4 ms·

The state of textbooks is so fucking sad. I still don't get how Bill Gates or another richy-rich hasn't realized how fucking great it would be to pay 100k to an

The state of textbooks is so fucking sad. I still don't get how Bill Gates or another richy-rich hasn't realized how fucking great it would be to pay 100k to an awesome professor for writing a textbook and publishing it under a CC license. If you did that with all subjects, and paid for translations, and made it all digital, it would cost next to nothing in the large scheme and be more beneficial to humanity than the cure to polio or malaria or heck even cancer. It would have an exponentially awesome effect. Accelerating the rate at which humanity is educated is fundamentally more important than anything going on today, and it's always pushed back because the generation that's currently being educated doesn't have a fucking say in the matter. Someone should take some of their money out of their hedge fund and drop it on this shit pronto.

sukuriant 15y ago
Bill Gates and his team is already working very hard on Education Reform. You're going to want to look up the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for more information regarding what they do. I'm sure they've considered text books and are working through the best options.
Lagged2Death 15y ago
I've felt the same way, but it's worth pointing out that this would be possible with low-tech, uncomplicated paper books. A large school district could surely save a bundle, and improve the quality of its education besides, by paying a qualified individual to write a textbook just for them, then having it printed just for them. And they could give away the text to other interested districts if they wanted, saving the other districts even more money. This has been true for decades. No internet, no computers or e-readers, and no fancy newfangled CC licenses would be required for such a plan. Yet it mostly has not happened. So there must be a reason. This infamous story by Richard Feynman suggests that it's a matter of an entrenched culture of laziness, lobbying, bribery, and in effect regulatory capture: http://www.textbookleague.org/103feyn.htm http://www.textbookleague.org/103feyn.htm

sukuriant 15y ago

Bill Gates and his team is already working very hard on Education Reform. You're going to want to look up the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for more information regarding what they do. I'm sure they've considered text books and are working through the best options.

Lagged2Death 15y ago

I've felt the same way, but it's worth pointing out that this would be possible with low-tech, uncomplicated paper books. A large school district could surely save a bundle, and improve the quality of its education besides, by paying a qualified individual to write a textbook just for them, then having it printed just for them. And they could give away the text to other interested districts if they wanted, saving the other districts even more money. This has been true for decades. No internet, no computers or e-readers, and no fancy newfangled CC licenses would be required for such a plan. Yet it mostly has not happened. So there must be a reason. This infamous story by Richard Feynman suggests that it's a matter of an entrenched culture of laziness, lobbying, bribery, and in effect regulatory capture: http://www.textbookleague.org/103feyn.htm http://www.textbookleague.org/103feyn.htm