"If every college let everyone in, it would be worthless."
I think that HN, while not a college, might be a counterexample for this idea.
Here everyone can join and communicate, and yet we can maintain a high level of communication. The ones who don't fit are quickly flagged or simply won't come back again.
I think selectivity is good, however it doesn't need to be enforced in the admission step, it will happen in the middle of the process. People who would not be able to follow the course requirements would quickly drop out.
I'm not arguing that this idea would work (I don't really know), but based on the HN experience I think it should be considered.
"Here everyone can join and communicate, and yet we can maintain a high level of communication. The ones who don't fit are quickly flagged or simply won't come back again."
Universities aren't run by the students. There is only so much space in a university.
I think selectivity is good, however it doesn't need to be enforced in the admission step, it will happen in the middle of the process. People who would not be able to follow the course requirements would quickly drop out.
"I'm not arguing that this idea would work (I don't really know), but based on the HN experience I think it should be considered."
A forum is easily moderated by the people that go there. The forum owner only has to pay for the bandwidth and make sure the system us running. This isn't the case for a university.
A university has a finite number of spaces. Even an online university needs to have people grading/teaching the class (and they only have so much time in the day).
They don't need to limit it. However, would you like to go to a university that is just a glorified forum that is taught by people that might no the subjects, but not necessarily a professor?
However, would you like to go to a university that is just a glorified forum that is taught by people that might no the subjects, but not necessarily a professor?
Isn't that kinda how it is now? At least the part about your teachers being TAs and not professors.... At least a forum has some level of interaction.
I think the main problem is that the title is misleading, even if another name were used.
What does "Zed's Dead, Baby. Zed's Dead" inform that is related to ZFS? Does it somehow attract people who are interested in ZFS for Mac OS X or it hit the front page for some other reason?
Or maybe the word "Zed" is just related to ZFS (or ZFS for Mac OS X) in a way that I'm unaware.
Zed (or Z) is the twenty-sixth and final letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet.
Considering the bit earlier about ZFS being dropped by Apple, and there was a point when ZFS was billed as the "final file system", I immediately read the title of this as about ZFS.
I didn't read it all so far (but I will), but I think if people were taught mathematics in a more explanatory way there would be a lot more of them interested in it, and therefore interested in areas related to it, or at least we wouldn't have a society so afraid of it.
It's amazing how many people don't know the very basics of it like, for instance, how multiplication is just a compact way of expressing a repetitive sum. And things like that happen because they were trying to remember numbers and formulas instead of understanding the concept.
It's just hard to forget about a concept, which gives the basis to understanding more complex things. I think maths teaching would be more productive if we spent more time elaborating on why things are done in some way (or how to come up with a concept just by reasoning about it, without doing calculations and writing symbols on paper) than trying to teach more complex concepts for someone who doesn't understand the basics, and therefore won't grasp the complex ones.
There's clearly something wrong about teaching maths, and very likely other subjects too, or maybe something wrong about teaching (anything).
The problem is that schools don't teach logic. Everything that they teach is arbitrary.
English class is essentially potpourri. Random order of books + Shakespeare. No teaching as to what makes writing a joy to read. Only emphasis on the relevant social issues.
History class is horrible, no explanations needed. It stinks because History has so much potential. If you have a good teacher, the sort that teaches you shades of grey, then it's amazing. But that's not the curriculum. Also, there's no emphasis on what MATTERS, which is current events. Rarely do you learn anything 80s onward. That means that most high school graduates are functionally retarded in terms of modern politics and news.
The science classes vary between schools, but it's making certain types of science MANDATORY that just lack logic. Bio and chem? I get physics, but even there: most people just don't need to know, and NOBODY learns in a way that makes them like it.
Electives are universally horrid. Teachers regularly have the attitude of "I didn't specialize in it, so standards don't matter."
...and there's math, which is explained properly here.
I've speculated before on what I think a logical school would be like, and it would be something like the following:
-Math and physics form the core learning at a younger age, because with them you can do anything.
