3 ms·

Come on Paul. I hope that's not the one and only. Without raw experience how useful is the higher ed?

PaulHoule 1y ago
It changed my life but my son decided to go the blue-collar route and I love him just the same. In terms of foreign trade, higher-ed is one of our greatest exports. Many other nations would like to knock us off the top, none could come close until Trump scored an own goal.
- franktankbank 1y ago
  Yea I've got kids I've got to think about here, quite a few. I get very heated trying to understand the whole global aspect. All I see in the US is a vast resource getting stomped upon. I wish your boy the best and any others. Trump as I see him is a wrecking ball, I'm not sure where it ends up.
  - PaulHoule 1y ago
    I'm proud that Vera Rubin discovered evidence for dark matter at my Uni. I'm proud that Douglas Osheroff discovered Superfluid Helium 3. I'm proud that Gerald Salton invented full text search and that Ivan Sutherland invented 3-d graphics rendering as used in video games. I'm even more proud that our ag school is helping farmers in New York and the rest of the world make money and feed a growing population that expects to eat better (however they define "better") in a challenging climate. That our vet school trains vets and farriers. That our ROTC trains officers for all of our armed services. I don't see a contradiction that I'm also proud that Catholic priest and activist Daniel Berrigan against the Vietnam war escaped the FBI in the same building where those officers train.
    - gsf_emergency_2 1y ago
      I know these tribal feelings but I also felt... a wider sense of gratitude when at Leiden I saw enshrined Onnes' equipment for discovering superconductivity, or that otherwise insignificant suburban streets were named after Snell, Leeuwenhoek, Huyghens, Rembrandt, .. and other people I ought to have learnt about There's something to be said for the way pioneers of the hand and mind are remembered as political operators or donors are.. Sure bureaucrats set those up but the exceptionality pointed at there felt inclusive People can feel whatever they want about the achievements at their own institutions, .. it just feels purer when the institution is just a backdrop for these universal achievements .. plus I can go into any Leidse bakery and introduce myself as a scientist without bracing for sideeye (doesn't happen even on HN!) That's not pride, that's just a sense of belonging Why I chose this example. Somehow the Calvinist ressentiment "let no man be greater than I", which is equally present in NL as in the anglo heart/hinterlands.. makes a singular exception for intellectual achievements (as opposed to some purely emotional ones, like some particularly potent puns) Don't know if villages in China will remember their current & future groundbreakers :) There's hope: DeepSeek's hometown put up laudatory red banners for him.. nonironically.. is that like confetti for Apollo 11? I think not. In the latter case, there's a serious case to be made that NASA deserved the confetti more.. that's how ressentiment "works"
- gsf_emergency_2 1y ago
  Think you'll have to be more specific. In liberal arts nobody comes close, but the "value" of that is largely explained by "networking" (network effects if we're to be charitable :) In theoretical research, gap is rapidly closing. In hard sciences research, I only see clear supremacy in capital intensive areas. Guess that's where the footguns were aimed at. The classroom teaching is a mixed bag
  - PaulHoule 1y ago
    People I know from South Asia complain bitterly about the quality of education they get but they get it. Funny though I used to be proud of the Chinese language collection at my Uni which is one of the greatest outside (any) China and I still am but once I got really interested in the Chinese language it hit me that it's like 1% of what they have at Beijing University.
    - gsf_emergency_2 1y ago
      One might argue networking got Ramanujan to where Canterbrigians can now be proud of him :) My favorite recollection in that place was going through Ken Wilson's notes. IIRC there was FORTRAN. Most interesting was a proof of Dyson's conjecture. Cant really remember because it wasn't that useful. Thought it was weird that he left-- gossip says it was the wife-- but nice that some people still bothered. Institutions rise & fall. Become cringe. Achievements can endure, but only thru the effort of wider communities to distill and distribute.

It changed my life but my son decided to go the blue-collar route and I love him just the same. In terms of foreign trade, higher-ed is one of our greatest exports. Many other nations would like to knock us off the top, none could come close until Trump scored an own goal.

franktankbank 1y ago
Yea I've got kids I've got to think about here, quite a few. I get very heated trying to understand the whole global aspect. All I see in the US is a vast resource getting stomped upon. I wish your boy the best and any others. Trump as I see him is a wrecking ball, I'm not sure where it ends up.
- PaulHoule 1y ago
  I'm proud that Vera Rubin discovered evidence for dark matter at my Uni. I'm proud that Douglas Osheroff discovered Superfluid Helium 3. I'm proud that Gerald Salton invented full text search and that Ivan Sutherland invented 3-d graphics rendering as used in video games. I'm even more proud that our ag school is helping farmers in New York and the rest of the world make money and feed a growing population that expects to eat better (however they define "better") in a challenging climate. That our vet school trains vets and farriers. That our ROTC trains officers for all of our armed services. I don't see a contradiction that I'm also proud that Catholic priest and activist Daniel Berrigan against the Vietnam war escaped the FBI in the same building where those officers train.
  - gsf_emergency_2 1y ago
    I know these tribal feelings but I also felt... a wider sense of gratitude when at Leiden I saw enshrined Onnes' equipment for discovering superconductivity, or that otherwise insignificant suburban streets were named after Snell, Leeuwenhoek, Huyghens, Rembrandt, .. and other people I ought to have learnt about There's something to be said for the way pioneers of the hand and mind are remembered as political operators or donors are.. Sure bureaucrats set those up but the exceptionality pointed at there felt inclusive People can feel whatever they want about the achievements at their own institutions, .. it just feels purer when the institution is just a backdrop for these universal achievements .. plus I can go into any Leidse bakery and introduce myself as a scientist without bracing for sideeye (doesn't happen even on HN!) That's not pride, that's just a sense of belonging Why I chose this example. Somehow the Calvinist ressentiment "let no man be greater than I", which is equally present in NL as in the anglo heart/hinterlands.. makes a singular exception for intellectual achievements (as opposed to some purely emotional ones, like some particularly potent puns) Don't know if villages in China will remember their current & future groundbreakers :) There's hope: DeepSeek's hometown put up laudatory red banners for him.. nonironically.. is that like confetti for Apollo 11? I think not. In the latter case, there's a serious case to be made that NASA deserved the confetti more.. that's how ressentiment "works"
gsf_emergency_2 1y ago
Think you'll have to be more specific. In liberal arts nobody comes close, but the "value" of that is largely explained by "networking" (network effects if we're to be charitable :) In theoretical research, gap is rapidly closing. In hard sciences research, I only see clear supremacy in capital intensive areas. Guess that's where the footguns were aimed at. The classroom teaching is a mixed bag
- PaulHoule 1y ago
  People I know from South Asia complain bitterly about the quality of education they get but they get it. Funny though I used to be proud of the Chinese language collection at my Uni which is one of the greatest outside (any) China and I still am but once I got really interested in the Chinese language it hit me that it's like 1% of what they have at Beijing University.
  - gsf_emergency_2 1y ago
    One might argue networking got Ramanujan to where Canterbrigians can now be proud of him :) My favorite recollection in that place was going through Ken Wilson's notes. IIRC there was FORTRAN. Most interesting was a proof of Dyson's conjecture. Cant really remember because it wasn't that useful. Thought it was weird that he left-- gossip says it was the wife-- but nice that some people still bothered. Institutions rise & fall. Become cringe. Achievements can endure, but only thru the effort of wider communities to distill and distribute.