programjames

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61.
by programjames 8mo ago
Elsewhere in this thread, someone links to this NYT article: "Chinese Universities Surge in Global Rankings as U.S. Schools Slip" https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/15/us/harvard-global-ranking...
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by programjames 8mo ago
My experience at an American university (in the early 2020s) was that the native Americans were much less impressive than the international students, and the professors were mildly annoyed at them compared to previous generations of student
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by programjames 8mo ago
> There was a long entrenched culture that in the US you could turn your intelligence into positive change and get rich doing it. Yes, this is still true, and why immigration to America maintained its previous momentum. It was often easi
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by programjames 8mo ago
That is true. It is also true that their primary and secondary schools were quickly dropping in rank relative to other countries in the 2010s, and their universities were following in the COVID/post-COVID era.
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by programjames 8mo ago
Not really, there's been a pretty effective culture war saying, "STEM degrees are actually useless, you need to know how to have a human connection." Only around 25% of Bachelor's and Master's degrees are in STEM fi
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by programjames 8mo ago
Seems like an arrogant American take. The United States primary and secondary schools are middling at best, and that has been showing through to its universities. Foreigners were already choosing Chinese universities. It's not like the
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by programjames 8mo ago
I think you can try maximizing the free energy E[reward] + temperature*entropy?
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by programjames 9mo ago
There typically are, but sometimes the technical solution is bad for those in power, or they're unaware of it, or it hasn't been discovered yet.
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by programjames 9mo ago
Here are three reasons you want to be able to calculate the volume change for arbitrary parallelpipeds: - If det M = 0, then M is not invertible. Knowing this is useful for all kinds of reasons. It means you cannot solve an equation like Mx
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by programjames 10mo ago
You are not even talking about the article at this point. "All it takes is for one to work out" is TFT. You are instead saying, "be stoic in the things you cannot effect." The latter is much more defensible, and somethin
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by programjames 10mo ago
Again, I think you don't understand: your "healthy mindset" here is a vice. I do not think it is healthy to drink away your woes. I also do not think it is healthy to cope by treating your life like a big lottery. As I have s
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by programjames 10mo ago
Lol, yes. If you're a selfish egoist, you probably don't want to convert others to your philosophy. I think it's possible to punish people who are taking these selfish actions, and I think universities should. Maybe they shou
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by programjames 10mo ago
What do you mean by "a healthy mindset"? It isn't healthy for society. It isn't healthy in the world where everyone has this mindset. It isn't healthy to treat your life as a lottery, hoping for a winning ticket ins
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by programjames 10mo ago
You lost something when every other person started doing the same thing. Now you have to write or review ten applications instead of one. Now you're going to get paid less because it cost $20k to hire you instead of $2k. Now your compa
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by programjames 10mo ago
Seems like a momumental waste of energy being pushed as "hustling". Applying to college should be cooperative between you and the admissions office: asking, are we a good fit? Applying in the hope they mess up and admit you when t
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by programjames 10mo ago
Wow, I really dislike this framing of life as a lottery. Yes, people can get lucky. You could win the lottery. Statistically, someone else will hold the winning ticket, every time. It's even worse, because graduate school admissions an
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by programjames 10mo ago
Sorry, I should make it more clear when I'm being sarcastic. I tried to juxtapose these two clauses as close as I could: > (1) education is just a ranking game > (2) since the point of education is to help people learn I feel lik
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by programjames 10mo ago
Neither of those are my position. If you're not trying to convince me I'm wrong, that's fine, just realize that Idaho is a one-party state and the Republican Party has the power there to do what they think is right. The only
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by programjames 10mo ago
You still have yet to actually reply to me and my argument. As I said earlier, you need to improve at this skill if you want to actually convince people their position is wrong.
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by programjames 10mo ago
Talking about the greatness of America has been a theme among Democrats from FDR to JFK, when they spoke about defending and spreading American cultural values like democracy and freedom. It goes back even further to the 1840s with James K.
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by programjames 10mo ago
You have yet to address or even acknowledge the focus of both my comments: this phrase is a common means of signalling party affiliation. I feel like you need to improve in how you approach these kind of discussions, because you're get
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by programjames 10mo ago
Read what I wrote: > "Everyone is welcome here" is now a callsign for "registered Democrat". Maybe it's suspicious that this phrase is able to distinguish Republicans from Democrats, but the point isn't the
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by programjames 10mo ago
Maybe I'm too tired to write clearly. I meant, the reason parents have ownership over their children (at least in America) is primarily for ideological indoctrination.
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by programjames 10mo ago
It is in fact the best outcome, because education is just a ranking game, and it's not like you will end up ranked lower in your school. Also, since the point of education is to help people learn, your calmer presence and pro-learning
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by programjames 10mo ago
The short answer is people stopped caring about metrics measuring learning, and instead how easy they were to game to support their politics, or make them look like a better teacher or superintendent.
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by programjames 10mo ago
And yet, somehow, there are around a million much higher-quality professors. Yes, you need 5x as many teachers. But you don't find 1 in 5 are at the level of a median professor. You should actually expect more than 1 in 5, given they r
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by programjames 10mo ago
It is pretty hard for one parent to change things for the better, even if just for their child in one classroom. The administration and teachers have so many other things to deal with. It's much harder to change the entire school cultu
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by programjames 10mo ago
Isn't this exactly what society is built on though? Mutually beneficial interactions borne of choice, not compulsion? And isn't it the sane, rational thing to do to oppose people who compel you to join their community?
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by programjames 10mo ago
> ...a healthy community hand-picked by parents is not "the real world" though, is it? It's much closer to the real world though, isn't it? Your child is likely going to live most of their life in similar communities
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by programjames 10mo ago
I don't want the separatism, but I also want the ability to give my kids a decent education. There ought to be some way to determine which is which. Do you have any ideas?

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