Tony Hollowell's blog

I just witnessed one of the greatest basketball games I have ever seen last night: Butler vs. Duke. Some called it David vs. Goliath. But really, it was Thor vs. Hercules. Patton vs. Rommel. Rocky vs. Draggo. It was two evenly matched warriors getting after it. And in the end, Butler came up short. Painfully, painfully, short. continue reading this post

I understand that it is hard to find a job. There are not many companies hiring new employees, high school students can’t find summer jobs, and many school districts are facing employment cuts.

However, despite the lack of jobs, there is plenty of work to do. continue reading this post

When computers were first invented, people realized their incredible potential to speed up productivity. And for a while, this is how computers were used: tools to enhance productivity and efficiency. People used computers to actually DO something, to CREATE something.

And then something began to change. continue reading this post

I am baffled that people would suggest the problem with school in America is that we don’t have long enough days or that the school year is too short. I learned from a very young age that if something isn’t working, I shouldn’t continue doing it. If students are disengaged and bored with 180 days of school, what does adding another 10-20 days of boring, disengaged schooling do to enhance education? More of a bad thing is WORSE. If what you are doing in a given period of time is not working, YOU SHOULDN’T ADD MORE TIME! You should restructure what you are doing in that time.

Show me a classroom where students are engaged for 50 minutes, then yes, I will agree that those students could get a better education if they had that same engagement for another 10 minutes. However, I wonder how many principals are walking around their buildings, observing the teaching and learning that is occurring (or NOT occurring), and are thinking to themselves “Man, we just need to make this longer. All those students who are passing notes and failing classes, we need to keep them in their desks a little longer. That will solve our problem.”

Wake up people. If your system is broken, putting your “product” (the student) in the system longer won’t make it better. A flat tire doesn’t improve by riding on it longer. A broken computer screen doesn’t get better by looking at it longer. A broken furnace doesn’t heat the house no matter how long you wait. continue reading this post

Did you ever do a science fair project that turned out a disaster? I did. I tried to determine whether or not there was a statistical relationship between full moons and earthquakes. An interesting idea, I know, but the theory was that perhaps the position of the moon and the increased gravitational pull would somehow disturb the equilibrium of the crust and result in a greater tendency to have an earthquake. After poring through 120 years of seismic activity and full moons, I determined that there was absolutely no correlation between the two. My project was a complete dud.

Now this is hardly an acceptable way to conclude a science fair project. However, I noticed that if I removed a few of the data sets from the 1930’s, my correlation coefficient would increase slightly, and while the numbers were still inconclusive, I would have at least something to say. I could comment that “there seems to be a potential relationship that requires more exhaustive analysis than I could conduct in the last few months.” Translation: “I just put this together last night but will you PLEASE still give me my bonus points for science class?”

Now some people would brush this off as dishonest (I agree) or at least skewing the numbers (I agree), but I eventually learned that this kind of “science” could win me the Nobel Prize!

You see, science really isn’t very scientific at all. Sure, there are some purists out there, but science isn’t always about the truth. The history of science is filled with people who found the truth, but the truth was not according to their hypothesis, so they changed the numbers.

Need examples? continue reading this post

No one is really afraid of failure. No one has fear of trying something and then failing. What people truly and deeply fear is criticism.

I wrote a math book last year, and when I was writing it, I would occasionally get filled with fear. I told myself that I was afraid of failure. I told myself, “You are afraid of putting much work into this book and then nobody wanting it.”

But when I looked at my fear, I found that I had no fear of failure. My greatest fear was not that the book would go unwanted, but that people would criticize me for it. I feared getting emails that said, “This book is horrible. Why would I ever use it in my math class?” I feared meeting someone who had used the book and having them tell me, “I can’t believe how many mistakes there are in the book. It is embarrassing.” I feared somebody telling me that my website is confusing and useless.

Fear causes a person to cave in on their selves. I often thought to myself, “Why put myself in a position of criticism? Why shouldn’t I just write a small manual for my students? Why should I risk criticism?” The fear at times was crippling, but it was NEVER because of the fear of failure. In fact, the fear actually caused me to occasionally desire failure. I would think to myself, “If I never hear a comment about this book, that is good, because no comments mean that I didn’t make anyone upset.” continue reading this post

I have a very simple process for finding work that I love.

1. Do a bunch of different jobs.
2. Quit the jobs that are boring and suck life from my bones.
3. Keep doing the work that is left over.

Notice that this method of “finding your calling” is all about elimination. You do a bunch of different things, and you just STOP doing things that you don’t like. What is left over? Things that you DO like. A basic mathematical equation of this phenomenon looks something like this:

(All possible work) – (the work that is boring) = (Work that is NOT boring)

I am a great quitter. I am one of the best quitters in the entire world. If there is ever a Quitters Hall of Fame, I will be a first ballot candidate. I have 23,821 different projects that I have begun that I never intend to finish. You know why I quit doing these things? Because they sucked out life and failed to light me on fire. And being a quitter has made me very happy because I quit everything that is boring and that sucks life out of me, which means that everything that is left over is something that lights me with a roaring blaze of intensity. When is the last time you have done work that makes your fingers tingle? For me, it was approximately 0.13 seconds ago, when I wrote that last sentence.

I remember when I was in college, I spent so much time trying to figure out what I was going to do with my life. Well, that was a complete waste of time. It is much easier to figure out what you should NOT be doing in life. continue reading this post

Have you ever had the chance to visit a National Park? Have you seen the sun set over the rim of the Grand Canyon? Have you walked through alpine tundra in the Rocky Mountains? Have you hugged a giant sequoia that shoots 300 feet into the sky?

If you haven’t, you should.

If you have, then you owe a large debt to those who gave these great gifts to you. You see, I am a great lover of democracy. To me, democracy is about the freedom to create a world that is better than you found it. It is freedom to give yourself to a good cause. And here in America, there is a never-ending fountain of democracy-loving people who laid the foundations and passed on gifts of splendor to future generations, and our national parks are one such heritage. continue reading this post

People continue to ask me, “So what do you want to do with your life? What’s your plan?” I just put on a flabbergasted look and say, “Plan?”

I don’t know how to put this any more bluntly: I have no plan. I have no pre-set future. I have a whole lot of possibilities, but I certainly do not have a plan. I’m like the weatherman: I’ll give you a whole lot of estimates, but not a single certainty. continue reading this post

I always thought that accomplishing a dream is a simple process, but this was before I accomplished any dreams. Now I know better. Every dream I have fulfilled has followed a set of stages, and these stages all have their own unique timing and characteristics that make up the lifecycle of a dream. If you want to live a dream, and not just to think about your dreams, be prepared for the stages below. (Note: if you want to prevent fatal collapse of your dreams, be sure to read stage #8). continue reading this post