Resources

Thoughts from Our Founders

Nat’s podcast appearances

In his podcast appearances, Nat highlights flaws in the traditional college system for its high costs and lack of real-world relevance. He advocates for alternative education paths that focus on developing practical skills like critical thinking, adaptability, and problem-solving. These episodes offer a straightforward look at how education can better prepare students for today’s challenges.

Stop Guessing: The 9 Behaviors of Great Problem-Solvers

Bad problem solving costs individuals and society incalculable amounts of time, money, and sanity. In this book Nat—who’s been solving hard problems professionally for over twenty years—shares nine behaviors anyone can adopt to find solutions to even the most seemingly intractable problems.

These same behaviours are now applied in the Futures Forge pedagogy, students truly become great problem solvers.

Erik’s appearances

With experience founding and growing tech startups, Erik often shares insights on navigating burnout, sustaining motivation, and the value of humility in learning. His written work spans diverse topics, from politics and problem-solving strategies on Medium to academic publications that examine complex societal issues. Through his books and publications, Erik advocates for practical, actionable approaches to complex challenges and personal growth.

Futures Forge Curriculum &
Scientific Resources

In this section, you'll find our recommended tools and resources to develop the skills and attributes taught at Futures Forge. These include practical guides, self-assessment tools, and curriculum materials designed to strengthen critical thinking, adaptability, and other core competencies for real-world success.

Self-Assessment Tools

To support tracking students progress over time, a core part of our pedagogy involves “learning about ourselves”. It encourages students to understand where they rank in terms of some skills & attributes. Facilitators are then able to coach students at a deeper level, and students understand better where to improve and can track this over time. Here are some of the tools we like and use at Skills for Success:

Partners & Recommendations

At Futures Forge we believe in the power of collaboration to encourage and support the next generation of talent. We partner with businesses and organizations that share our mission, helping us reach and recruit high-potential students and amplifying our commitment to practical, real-world education. Together, we’re building a network dedicated to creating meaningful educational alternatives that prepare students for lasting success. Interested in becoming a Futures Forge partner? Email hello@futuresforge.org.

National Society of High School Scholars is a distinguished academic honor society, committed to recognizing, serving and networking the highest-achieving student scholars in more than 26,000 high schools across 170 countries. Their mission is to honor academic achievement and provide unique resources and scholarships that enrich educational journeys, fuel career interests and drive community impact.

Inspirit AI is a 25-hour enrichment program that introduces middle and high school students to fundamental artificial intelligence concepts to build socially impactful projects such as fake news detection, disease diagnosis, art-generation, self-driving car simulation, and more! Developed and taught by our team of graduate students from Stanford, MIT, and other leading universities, students receive a personalized, interdisciplinary learning experience in small-group classrooms.

NEIA is preparing young innovators with a future-focused curriculum, human-centered design, and real-world inclusion. Students connect Passion to Purpose, bring Ideas to Impact, and graduate Next Generation Innovators who leave NEIA with a unique PIN and become the change they want to see in a rapidly evolving world.