Security cameras in universities seem to be accomplishing… nothing. I am getting very frequent emails (2-3 per week) from one of the top US universities with blurry unusable screenshots of perpetrators stealing items, breaking in, assaulting students, etc. Makes me think - should they not invest into better security instead?
Agreed! It all probably started with big tech promoting the “data-driven decision” paradigm. Of course, in many cases this approach is effective, but it’s not a panacea and has its limits. It’s tempting to interpret availability of any data as an amazing untapped resource, but in many cases analyzing it is just a massive waste of resources and could be more effectively replaced with traditional tools (surveys and such).
While I agree with your general skepticism, I also believe there are ways these data could benefit the students. Extracting value from operational data could mean modernizing curriculum, offering more office hours, etc.
I think most of the value of "data" is captured in empowering individual contributors to observe their working conditions and the impact of their actions and adapt their strategy in response. The power of the central office spreadsheet wielders is very secondary. (Which is of course not to say that spreadsheets are not valuable, as any teacher knows.)
In an ideal world - yes. But seeing how overworked professors and other staff members already are in top universities, I doubt this is top of mind for them. There are courses with hundreds of enrolled students, weekly homework, practical projects, etc. IMO somewhat centralized DS tools are more suited to handle this load than an individual contributor (a professor in this context).
There's a ton of prior-Army Youtubers complaining about the same trends in their branch. Even the Marine Corps is getting the infection lately; a Gunnery Sergeant I worked with who used to be a very successful recruiter talks about it often, and how it is impacting motivation for the young first-timers. But also many mid-career officers (my peer group) and Staff NCOs are getting out as they can see which way the wind is blowing and don't want to be a part of it.
How much of it is what your friend is ostensibly saying and how much of it is just the ever existent complaint about the laziness of the youth (lets face it you also sucked as a teen) meeting with the inflexibility of the aging? Aka the source of strife between generations since time immemorial?
Of anyone that I've worked with, he's been the most empathetic to the situations and life challenges of an 18-year old (like I said, he was REALLY good recruiter, which usually comes with understanding people well). Most of the problems are systemic and leadership failures. Even the Marines with completely screwed up personal lives and drama, he largely faults societal failures as #2 behind just generally shit decision-making (females engaging in prostitution in the barracks, depression and confusion over gender identity, Marines thinking Uncle Sam won't notice them scamming the system for pay/entitlements, etc... etc...).
Of course there has always been some baseline level of dysfunction in young adults away from home for the first time, but the trend we are seeing is that the various factors are definitely tipping towards an institutional breaking point. Even the great "spice epidemic" around 2012 didn't stress the system this badly, IMO.
You should be used to the illegitimacy of reading a title on the literal side, that so frequently comes compressing an idea in a short sentence. The first paragraph makes a specific reference, with a link, to the interpretation of «zero emissions» the article intends to counter.
I don’t think Google will resort to matching my accounts by IP address or some fingerprinting technique.
In any case, I am in the process of migrating off Gmail too, it just takes a lot of effort. But to your point, I should probably also download all my gmail data and archive it just in case.
He is popular because he is a populist like Trump. He offers simple solutions to complex problems. Solutions that don’t work but empower people unwilling or incapable of committing to more complex solutions.
