opportunities.
Are those opportunities worth stretching for? I think so, but each family will need to decide how much they are willing to give up.
More here: curiositylabs.com/p/singapor…
Andrew Woo retweeted
We believe that the West can awaken from its long slumber – and rekindle the fire that was first lit in ancient Greece millennia ago.
About time! When @Tesla ?
Singapore, we’re on our way 🇸🇬 Our vehicles will arrive later this year, and will begin mapping and learning Singapore’s roads in early 2027 before fully autonomous ride-hailing arrives in 2028.
Learn more: waymo.com/blog/2026/09/waymo…
Andrew Woo retweeted
@androowoo has a really excellent piece on @Alphaschool , entirely sane, without hyperbole.
I especially love this quotation by @jliemandt , focusing on the part that matters,
“Liemandt says the Alpha model is roughly 10% technology and 90% motivation.”
Yeah - been pretty disappointed with the discourse especially in recent weeks. There are so many things to improve in education - let's support those who are trying!
I wrote a bit more here: curiositylabs.com/p/what-alp…
Very cool! The person I drew unfortunately died at childbirth, which I guess is pretty common for most of human history.
Whoa- this is the most fantastic pedagogical tool I’ve encountered in as long as I can remember (which is a helluva high bar, considering who I live with).
I’m so excited to have my 6yo play with it! And you all should too.
anyhumanever.com/
Lots of polarizing reactions to Alpha lately. Either it has reinvented school, or the results are all selection.
My take: I think the model works very well for the children it serves. Its real innovation is not the software, but how the school motivates children to use it. Whether that travels is still an open question.
I wrote more here:
curiositylabs.com/p/what-alp…
The new Huberman Lab episode is out: How to Accelerate Learning & Improve Education | Joe Liemandt
0:00 Joe Liemandt
3:16 History of Traditional Classroom Model; Education Milestones
8:08 Sponsors: David & Lingo
10:25 Alpha School, High Standards & Support
22:33 Effective Support, Academics vs Athletics; Homeschooling
30:03 AI, Individualized Learning & Mastery
34:31 Teacher Education, Standardized Tests, Role of School
40:52 Sponsors: AG1 & Helix Sleep
43:42 AI, Scaffolding Learning, Mastery; Working Memory & Fluency
52:41 Working Memory, Focus; Gifted Kids
1:00:30 Basics Mastery, Grade Level Catch-Up, Individualized AI Lessons & Pace
1:06:57 Sponsor: LMNT
1:08:17 Shame, Motivation, Growth Rate; Overcoming Mental Blocks & Paying Kids
1:20:55 Suffering & Motivation, Kids Goals, Sports; Doing Hard Things
1:31:21 Founders High School, Life Skills; Kids' Goals
1:42:44 Reimagining Classroom Education
1:47:21 Importance of Building & Creating, AI & Humanity
1:58:04 Science & Redesigning Experiments, Kids' Interest-Led Projects
2:05:26 Huberman Lab Live Events
2:06:14 Learning Predictors, Gender, Income; Redesigning the School System
2:18:32 Success; Sports Academy, Alpha School Expansion
2:28:36 Acknowledgements
2:31:07 Zero-Cost Support, YouTube, Spotify & Apple Follow, Reviews & Feedback, Sponsors, Protocols Book, Social Media, Neural Network Newsletter
Includes paid partnerships.
Alpha School is one of the most polarizing topics in education right now. It says children learn 2.6x faster in two hours a day, and parents and students are among its strongest advocates on Twitter. Critics think the results are mostly selection and want much better data. 1/6
curiositylabs.com/p/what-alp…
5/ The next tests should tell us more. Kiley Prep will try a fuller version in a low-income public middle school. Houston will test mostly the software with selected students inside public schools. Alpha’s specialty schools will test whether sports or entrepreneurship can help supply the motivation. Each changes a different part of the model.
6/ I am rooting for Alpha to succeed. I want it to publish more data, and I hope it inspires other people to build different kinds of schools. No single approach will work for every child, and school has needed this kind of experimentation for a long time.
More on what Alpha actually built: curiositylabs.com/p/what-alp…
Reed Hastings is funding Modern Bloom, led by @ben_m_somers, to spend up to $100,000 per child on a year of one-to-one tutoring. The question: how much can a child learn under ideal conditions?
Bloom’s original result came from short, tightly aligned studies and has never been replicated. Modern Bloom knows that. It is testing how far the full package can take a child over a full year and on a broader test. I think that’s worth doing.
I wrote about what the study can tell us, what it can’t, and what parents should look for. A few notes and the link in thread 🧵
🤖 Made with AI
✋This is personal for me. We homeschooled our oldest through first grade. Before the school year ended, he was already working on third-grade math and Chinese.
This year, we sent him back to public school. He’s happy there - he has friends, enjoys the activities, and helps other children with the material.
But my sense is that he’s coasting academically. School is meeting an important social need while leaving the academic fit unsolved. Our question is how to keep the community without making him wait for the curriculum to catch up.
🎒Childhood is not a race through the curriculum. Friends, play, belonging, and a love of learning all count.
But before choosing a tutor, app, or school, I think parents should ask:
- Does the work stay at my child’s level?
- Is my child using the time well?
- Is the teaching good?
The product label matters less than what the child is actually doing next.
curiositylabs.com/p/the-1000…
I chatted with a parent who asked what to do when her 4yo is frustrated and throws a tantrum when failing at a drawing activity - "we've tried different kinds of ways to respond, but it doesn't seem to be doing much".
I realized I didn't have a good answer, so I dug into the research to understand more. 🧵
What parents can do:
- Don't reason or negotiate at the peak - questions and explanations add load and drag it out. Just stay calm (or try to!), then comfort them after anger drops.
- Don't punish the emotion: time-out works for deliberate misbehaviour, emotional overwhelm needs support instead
- Validate the feeling, then wait for the emotion to subside before teaching.