Summer camps
Six weeks of fresh thinking
Behold, our 2023 summer camps! Each one…
meets Monday through Friday, five days in a row
is 80–90 minutes long
is a small group (about 15 students)
is for kids ages 8–14
costs $250 USD (discounts for multiple purchases)
Each has two sessions:
Morning sessions
12pm Eastern / 9am Pacific
Afternoon sessions
4pm Eastern / 1pm Pacific
The six topics
Bodies are Weird
June 5 – June 9
Understand the reasons behind puberty. How does it work? Why do we have it? How can you make it better?
(Because of the special nature of this course, we’ve made an entire page to explain it.)
How to Hyperfocus
June 19 – June 23
A hyperfocus session is a method to —
get perfectly clear on what needs to be done
focus your whole mind on just one task
finish all your work faster
hold open time to pursue your own creative projects
It’s what we’ve created to get our work done with our (very) ADHD minds — though you don’t have to be ADHD to take the class.
This is useful for reading textbooks, writing essays, managing email, doing tasks, and tackling passion projects.
“Before, I worked from 8 in the morning to 6 at night, and usually procrastinated the important stuff until Friday.
Now I finish three hours earlier, and on Friday, was done before lunch!”
Believe it or not: UFOs
July 10 – July 14
No, seriously: are we being visited by aliens?
In the last few years, US Navy pilots have released videos that seem to show some very strange things. Intellectuals are weighing in; the US Congress has even held sessions.
For the first time in a long while, UFOs are being talked about seriously.
In this class, we’ll take a no-holds-bar approach to investigating this phenomenon with the help of rationalist tools. You’ll learn how to use Bayesian reasoning, red-teaming, and big context to correct for your cognitive biases. You’ll learn how to analyze evidence to separate fact from fiction.
This isn’t your ordinary science class. Strap in for a wild ride and learn to think about controversial things for yourself.
Where Algebra Comes From
July 24 – July 28
Algebra wasn't invented by robots.
Algebra is one of the great human inventions. It was pioneered by the Babylonians, fussed over by the Greeks, and revolutionized by a brilliant Persian in the 800s.
In this course, you’ll be learning the story of algebra. And as you learn it, algebra will become simpler. You’ll see how to translate complex word problems into simple equations, and how to dissolve equations quickly.
The prerequisite for this course is to have at least a little experience with algebra. If you can solve the following equation, you’ll be fine —
(And if we have extra time, we’ll add on the story of radicals, and you’ll learn a way to dissolve them.)
ReadingHACKS
August 7 – August 11
Academic reading can be hard.
So often, there’s too much. It’s too dense. And it’s too wordy! Try this:
– Clifford Geertz, "Religion as a Cultural System"
In this course, you’ll learn to speed read. You’ll learn to x-ray a book. You’ll learn to focus better when you read. And you’ll learn to turn stuff like the above into this:
(This is based on Brandon’s past career of teaching advanced reading strategies to university honors students.)
The Epic of Punctuation
August 21 – August 25
Most people struggle to use a comma — or worse still, a colon, a dash, or the dreaded semicolon. So many books tell you the rules, but so few of them make the rules stick.
This course is built on the psychology of deliberate practice: our problem sets will begin stupidly simple, and quickly get stupidly complex. (They’re also pretty nutty.) You’ll master them, quickly.
This course is also built on the philosophy of Kieran Egan: we lead with emotion and interest. Because the truth is, punctuation is epic. These little pointy things (,:;—…) were created by real people struggling to improve the world. You’ll meet those inventors, and care about their struggles.
This summer camp will make punctuation stick. By the end, you’ll master the comma, the colon, the and the semicolon. You’ll know the difference between a hyphen (-), an en dash (–), and an em dash (—). And best of all, you’ll know when to follow these rules… and when to bend them, to better express yourself.
Questions, answered
Q: Got any discounts for multiple classes?
Yes! See below.
Q: Do the summer camps come with your Deep Dives?
Alas, they do not.
Q: When do the classes happen, again?
Each has a “morning” session (12pm Eastern / 9am Pacific) and an afternoon session (4pm Eastern / 1pm Pacific).
Q: Can I get them recorded?
Yes! For the first time ever, we’re going to record our seminars — but not student faces. (We take a hard stand against that.) We’ll send out the recordings to you if you ask, either one at a time, or all at once.
Q: Are you doing any webinar versions of these camps?
Alas, no. (We tried really hard to, but we haven’t found a way to make that work for summer.) If you’re interested in these courses, but can’t afford them, write us — we can put you on our summer waiting list.
Kind of! We’ll be offering a “recorded” version of these seminar classes. They won’t, however, have student faces on them — per our policy.
We’ll put up information about these soon.
Discounts
We want to help your kids do multiple summer camps! We’ve created some promo codes to make this easier.
The promo codes
If you order two courses, type in TWOINSUMMER (a $50 discount).
If you order three courses, type in THREEINSUMMER (a $100 discount).
If you order four courses, type in FOURINSUMMER (a $150 discount).
If you order five courses, type in FIVEINSUMMER (a $200 discount).
If you order six courses, type in SIXINSUMMER (a $250 discount).
The price difference
| # of classes | regular price | price w/ discount |
|---|---|---|
| 2 camps | $500 | $450 |
| 3 camps | $750 | $650 |
| 4 camps | $1000 | $850 |
| 5 camps | $1250 | $1050 |
| 6 camps | $1500 | $1250 |
Q: Can I use this for sibling discounts?
Sure! If you need help, just write us.