A life curriculum for adults
The book school forgot to give you.
School taught you subjects. It didn't teach you how to understand your emotions, reason about the world, manage your money, or find a life worth living. This fills that gap — five modules, ~80 topics, drawing on the best educational minds of the internet age.
Explore the curriculum →Click any module to explore →
"Every one of these organisations — School of Life, Kurzgesagt, Khan Academy, Huberman Lab — is circling the same problem from a different angle. Formal education left us with subject knowledge but not life competence. The Operating Manual simply says so out loud."
— The premise
The curriculum
Each module draws on the best existing educational resources — synthesised, sequenced, and made actionable. Every topic includes a core essay, reflection prompts, and a curated reading list.
Module 01
Outcome: You can name what you feel, trace where it came from, and act rather than react. The inner life becomes legible.
Module 02
Outcome: You can evaluate a scientific claim, understand a news story about research, and reason about systemic problems without being a scientist.
Module 03
Outcome: You can identify bad reasoning in yourself and others, hold beliefs proportional to evidence, and structure your own thinking under pressure.
Module 04
Outcome: You can build and protect financial and physical capital intentionally — not reactively. Money and health stop being sources of anxiety.
Module 05
Outcome: You can build durable relationships, participate meaningfully in society, and direct your life toward something that outlasts you.
Modules build inward before outward. You cannot think clearly about the world if you don't know yourself. You cannot act well in the world if you can't think clearly. Modules 4–5 are where knowledge meets action. Each module can be studied independently — but they compound in sequence.
The problem
The solution
Standing on shoulders
No single organisation has built this curriculum. But together, they contain everything needed. The Operating Manual is a synthesis — drawing on the best of each, filling the gaps between them.
The School of Life
Social enterprise · London
The gold standard for emotional education. Philosophy, psychology, and self-knowledge made accessible to non-academics. 500+ videos, books, therapy, workshops.
Primary source → Module 01, 05
Kurzgesagt
Animation studio · Munich
25M subscribers. Proof that rigorous science + beautiful animation + optimistic framing is a viable and massive business. The production benchmark.
Primary source → Module 02, 04, 05
TED-Ed
Non-profit · New York
22M subscribers, 4.4B views, 650,000-teacher network. The broadest multi-disciplinary animated curriculum in existence. The institutional model to learn from.
Primary source → Module 02, 03
Domain of Science
YouTube channel · Dominic Walliman PhD
A quantum physicist who maps entire fields of knowledge in single videos. The "map of physics / biology / maths" format is one of the most distinctive in EdTech.
Primary source → Module 02
Crayon Capital
YouTube channel · Financial literacy
Financial education grounded in the South African context — JSE, rand-denominated decisions, local tax structures. Fills a gap no global platform has addressed.
Primary source → Module 04
Huberman Lab
Podcast · Stanford neuroscientist
Ranked #1 health podcast globally. Neuroscience made practical — sleep, stress, performance, focus. Bridges the gap between academic research and daily behaviour.
Primary source → Module 01, 04
Khan Academy
Non-profit · 62M annual users
The closest thing to a free complete curriculum online. Best-in-class for academic subjects and maths. The model for free, structured, mastery-based learning at scale.
Structural inspiration → all modules
3Blue1Brown
YouTube channel · Grant Sanderson
Mathematical intuition through animation. Proof that visual, discovery-based learning is more powerful than instruction. Spawned the Manim open-source ecosystem.
Primary source → Module 03
Veritasium
YouTube channel · Derek Muller PhD
A PhD in physics education who built a channel around misconception correction. The best existing source for "why your intuition about science is wrong."
Primary source → Module 02, 03
Module 01 — free, now
The first module launches as ten essays on emotional intelligence, self-knowledge, and the psychology of everyday life. Free. No account required. Sign up to be notified when it's ready.
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