How to run a sane home life: cooking a basic meal, keeping things repaired, handling small emergencies, and living in a way that doesn’t wreck your health or the planet.
Naming what you feel, staying steady under stress, setting boundaries, knowing when to persist and when to let go, and not burning every bridge on the way.
The basic “operating systems” of power — capitalism, socialism, democracy, nation-states, elites — plus propaganda, spin, and the tricks used to sell bad ideas.
How governments, courts and paperwork actually work; what your rights are; what to do when things go wrong; and how “letter of the law” differs from “spirit of the law”.
How belief systems shape politics, identity and conflict; the difference between private faith and organized power; and how to think clearly around both.
Spotting fake news, paid news, bots and buzzwords; understanding how movies, games and timelines make money; and seeing the ad inside the entertainment.
Files, folders, docs and spreadsheets; safe internet use; avoiding malware and scams; plus a first feel for how programming, data and AI actually work.
Password sanity, two-factor authentication, spotting phishing attempts and scam emails, and understanding the real value of your personal data.
Budgeting, compounding, loans and interest, insurance, taxes, scams, bubbles, credit cards, and planning for the future without getting sold nonsense.
The simple mechanics of how a business survives: value, pricing, basic accounting, selling, and finding a real match between product and people.
The front-line work that keeps society standing — electricians, plumbers, nurses, mechanics, sanitation, machinists — and why many of these beat fragile desk jobs.
Seeing history as contested stories, not clean fairy-tales: who writes the story, what gets left out, and how to separate evidence from propaganda.
Money math, consumer math, home and business math, plus enough algebra and geometry to reason about bills, measurements and trade-offs without fear.
Reading deeply, writing clearly, speaking so people listen, and being at least functional in more than one language.
Enough science to reason about health, energy and climate; enough art and literature to recognize stories and tropes; and a basic sense of how to cope when things break.