RT @D__2__3: Mass university education is closer to a form of ideological grooming than actual education.
For the media studies grad (etc,…
Source date (UTC): 2023-07-18 17:00:06 UTC
Original post: https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1681348130191687693
RT @D__2__3: Most universities aren’t even cargo cults.
They’re holiday camps wraped in a madrasah disguised as a +ve business.
Source date (UTC): 2023-07-18 17:00:01 UTC
Original post: https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1681348107953373184
RT @charlesmurray: One of the most serious defects of the social sciences/humanities grad schools is that it is easy to get through a PhD w…
Source date (UTC): 2023-07-18 00:26:04 UTC
Original post: https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1681097972933705729
(sorry for the side-stepping … distracted.)
I think we are all painfully aware of precisely the set of problems involved in academic research and I’m not the first person to propose a comprehensive set of solutions to that problem. But it’ll be painful. The threat of that pain…
Source date (UTC): 2023-07-17 22:20:52 UTC
Original post: https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1681066463308701696
Replying to: https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1681058128480153602
I characterize it as the generations before me have, as we can work from problems to books or books to problems and the latter is notoriously unsuccessful.
In applied mathematics, particularly physics, as long as you are limited to 3+1 dimensions then there is probably some utility to the work – and beyond that not so much. I can defend this statement rather easily but I think Penrose does so with his traditional grace. I find I inescapably insult my interlocutor when I have those conversations.
In pure mathematics there are nonsense disciplines, such as not grasping that all math is operational and that much syntax is nonsense when the operational meaning is trivial (root of -1), or lost (that the foundations of math require sets rather than operations), or pointless disciplines (number theory) as well as important disciplines such as anything to do with geometry, topology, combinatorics (lying fallow right now), and perhaps most importantly the foundations of advanced mathematics, meaning the production of projections that create a baseline of commensurability for measurements.
These topics turn into wars of religion given so much career malinvestment.
I’ve done most of my work uniting the sciences, and as in many things it was so simple we didn’t see it.
While math requires a reformation, we pretty much have to wipe the slate clean in behavioral sciences, and end the stagnation in physics. But science progresses with gravestones. And we have an academy indoctrinated into marxist pseudoscience from freud, boaz, marx, gould to cantor, and even rez, kelsen, and dworkin – where that new mysticism is but a vapid veil over the supernatural claims of Abrahamic religions.
Makes me tired. I dunno how Charles maintains his optimism. 😉
Reply addressees: @shitcapmgmt @charlesmurray
Source date (UTC): 2023-07-17 22:06:08 UTC
Original post: https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1681062755938213888
Replying to: https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1681058128480153602
TRAINING THE NEXT GENERATION OF THOUGHT
The hardest problem we face in teaching this revolution in thought – one that will dramatically improve your mind and your understanding of the world is ‘the method’. Or what we call disambiguation of concepts by enumeration, operationalization, serialization, resulting in a system of measurement satisfying a supply demand curve. We used to call this economic thinking, and before economics we called it the calculus. But it’s as important a revolution in human thought as was greek syllogism, philosophical rationalism, empiricism, the scientific method, the darwinian explanation of the universe, not just life.
Like many things we discover, the universe is much, much, much more simple than we’d imagined. And much much much easier to explain than we’d imagined.
We just evolved to negotiate. And all our achievements are extensions of that negotiation on relative human wants to understanding of the world as it is.
So mostly we have to unlearn what was wrong so that we can learn what is right. 😉
Source date (UTC): 2023-07-17 20:00:23 UTC
Original post: https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1681031110388510722
I’ll repeat my general education advice to everyone:
Learn applied rather than general education. Most uni education is a total waste of time.
If you are comfortable with trade work, learn basic accounting, basic finance, basic project management, basic contract law, then focus on mastering your trade. At present I would focus on carpentry, electrical, and welding, because they produce higher than white collar income if for a shorter number of years before your body can’t take it any longer (so save and invest.) Adding basic psychology meaning personality differences will help you. And basic negotiation will help you. If possible learn enough programming t understand how to operate computer aided design and manufacturing equipment. (it’s not hard). These jobs are only going to increase because the global trade pattern will decrease again. Alternatively take the same path but focus on health care.
If you are comfortable with white-collar subject matter, then learn basic philosophy of science, basic accounting, basic finance, basic statistics, basic economics, basic project management – in its list, queue, agile (variants), and waterfall (gantt variants) – and then basic contracts and contract law. And finally public speaking, negotiation, and if possible international negotiation so that you learn how different cultures’s think. Anyone with an IQ between 100 and 115 can do so. This is far better than all business related degrees and ensures you are ready to participate in the workforce as a white collar worker right away.
If possible then learn a programming language (now Python), design patterns, and the available data storage models, basic physics, introductory physics, electronics,
If possible chemistry, petrochemistry, biochemistry, and materials sciences.
If possible math, physics, and engineering, or cognitive science, economics and law.
After graduation take any western philosophy and history courses – or just follow my friend Rudyard Lynch (@whatifalthist) and read the books he recommends. 😉
Etc.
Reply addressees: @NetheriteSpart1 @WerrellBradley
Source date (UTC): 2023-07-17 15:41:58 UTC
Original post: https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1680966077512122375
Replying to: https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1680958152068431874
Dutch-English are effectively the same cause of innovation: longer history of institutions education and trade, combined with the Germanic Hansa’s reconstruction of sea trade, preparing coastal europe for exploitation of the closing of Constantinople and the unification of the world by the age of sail.
You want the least time under catholicism, the most time under protestantism, for institutional development, followed by the maximization of trade that produces all the norms traditions and values of a majority middle class that becomes a demand engine for innovation.
Reply addressees: @IvarDiederik
Source date (UTC): 2023-07-17 13:07:18 UTC
Original post: https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1680927156212318209
Replying to: https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1680924411606466560
RT @AlessandroStru4: @charlesmurray This used to be uncontroversial when Feynman said “the powers of instruction are of very little efficac…
Source date (UTC): 2023-07-17 13:02:18 UTC
Original post: https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1680925894850871297
RT @charlesmurray: I would have thought this was completely uncontroversial. All except a few geniuses who persist in taking math courses r…
Source date (UTC): 2023-07-17 12:52:46 UTC
Original post: https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1680923499488067585