Values

Roote’s values are operating principles for our day-to-day work.

How we work

Fellows first. Fellows place their trust in us to navigate life’s uncertainty. We are grateful for their vulnerability and respond with weighty responsibility. They are the change we wish to see in the world. Our success is determined by their success.

Everything is a C+. We hold ourselves and our fellows to a world-class standard. There’s no curve here. We strive for mastery, stress the details, and hone our craft.

Real impact. Education is rife with fake work and signaling. We strive to drive quantifiable impact in our student’s abilities and direct them to solve the world’s most important problems.

Simplify simplify simplify. We’re excited by everything but focus on a few things. We do less, better. We praise concision.

Build an ecosystem. The future of education will not be built alone. We are positive-sum and celebrate each other’s wins. We learn from others and share freely. We look for opportunities to convene the movement.

Who we are

Information sponges. We are infovores who can’t help but soak it all in. We’re pluralists first, and keep our identity small. But our curiosity is directed towards impact. We’re serious, curious builders.

Believers. Rooties think pessimism is one of the biggest problems facing humanity. We think the first step to a better future is painting a better one. We are not naive, but truly think we can build a world of abundant energy, intelligence, and wisdom.

Agentic. But Rooties know that world doesn’t build itself. We need to act. Over and over again. Every day. We have a bias to action and find ways to get things done.

Humble. Rooties know they have so much left to learn. We’re often wrong. The world is a big place. Lots of what we currently do is still a C+.

Playful. Life is too short not to enjoy the process. We aim high but delight in the small things. We laugh.

How we address fellows

Emotions first. When fellows come to us with problems, we look to move the conversation to a deeper emotional level where most issues lie. Release the fear, unleash your potential.

We believe in you. We only work with students who we have the capacity to believe in. We actively vocalize and share your strengths. From this foundational believe, we then challenge you to become your best self.

Ambitious peers are like water for dying plants. Being ambitious often starts with loneliness. It’s countercultural. But finding your people is amazing and we facilitate that. We believe in the high return of raising your aspirations and giving you permission to follow your dreams.

Be useful. We think it’s a tragedy that people are often bored, tired, and stressed. There’s lots of impactful work to be done, and we want to enable you to do it. We give you tools to navigate the idea maze.

Build habits. You’re only part of Roote for a short amount of time. We want to give you habits and helpful mind viruses that will nudge your trajectory for decades to come.

Wrap up

Although these aren’t core principles, these are slogans we say earnestly and often:

• Talent is evenly distributed, opportunity is not

• Say the hard thing

• Play long-term games with long-term people

• Work upstream

• Follow the incentives

• Default to transparency and honesty

• Beware memetics

• Get texture