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Well, it couldn’t just go on forever at the same rate… People just have access to more and better information. But the education system still sucks, especially

by EGreg 3y ago

Well, it couldn’t just go on forever at the same rate… People just have access to more and better information. But the education system still sucks, especially in many of the more underfunded public schools https://nypost.com/2014/01/12/no-space-no-books-no-leader-no-clue-at-citys-worst-elementary/ https://nypost.com/2014/01/12/no-space-no-books-no-leader-no... Because givem their resources they have mass classes and a lowest common denominator approach https://fensteroneducation.home.blog/2019/09/05/battling-teachings-lowest-common-denominator/ https://fensteroneducation.home.blog/2019/09/05/battling-tea... https://www.nytimes.com/1990/05/30/us/the-highly-gifted-child-hidden-and-often-ignored.html https://www.nytimes.com/1990/05/30/us/the-highly-gifted-chil... Whereas research shows a lot could be better: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloom%27s_2_sigma_problem https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloom%27s_2_sigma_problem https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/18/a-better-way-to-teach-math/ https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/18/a-better-wa... And across the world in many places it’s even worse access to education I wrote about this back in 2014: https://magarshak.com/blog/?p=158 https://magarshak.com/blog/?p=158 I bought the domain https://teaching.app https://teaching.app and have been building a software solution to try to fix it for kids across the country. It requires multiple moving parts, but based on the above insights including by John Mightor and Bloom. That website goes into much more detail about what needs to be done. PS: gotta love the massive wave of silent downvotes. Why? Not enough substance? Not enough effort spent solving a problem or documenting it? Something you don’t like? Speak up! Ahh nevermind.

hellerve 3y ago
I think the downvotes are coming in because you are carrying out a fundamentally different argument. The article argues that people used to be more intellecutally capable when they were younger and it diminished with age. You are arguing that each generation used to be more intellectually capable than the one before, and that that is diminishing. I’m not trying to accuse you of anything, but it seems like you didn’t actually read the article you were commenting on. Is that possible?
- EGreg 3y ago
  Yes, it is possible. This is a good criticism :) I somehow think the downvotes may be related to something else, though.
  - seper8 3y ago
    Yeah, the shameless self promotion without providing any value yourself.
    - EGreg 3y ago
      On the contrary. I provide a ton of value, for free, in the form of: Identifying the actual roots of the problems people post passionately about, and clearly explaining the underlying mechanisms that lead not just to this problem but many others they might not realize are related Researching for years the best ways to fix it, going out of my way to have substantive discussions with some of the top problem solvers across multiple fields, and publish the videos up publicly Spending over a decade on actually writing the open source software, hiring people, creating jobs, without asking anything from any of you And making it freely available as open source, with documentation, all without taking on VC funding or any of the actual profit-taking and extracting rents that goes on here with “software a service” In literally every way I can, I try to contribute value without taking in return. So you could not be more wrong, and if you’d click the links you’d see that. But you’d rather not even look, because in your capitalist mind, sharing the result of decades of work and over $1 million spent on free open source platforms for the world is “self-promotion”. You’d rather see another startup extract rents for a simple product built around tiny feature, funded by venture capitalists who want to have an exit by selling shares to the public, who will demand more rent extraction and wait for even further enshittification of platforms and society. It’s pretty amusing to me. I currently enjoy staying relatively almost completely unknown, and seeing the reaction people have to the most straightforward application of the above solutions to their own problems. Because I think that even on HN, many people are acting very irrationally and groupthink dominates, and while millions of people actually use my software, 99.99% have no idea who I am, and I get to see how human groups react to form instead of substance. This is btw why we often can’t have nice things, at least not unless the solutions, like bitter medicines, are presented wrapped in candy for organizations. We are a generation of children living on an ecological credit card, one of the most spoiled in history, but think we know better than everyone else. So I kind of enjoy seeing the irrationality as a form of entertainment although on a global ecological scale, it’s sadly quite scary.
eru 3y ago
Yes, solving Bloom's 2 sigma problem would be huge. > But the education system still sucks, especially in many of the more underfunded public schools The problems depend on where you live. (And also whether schools are underfunded or not, and what that even means.) > PS: gotta love the massive wave of silent downvotes. Why? Not enough substance? Not enough effort spent solving a problem or documenting it? Something you don’t like? Speak up! Ahh nevermind. It's best to ignore those.
sevagh 3y ago
>PS: gotta love the massive wave of silent downvotes. Why? Thinly veiled sales pitch.
- EGreg 3y ago
  Excuse me but what is HN about if not sharing your work that you worked on? Oh, it's also about startups. And about funding them. And building stuff people want. I don't know man. Every time I put in a lot of work (a decade, say) and build something major and substantial to improve the world, and document it, linking to third party reputable sources for everything I'm claiming and saying, and give it away for free... if I share the link on HN, I often get downvoted. It's almost as if talking out of your ass and NOT doing anything to solve the problem, is far more appreciated. Like how people regularly complain about everything related to extreme centralization of control, surveillance capitalism, etc, and I built open source and free software give you an alternative, attracted millions of people in over 100 countries, and give it away for free to you here if you only look:: Web2: https://github.com/Qbix/Platform https://github.com/Qbix/Platform Web2 Documentation: https://community.qbix.com https://community.qbix.com Web3: https://github.com/Intercoin https://github.com/Intercoin Web3 Documentation: https://intercoin.org/applications https://intercoin.org/applications But it gets downvoted because "hey I saw the word web3!" or "hey you're selling me... um... something". This is the "TLDR" generation. Don't like it? Don't use it. Or use the part you like. But how about the 99% of the useful, substantive information which doesn't involve selling anything at all?
  - sevagh 3y ago
    I didn't downvote you myself (I don't care much about the topic), just my hunch as to why you got downvoted.
  - mvid 3y ago
    Sales pitches based on shitting on the main article get downvoted. Complaining about downvotes gets downvoted. Pity parties get downvoted. It’s not a mystery.
    - 3y ago
fergonco 3y ago
isn't online learning more a problem than a solution? A lot of research shows that we learn better on paper than on screens, that screens have a negative correlation on academic results, etc.
abduhl 3y ago
I downvoted you. Your whole post is a thinly veiled marketing post that is only tangentially related to the topic at hand, as others have noted. Beyond that, your tone is annoying and your additional posts only serve to justify my initial impression.
- EGreg 3y ago
  Fair enough! At least I appreciate the explanation !

