Sunday, September 15, 2024

Freakonomics: College

 You must listen to this to understand the next 20 years of youth and the end of the traditional male. 

What Is the Future of College — and Does It Have Room for Men? (Update)

Educators and economists tell us all the reasons college enrollment has been dropping, especially for men, and how to stop the bleeding. (Part 3 of our series from 2022, "Freakonomics Radio Goes Back to School.") SOURCES: Zachary Bleemer, assistant professor of economics at Princeton University and faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research. D'Wayne Edwards, founder and President of Pensole Lewis College. Catharine Hill, former president of Vassar College; trustee at Yale University; and managing director at Ithaka S+R. Pano Kanelos, founding president of the University of Austin. Amalia Miller, professor of economics at the University of Virginia. Donald Ruff, president and C.E.O. of the Eagle Academy Foundation. Morton Schapiro, professor of economics and former president of Northwestern University. Ruth Simmons, former president of Smith College, Brown University, and Prairie View A&M University. Miguel Urquiola, professor of economics at Columbia University. RESOURCES: "What Gay Men's Stunning Success Might Teach Us About the Academic Gender Gap," by Joel Mittleman (The Washington Post, 2022). "We Can't Wait for Universities to Fix Themselves. So We're Starting a New One," by Pano Kanelos (Common Sense, 2021). "Academic Freedom in Crisis: Punishment, Political Discrimination, and Self-Censorship," by Eric Kaufmann (Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology, 2021). "A Generation of American Men Give Up on College: 'I Just Feel Lost'," by Douglas Belkin (The Wall Street Journal, 2021). "Community Colleges and Upward Mobility," by Jack Mountjoy (NBER Working Paper, 2021). "Elite Schools and Opting In: Effects of College Selectivity on Career and Family Outcomes," by Suqin Ge, Elliott Isaac, and Amalia Miller (NBER Working Paper, 2019). "Leaving Boys Behind: Gender Disparities in High Academic Achievement," by Nicole M. Fortin, Philip Oreopoulos, and Shelley Phipps (NBER Working Paper, 2013). EXTRAS: "Freakonomics Radio Goes Back to School," series by Freakonomics Radio (2024). "'If We're All in It for Ourselves, Who Are We?'" by Freakonomics Radio (2024).

Friday, May 03, 2024

Thoughts on human intellect and motivation: Why does #tRump exist? How did he succeed?

All intelligence is simply a form of pattern recognition.

There are at least 10 objectively testable types of human intelligence.
Musical intelligence is considered one: melody, harmony, rhythm, and a sense of pitch and auditory/aural spectrum. Music is the expression of pure emotion.

Two other forms of human intellect are emotional: IntRApersonal, and IntERpersonal intelligence. The first allows you to recognize your own emotional state and thus control your own mind, and the latter helps you understand the minds of others, and thus understand and manipulate them, for good or ill.

A "quotient" is simply a measure of the ratio of one's individual intellect over the average of that type of intellect. What the psychologists don't tell you is that the slope of that line actually determines the rate at which an individual intellect accelerates/decelerates in that field of thought, as compared to the norm.

Most human minds have strengths and weaknesses across the spectrum of intellect. As brains develop the nature and nurture of environmental influences give each individual mind a unique ability pattern. Those who have balanced minds generally have the happiest lives, as they can adapt and learn and thus prosper in most situations. Those with unbalanced intellect tend to be lost; unless they find some nitch to fill in society they will become alienated outcasts.
Of these ten forms of measurable pattern recognition, #tRump has only one. And because, as a narcissistic sociopath, he doesn't acknowledge, much less understand, anyone's emotions but his own, he can only manipulate those who think as he does. Thus, he has the unusual ability to understand the 'undesirables' who are greedy and selfish, those who have been neglected and have lower levels of education, and those who follow their base desires and live by instinct. Often without teachers and mentors, they develop no empathy or socialization, which means no concept of duty, service, or ethics. They seek power, gratification, and wealth, for their own ends. They tend to be the types of 'sinners' that gravitate to Evangelical Churches, as they pursue base instincts and are rewarded by the most primitive forms of trade and transactional relationships.

Apparently, half the Republicans have the same thought patterns.
I believe we can chalk it up to a capitalist system that promotes greed and neglect of family, leaving children unloved by their parents.
Ultimately, it was a perfect storm of systems of greed and power that have made him seemingly immune to any of the checks and balances that objective competition and social judgment normally would have constrained and mitigated his incompetence.

It seems like we allowed this. All of us, collectively. In pursuing personal advantage and security we gave up. We didn't dare to make the hard choices.

Imagine if we had not had the consolidation of power in the Executive, or the long arc of Republican Conservative gerrymandering to produce ever greater division and extremist views, as the white supremacists and Christian nationalists cling to their dying influence?

Authoritarian types always use the power to ratchet up their advantages; wealth and power. While good people, egalitarians, like those in the liberal progressive wing of the Democratic party are willing to compromise and submit.

What if we had just required audits of real-estate property for tax purposes in NYC? What if Democrats like Al Gore or Obama had fought for power rather than relinquish the Supreme Court to Republican appointees? Could we have avoided these endless unnecessary wars, and saved the climate? Could we have saved democracy?

Perhaps it's all just my speculation fantasy. But I wonder if I had fought harder to implement the Obama Education Plan in 2012, by rewarding and promoting the best teachers, we might have raised a generation of leaders capable of dealing with the coming disasters.

Sunday, April 21, 2024

The danger of authoritarian 'truth' via Katherine Maher (Viceroy of NPR)

A conversation with former Wikimedia CEO, Katherine Maher  1

This interview by 'The Atlantic Council" of Katherine Maher, who was at the time CEO of the Wikimedia Foundation, is notorious for quoting her on how the goal of "equal access to knowledge" should be implemented. As Katherine became the CEO at National Public Radio in the USA, we have discovered interesting tendencies about her leadership and how she shapes such organizations to censor knowledge and information. Thanks to Racket News for the report on her 'truthyness'. 


This is a tricky subject in the age after COVID-19 where governments and big media corporations (NPR) are trying to figure out how to be 'TRUSTED' to disseminate 'true' information, such as about vaccines, and finding that the forces undermining trust in societies authorities are winning. 




Trust is earned, it's always being earned, and even one misstep can cause people to mistrust you. 
But if you are honest with yourself and your audience, you learn from mistakes, admit them, and tell everyone how you figured out you were wrong so that you and they can avoid mistakes like that in the future. 

Authoritarian Journalism is not enough for democracy, it's a kind of dictatorship. 
Framing this new authoritarian truthiness as a 'right' is a form of verbal jujitsu.
It is intended to confuse you so they can be the arbiters of truth, and reject the whistleblowers, crackpots, and anyone else who threatens the systemic order. 

She is a trained globalist from the highest levels of the elite. 
Not a journalist.


Wednesday, April 10, 2024

Tuesday, April 09, 2024

AI: Grappling with a New Kind of Intelligence



AI: Grappling with a New Kind of Intelligence https://youtu.be/EGDG3hgPNp8?si=b5g6gkOVTkV_bW3k via @WorldScienceFestival
Unless you learn VERY VERY fast, we will not survive. Determine your goals, know your values, and use AI to train yourself to create the future. NOW!

Monday, April 08, 2024

Tuesday, February 13, 2024

Tuesday, February 06, 2024

Sunday, January 07, 2024