-English courses focus not on movements, not even necessarily on "we think these guys are great," but emphasize different attitudes on how to write. Aesthetic, deconstructionist... teaching students to actually look at how writing works. Also, pop literature needs to be examined as well. Not teaching it ignores a field of literature that never gets brought up.
-Philosophy would be a great starter high school course.
-What we call "health/fitness" would focus less on STDs in 7th grade and focus MUCH, MUCH, MUCH more on understanding other people. It took me until about sixteen to learn that people aren't solely irrational beings, and the fact that it took me that long is that school is heavy on mysticism (like, assuming that older ALWAYS means better). That should be fixed.
-Emphasis on current affairs and technologies. Learning about the past should be focused on events rather than sweeping ideologies, and more comprehensive on a few key areas.
-All classes should emphasize writing and conveying ideas clearly. But that means no grading things based on length, either: people good at writing short should.
-No grading at all, actually. Grading has done nobody any good, least of all colleges that assume a high GPA necessarily means a working mind.
I agree with all, but: grading is currently a horrible means of evaluation, but still some sort of evaluation. Without evaluation --read, accountability-- no forced studies can acomplish anything. And currently school is nothing else than forced studies. Demeaning, even.
On the other hand, if you make school optional and create a culture of liking or perceiving as essential to attend school for one's well-being, then motivation is way different, and grading is then really an impediment.
I think - this is just me, mind you - that interviews are the best way of weeding out really bright kids from pretenders. It means you can't hide behind any words and have to rely on who you actually are. Although, granted, that's not quite as efficient.
"It's amazing how many people don't know the very basics of it like, for instance, how multiplication is just a compact way of expressing a repetitive sum."
You mean to say, of course, that many people usually think this is so, while it being obviously wrong... right?
Otherwise, my friend, I think you should forget all about what your elementary school teacher said and re-examine say multiplication of fractions for starters.
That's funny, but it is also a shame Mars colonization has become a butt of jokes instead of a reality. Or perhaps it means it is getting closer to reality in peoples' minds if it is an April Fools Joke (in the sense those jokes are often supposed to trick people)?
Or perhaps it means it is getting closer to reality in peoples' minds if it is an April Fools Joke
I think that's true, but I don't see it as a shame to be a joke in any way. I mean, in Google case, the joke is more in the application form and other subtle things, like the last FAQ question (http://www.google.com/virgle/faq.html#11) and the error page (http://www.google.com/virgle/error.html), which says, amongst other things:
And I highly recommend you, when you're a little advanced in your learning, to periodically access Web Devout: http://www.webdevout.net/ . There you can find tables containing browser compatibility elements for HTML, CSS, JavaScript, DOM, articles, really interesting stuff.
Another awesome website I'm used to access, mostly for JavaScript clarifications and techniques: http://www.quirksmode.org/
I think these resources are 95% what I use when I need to figure out something regarding HTML/CSS/JavaScript/DOM and browsers compatibility.
What about generating more 2 front pages versions:
- One page listing the top posts, but only counting votes from the leaders, say, 10% of all users. So if Hacker News has 100,000 users, only the votes from the first 10,000 users would be counted.
- Another page listing the top posts counting only votes from the oldest users. So from 100,000 users, only the votes from the 10,000 oldest users would be counted.
I'd like to see pages like that, and notice the differences between the actual front page and those counting only the fist 10% users slice by these criteria. And also, because of their antiquity or karma, the 10% slice would receive a sort of reward.
Anyway, I don't care about my time of sleep if I can be very focused in my work for several hours. And this does happen often (when I'm not reading News.YC, heh).
I believe there are enough hours to work each day if you are really focused in what you do and if you're really feeling rested with your sleep time.
I think that HN, while not a college, might be a counterexample for this idea.
Here everyone can join and communicate, and yet we can maintain a high level of communication. The ones who don't fit are quickly flagged or simply won't come back again.
I think selectivity is good, however it doesn't need to be enforced in the admission step, it will happen in the middle of the process. People who would not be able to follow the course requirements would quickly drop out.
I'm not arguing that this idea would work (I don't really know), but based on the HN experience I think it should be considered.