by EGreg 3y ago

hellerve 3y ago

I think the downvotes are coming in because you are carrying out a fundamentally different argument. The article argues that people used to be more intellecutally capable when they were younger and it diminished with age. You are arguing that each generation used to be more intellectually capable than the one before, and that that is diminishing. I’m not trying to accuse you of anything, but it seems like you didn’t actually read the article you were commenting on. Is that possible?

EGreg 3y ago
Yes, it is possible. This is a good criticism :) I somehow think the downvotes may be related to something else, though.
- seper8 3y ago
  Yeah, the shameless self promotion without providing any value yourself.
  - EGreg 3y ago
    On the contrary. I provide a ton of value, for free, in the form of: Identifying the actual roots of the problems people post passionately about, and clearly explaining the underlying mechanisms that lead not just to this problem but many others they might not realize are related Researching for years the best ways to fix it, going out of my way to have substantive discussions with some of the top problem solvers across multiple fields, and publish the videos up publicly Spending over a decade on actually writing the open source software, hiring people, creating jobs, without asking anything from any of you And making it freely available as open source, with documentation, all without taking on VC funding or any of the actual profit-taking and extracting rents that goes on here with “software a service” In literally every way I can, I try to contribute value without taking in return. So you could not be more wrong, and if you’d click the links you’d see that. But you’d rather not even look, because in your capitalist mind, sharing the result of decades of work and over $1 million spent on free open source platforms for the world is “self-promotion”. You’d rather see another startup extract rents for a simple product built around tiny feature, funded by venture capitalists who want to have an exit by selling shares to the public, who will demand more rent extraction and wait for even further enshittification of platforms and society. It’s pretty amusing to me. I currently enjoy staying relatively almost completely unknown, and seeing the reaction people have to the most straightforward application of the above solutions to their own problems. Because I think that even on HN, many people are acting very irrationally and groupthink dominates, and while millions of people actually use my software, 99.99% have no idea who I am, and I get to see how human groups react to form instead of substance. This is btw why we often can’t have nice things, at least not unless the solutions, like bitter medicines, are presented wrapped in candy for organizations. We are a generation of children living on an ecological credit card, one of the most spoiled in history, but think we know better than everyone else. So I kind of enjoy seeing the irrationality as a form of entertainment although on a global ecological scale, it’s sadly quite scary.

eru 3y ago

Yes, solving Bloom's 2 sigma problem would be huge. > But the education system still sucks, especially in many of the more underfunded public schools The problems depend on where you live. (And also whether schools are underfunded or not, and what that even means.) > PS: gotta love the massive wave of silent downvotes. Why? Not enough substance? Not enough effort spent solving a problem or documenting it? Something you don’t like? Speak up! Ahh nevermind. It's best to ignore those.

sevagh 3y ago

>PS: gotta love the massive wave of silent downvotes. Why? Thinly veiled sales pitch.

EGreg 3y ago
Excuse me but what is HN about if not sharing your work that you worked on? Oh, it's also about startups. And about funding them. And building stuff people want. I don't know man. Every time I put in a lot of work (a decade, say) and build something major and substantial to improve the world, and document it, linking to third party reputable sources for everything I'm claiming and saying, and give it away for free... if I share the link on HN, I often get downvoted. It's almost as if talking out of your ass and NOT doing anything to solve the problem, is far more appreciated. Like how people regularly complain about everything related to extreme centralization of control, surveillance capitalism, etc, and I built open source and free software give you an alternative, attracted millions of people in over 100 countries, and give it away for free to you here if you only look:: Web2: https://github.com/Qbix/Platform https://github.com/Qbix/Platform Web2 Documentation: https://community.qbix.com https://community.qbix.com Web3: https://github.com/Intercoin https://github.com/Intercoin Web3 Documentation: https://intercoin.org/applications https://intercoin.org/applications But it gets downvoted because "hey I saw the word web3!" or "hey you're selling me... um... something". This is the "TLDR" generation. Don't like it? Don't use it. Or use the part you like. But how about the 99% of the useful, substantive information which doesn't involve selling anything at all?
- sevagh 3y ago
  I didn't downvote you myself (I don't care much about the topic), just my hunch as to why you got downvoted.
- mvid 3y ago
  Sales pitches based on shitting on the main article get downvoted. Complaining about downvotes gets downvoted. Pity parties get downvoted. It’s not a mystery.
  - 3y ago

fergonco 3y ago

isn't online learning more a problem than a solution? A lot of research shows that we learn better on paper than on screens, that screens have a negative correlation on academic results, etc.

abduhl 3y ago

I downvoted you. Your whole post is a thinly veiled marketing post that is only tangentially related to the topic at hand, as others have noted. Beyond that, your tone is annoying and your additional posts only serve to justify my initial impression.

EGreg 3y ago
Fair enough! At least I appreciate the explanation !