GoKawiilI was fascinated to hear about Jason Brennan’s class assignments for his “Ambition” class. Reprinted with his kind permission. I doubt that the average U.S. college student would actually follow through with any of these challenges, but they’d be great for a school like UATX!
In my first year seminar course Ambition, in addition to their other work, students will need to complete four of the following assignments, including at least one starred project. Two of these I got from Jess Flanigan at Richmond.
1. The Failure Project
Select an activity you find intriguing, but which you are bad at and expect to fail at if you attempt it. (For instance, if you are a bad singer, sing karaoke in public. Or if you are a bad athlete, play pick-up basketball.) This week, try doing it for at least 30 minutes, ideally in public where others can see you fail or perform badly. How did it make you feel? How did others react to you? What did you learn about yourself? Will you keep doing it until you get better?
2. The Impossible Day Project
Pick a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday that you have a lot of free time. Email or call five people (e.g., friend, coworker, fellow athlete, professor, boyfriend, parent) and give them permission to make demands of your time. Tell them, “Please ask me to do something this Saturday that would genuinely help you.” You can tell them it’s for class if they think it’s weird. Don’t coordinate and don’t let them know you have four other people to help that day. Don’t place any limits on the time they can demand of you for that one day. All five activities must be scheduled for the same day.
Now decide what to do. Whom did you disappoint? Why? Whose interests counted? Could everyone be satisfied? Did you treat everyone equally? Should you have?
3. The Rejection Project
Ask three people for something you genuinely want from them and which genuinely matters to you, but which they are reasonably (but not certainly) likely to refuse. For instance, ask for a discount at a store, ask to shadow someone for a day to learn from them, ask to sit in on a meeting you aren’t invited to, ask someone out on a date (without “talking” via the phone first—pretend it’s the 1990s), etc. Did anyone say yes? When they said no, how did they respond? What did you learn from rejection?
4. The Gratitude Project
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