Adam Zak

Think. Explore. Do | Advisor | Author | Former: Partner, Retained Exec Search; KPMG CPA, Consultant; Entrepreneur | Senior Executive | Curious | Je deviens…

[Adam Zak @LeanThinker]

Finally got to the (apparently) right person in phone #9! Shame on you for making a new widow slog thru your voice labyrinth.

[MetLife @MetLife]

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[Adam Zak @LeanThinker]

Try not to die owning @MetLife dental plan. After 7 phone calls still can’t reach anyone for info on next steps after death of primary policy holder

[Adam Zak @LeanThinker]

I’m in Split, Croatia. Counting the number of times I’ve heard people say they’re buying a banana so they can have a banana split…

[Adam Zak @LeanThinker]

Feeling a bit like you’ve seen better days as well?

[Adam Zak @LeanThinker]

That so much FTX money has gone on to fund further cause areas of effective altruism I find dubiously moral is frustrating. America is being introduced to effective altruism thanks to an odious utilitarianism variant. Well said, @AlmostMedia Hypocrisy knows no bounds…

[Adam Zak @LeanThinker]

@Brother_Intl Yes, unsubscribed 3 times. Have continued to receive these emails. Two more in the last hour. Appreciate your response but…

[Adam Zak @LeanThinker]

Installed a generic ink cartridge this morning and have received this email EVERY hour on the hour since then. Do you want your printer back? @Brother_Intl

[Adam Zak @LeanThinker]

So here in America, the teachers union working with the NYSED is using litigation and concealment of data to prevent our kids from getting a better education and keep parents in the dark. Bill Ackman

[Bill Ackman @BillAckman]

One of the best charter schools in the country, Success Academy, just filed suit against the NYS Department of Education Commissioner Betty Rosa for no longer permitting the College Board from disclosing AP exam results from NYS schools.

For years, NYSED had permitted the College Board to share aggregate, non-personally identifying data on Advanced Placement (AP) exams with U.S. News & World Report, as 47 other states have also done, so that U.S. News could develop its national ranking of all public high schools. This year, Commissioner Rosa blocked the College Board from providing AP data to U.S. News preventing SA’s data from being released.

The AP exam disclosure is important as it plays a significant role in school rankings nationwide. Success Academy in previous years was ranked 11th in NYS and 9th in NYC last year, the highest of any school that does not have selective admissions. Without the AP data this year, Success Academy’s ranking dropped to 196th statewide and the school’s and its students extraordinary outperformance thereby has gone unrecognized.

Success Academy does not limit demanding AP coursework to a small, academically elite group — all of its students (who win admission by lottery) have access to challenging, college-level academic work. And they have produced exceptional AP results.

This year, more than 3,000 SA students took 7,810 AP examinations across 18 subjects—with an average pass rate of 68 percent. Nationally, fewer than 25 percent of high school students pass even one AP examination by the time they graduate.

At Success, 95 percent of its 2026 graduating class passed three or more AP examinations, 79 percent passed five or more, and 60 percent passed seven or more. They outperformed their New York and global peers on nine AP examinations, including U.S. and European History, Macroeconomics, Microeconomics, and Literature.

Ask yourself why NYSED Commissioner Betty Rosa would choose to limit the release of student performance data on APs.

By doing so, she diminishes the performance of the best charter schools, masking the poor performance of NYS and NYC public schools, and limiting the recognition of Success’ and other great charter schools’ faculty and students.

The UFT teachers union recently sued Success Academy for ostensibly violating the Charter cap, which prevents Success, the largest NYC charter school operator, from opening new schools.

So here in America, the teachers union working with the NYSED is using litigation and concealment of data to prevent our kids from getting a better education and keep parents in the dark.

This should be a crime, and Betty Rosa should be ashamed of herself.

(I have cribbed sections of some of the language and data above from a letter from Success Academy’s Founder & CEO Eva Moskowitz. If X had footnotes I would have added them.)

[Adam Zak @LeanThinker]

For those who don’t know, it’s the Blue Line that takes you directly into Chicago from O’Hare airport. The only form of public transportation there is. Looks like Uber or Lyft only from here on out for this former Wrigley-viller…

[John Kass @John_Kass]

When will Brandon Johnson blame President Trump for this?

[Adam Zak @LeanThinker]

I’m pretty confident that “not requiring anyone else’s approval” for pretty much anything is a key principle to follow for living your best life.

[Adam Zak @LeanThinker]

And hello back to you. Now go get busy making more great stuff for me and the rest of the world.

[John Ternus @johnternus]

hello

[Adam Zak @LeanThinker]

Yeah, but are we missing the whole point of going camping to begin with ? I still recall my Svea portable white gas stove and two-man Mt Marcy backpack tent with some degree of fondness.

[Paul Millerd @p_millerd]

Asia is the best

This is for the new Foxconn car

[Adam Zak @LeanThinker]

Well, first day of September. What am I going to do with the last third of this year before it gets away from me forever?

[Paul Millerd @p_millerd]

I'm relaunching my audio book With @AuthorsEQTY in three weeks

Audio deals are notoriously bad for self-published authors. Even Brandon Sanderson distributes through traditional channels.

Excited to be partnering with a world class organization to go wide (beyond audible) and reach emerging spaces like Spotify and others where audiobooks are growing.

People don't realize that audiobooks are the fastest growing segment of books right now. I am excited to finally have a author-centric partner that can help me take advantage of the very complex world of publishing and get my book in front of more people

As part of this, I made some small updates, recording a new intro in honor of the 5th anniversary and upgraded audio quality with a new recording

[Adam Zak @LeanThinker]

Before we can improve anything, we have to see what actually is—not what we expected to see, or what our assumptions tell us should be there.

[Julie Fredrickson @AlmostMedia]

Totally wasn’t expecting my own senator to be the most rational actor here

[Emma Camp @emmma_camp_]

Can rent control fix the housing crisis? No. In fact, it could make things a whole lot worse.

Find out more in my latest for @WSJFreeEx

[Adam Zak @LeanThinker]

Check out my latest article: X’s in the Tarmac, Steel on the Mall: Two Midnight Power Moves and What They Say About Leadership https://t.co/9UvrUJmFIX via @LinkedIn

[Adam Zak @LeanThinker]

"being ran" - yeah, all you need to know right there...

[Chicago Contrarian @ChicagoContrar1]

Mayor Brandon Johnson today: "The city is being ran exceptionally well right now."

Johnson is clinically delusional: Chicago faces multiple financial crises, schools fail, crime persists, and his aides are running for the exit.

Worse, three-and-a-half years into his term, he is still whining about what he "inherited."

[Adam Zak @LeanThinker]

@MaanTania60426 3