James's Quest Book

A Promise in Writing

A contract is a promise written down so both people remember exactly what was agreed.

Alliteration

Repeating first sounds

In progress

Anchoring

Tactic

Ancient Greece

Greek history

Break Your Fall

Ukemi

Build Your First Palace

Method of loci

Call For Help

Emergency basics

Checkmate in One

Tactics

Chunking

Technique

Claim, Reason, Evidence

The anatomy of an argument

Coin, Die, Deck

Basic probability

Doubles and Halves to 100

Fast mental moves

Eggs Three Ways

Fundamentals

Ethos, Pathos, Logos

Three appeals

Every Ad Wants Something

Advertising

First Fifty Words

Vocabulary

Follow the Money, Follow the Motive

Cui bono

In progress

Greetings and Introductions

Conversation

How The Pieces Move

Chess basics

Inflation

When there is more money chasing the same goods, prices rise. Your saved money buys less.

Input, Process, Output

What every program does

John 3:16

The gospel in one verse

Knife Skills

Kitchen basics

Know Thyself

The oldest advice in philosophy

Loaded Words

Framing

Look Them in the Eye

Eye contact, a firm handshake, and your name said clearly.

Look Them In The Eye

Delivery

Make Your Bed, Every Day

Small order

Mean, Median, Mode

Averages

Measure, Mark, Cut

Basic craft

Needs and Wants

Two different kinds of spending

Never Take The First Offer

Basics

Note Values

How long each note lasts

Official Story vs Unofficial Story

Two narratives

In progress

Plank, 30 Seconds

Hold the line

Prefixes and Suffixes

Word parts

Primary Colors

Red, yellow and blue

Read Before You Sign

Never sign anything you have not read and cannot explain back.

Remember Names

Using someone's name tells them they matter.

Rome in Five Sentences

Roman history

Rule of Threes

Priorities

Rules, Respect, and Restraint

Warrior code

Save, Spend, Give

Three jars

Scarcity

There is never enough of everything

Six Knots

Rope work

Speak Up and Slow Down

Nervous speakers rush and mumble. Confident ones slow down and land their words.

Stance, Guard, and Breathing

Fundamentals

Steelman Charity

Assume the best reading

Steelman It

The opposite of a strawman

Stop The Bleed

Bleeding control

Table Setting and Table Manners

Etiquette

Talk To A Stranger

Courage

The Cold Shower

Voluntary discomfort

The First Amendment, Word for Word

Free speech

The Five Major World Religions

Naming them fairly

The Five Oceans

Oceans

The Four Questions

Every agreement answers: who, what, when, and what if someone breaks it.

The Golden Rule

Treat others as you wish to be treated

The Introduction

Social basics

The Lord's Prayer

The prayer Jesus taught

The Mona Lisa

Leonardo da Vinci, about 1503

The Moral of the Fable

Aesop: the Tortoise and the Hare

The Musical Alphabet

Seven letters, over and over

The Planets

Solar system

The Preamble

Constitution

The Secret Good Deed

Anonymous service

The Seven Continents

Continents

The Two Great Commandments

Love God, love your neighbor

Three Branches

Separation of powers

Twenty Roots

Word building

Twenty Tools By Name

Tool literacy

Wages vs. Ownership

A wage pays you once for your time. Ownership pays you again and again for something you own.

Wall Sit, 45 Seconds

Sit on nothing

Warm and Cool Colors

Color has a temperature

What an Asset Is

An asset puts money in your pocket. A liability takes money out.

What Is a Customer?

The person who chooses to pay

What Is a Protagonist?

The character we follow

What Is a Religion?

Belief, practice, community

What Is a Stanza?

Paragraphs made of lines

What Is an Algorithm?

A recipe a machine can follow

What Money Actually Is

Money is anything people agree to trade for. It works because we trust it.

Who You Know Is an Asset

Relationships open doors that money cannot.

Why The Sky Is Blue

Light

Write a Haiku

Five, seven, five

Your Rights With Police

Practical law

A Great Life: Choose One

Biography

A Handshake Is a Contract Too

Your word is a contract. Keeping it when it costs you is what builds a reputation.

