profile

Justin Skycak

Chief Quant, Director of Analytics at Math Academy. Posts about learning, upskilling, math education, Math Academy, and more generally, stages 2-3 of Bloom's talent development process in hierarchical skill domains.

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New on JustinMath.com - ​How/Why To Become the Smart Kid; Smart-Person Failure Mode; Loss of Interest Can Sometimes Be Traced Back to Lack of Foundations

Hey! You're receiving this email because you requested to be notified about new posts at JustinMath.com.(If you've changed your mind, click here to unsubscribe, please avoid marking spam.) Here are 3 new posts: How and Why To Become the Smart Kid~100 words The Most Common Failure Mode of Stereotypically Smart People~300 words • If you don't really understand what you're automating/generalizing, you're doomed to fail. Investigate before you automate. Become wise, then generalize. How? By doing...

Hey! You're receiving this email because you requested to be notified about new posts at JustinMath.com.(If you've changed your mind, click here to unsubscribe, please avoid marking spam.) Here are 3 new posts: The State of “Blah”: Why You’re In It and How You Get Out Of It~400 words Math Academy High Schoolers Taking Math Courses At Caltech~100 words Bottom-Up Versus Top-Down Arguments in Machine Learning Education~1150 words And a new podcast: The Unreasonable Effectiveness of the Knowledge...

Hey! You're receiving this email because you requested to be notified about new posts at JustinMath.com.(If you've changed your mind, click here to unsubscribe, please avoid marking spam.) Here are 3 new posts: What Happens When Middle School is Put to Good Use~3100 words • Typical honors students can learn all of high school math plus calculus *in middle school* if they are taught efficiently. They don't have to be geniuses, don't even have to spend more time on school. Just need to use time...

Hey! You're receiving this email because you requested to be notified about new posts at JustinMath.com.(If you've changed your mind, click here to unsubscribe, please avoid marking spam.) I recently started a podcast with Jason Roberts, called The Math Academy Podcast. We have two episodes out so far! It's on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts, and transcripts are available here. Here are our first 2 episodes: Teach Like Your Life Depends On It - Math Academy Podcast #22025 Nov, ~2.75h...

Hey! You're receiving this email because you requested to be notified about new posts at JustinMath.com.(If you've changed your mind, click here to unsubscribe, please avoid marking spam.) Here are 3 new recent posts: The Joy of Math is Like The Joy of Exercise2025 Sep, ~550 words • Exercise gets way more fun once you notice a body transformation getting underway. It's the same way with math. I Believe You Have Potential2025 Sep, ~200 words • What people tend to need the most yet have the...

Hey! You're receiving this email because you requested to be notified about new posts at JustinMath.com.(If you've changed your mind, click here to unsubscribe, please avoid marking spam.) Here are 3 new recent posts: What’s the Point of Being Way Ahead? It Buys You Time.2025 Sep, ~550 words • Time is the #1 killer of dreams and aspirations. When someone gives up on their dream, or gives up on figuring out what that dream is, it's typically a result of them losing the race against time. That...

Hey! You're receiving this email because you requested to be notified about new posts at JustinMath.com.(If you've changed your mind, click here to unsubscribe, please avoid marking spam.) I did another podcast which is currently the most comprehensive 2h overview of my thoughts on serious upskilling (summary and transcript available as well). Not just how to train efficiently, but also how to find your mission. Not just the microstructure, but also the metagame. The Metagame Podcast #39:...

Hey! You're receiving this email because you requested to be notified about new posts at JustinMath.com.(If you've changed your mind, click here to unsubscribe, please avoid marking spam.) Here are 3 new recent posts: What Many People Fail to Understand about Educational Acceleration2025 Aug, ~350 words • At the core, it's not really a race against your peers. It's a race against time. Accelerating helps you find your place in the world before time closes in on you and forces you to settle...

Hey! You're receiving this email because you requested to be notified about new posts at JustinMath.com.(If you've changed your mind, click here to unsubscribe, please avoid marking spam.) I recently started doing Q&A again! Q&A #4: How I Approach Learning in Other Domains2025 Sep, ~25m • How I've personally applied the Math Academy learning approach to areas outside of math (specifically biology and music). youtube.com/watch?v=GOqaK5cIUrk And I'm getting ready to do another. If you have a...

Hey! You're receiving this email because you requested to be notified about new posts at JustinMath.com.(If you've changed your mind, click here to unsubscribe, please avoid marking spam.) Here are 3 new recent posts: Most People Don’t Realize They Can Climb Skill Trees2025 Aug, ~200 words You Can Often Just Make Yourself Like Things2025 Aug, ~150 words • It's amazing how fun a seemingly boring thing can become once you develop a habit, establish some baseline competence, and get some skin in...