A Meal From Scratch

Cooking

Admit It First

Honesty

Aristotle on Habit

We become what we repeatedly do

Banks Create Money

When a bank makes a loan, it writes new money into existence — it does not hand over someone else's cash.

Bar Hang, 60 Seconds

Just do not let go

Bits and Bytes

The smallest pieces

Bread

Baking

Charlotte's Web: The First Line

E. B. White, 1952

Choking

Airway

Claim, Reason, Evidence

Argument structure

Correlation Is Not Cause

Causation

Declaration of Independence, Opening

Founding words

Equator, Poles, Hemispheres

Global grid

Escape the Ground

Positions

Expected Value

EV

Fact vs. Opinion vs. Judgment

Three different things

Fifty More Roots

Vocabulary engine

Find the Interest, Not the Position

Interests

Fire Three Ways

Fire craft

Five Common Fallacies

Ways arguments go wrong

Four Composers

Names worth knowing

Gettysburg Address

Great speech

Give First

Strong networks start with helping before you need anything.

Hands-Only CPR

CPR

Holy Books

Where each faith looks for authority

How a Law Really Gets Made

Legislation

How To Apologize

Repair

How to Ask Well

A good ask is specific, small, easy to say yes to, and easy to refuse.

If-Then Statements

The shape of a rule

Incentives

People respond to rewards

Judaism

The covenant story

Latin Phrases Worth Knowing

Phrases

Map and Compass

Land navigation

Marcus Aurelius on the Mind

Power over yourself, not events

Melody and Harmony

The tune and everything under it

Metaphor and Simile

Two ways to compare

Numbers, Colors, Family

Core vocabulary

Opening Principles

Strategy

Opportunity Cost

What you gave up to get it

Order of Operations

Which part comes first

Owning a Piece of a Company

A share of stock means you own a small slice of a real business and its profits.

Perform In Public

Stage courage

Perimeter and Area

Around it and inside it

Pi and Circles

The number in every circle

Pins, Forks, Skewers

Tactics

Point of View

First person and third person

Present Tense Verbs

Grammar

Primary Source vs Retelling

Evidence

Prime Numbers Under 50

The unbreakable numbers

Psalm 23

The shepherd psalm

Read Two Headlines

Media framing

Revenue and Profit

Money in versus money kept

Rhyme Scheme

Lettering the rhymes

Royalties

If you make something once — a song, a book, a design — people can pay you for it forever.

Screen-Free Weekend

Attention

Setting, Plot and Conflict

The three bones of a story

Sharpen a Knife

Edge care

Silence and Patience

Tactic

Stand Like You Belong

Feet planted, shoulders back, hands still, chin level.

Starry Night

Van Gogh, 1889

Ten Birds

Identification

Ten Longest Rivers

Rivers

Ten Push-Ups

Push the ground away

Ten Trees

Identification

The Ad Hominem Fallacy

Attacking the person

The Bill of Rights

First ten amendments

The Color Wheel and Complements

Opposites that pop

The Emergency Fund

Money set aside for surprises

The Four Punches

Boxing

The Fruit of the Spirit

Nine marks of a changed heart

The Major Scale Pattern

Whole and half steps

The Peg System

Numbers to images

The Rule of Thirds

Where to put the important thing

The Slot Machine In Your Pocket

Attention

The Socratic Method

Asking questions to find truth

The Ten Commandments

The moral law

The Thank-You Note

Gratitude

The Thank-You Note

A handwritten note is rare, so it is remembered.

Three Points and a Close

The simplest strong talk: tell them what you will say, say three things, then say what it means.

Time Signature 4/4

Counting the beat

Timeline of the West

Chronology

Twenty Minutes of Boredom

Stillness

Twenty Names in One Room

Social memory

Twenty-Five Air Squats

Legs like springs

Unclog and Reseal

Household repair

What Is a Brand?

The promise people remember

What Is a Budget?

A plan for money before it moves

What Is a Loop?

Doing something again and again

What Is a Syllogism?

Two premises, one conclusion

What Is Interest?

Rent paid on money

What Is Money?

Why paper is worth anything

What Makes a Contract

Contracts

Wrestling Stance and Sprawl

Takedown defense

Write Your Own Contract

Practice on something real.