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Showing posts from January, 2012

The scaling of education really could change everything

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I enjoyed a series of articles that Vinod Khosla wrote on TechCrunch this weekend. His final one on education reminded me of just what a suboptimal situation we've gotten into with education (not just education until high school which he focuses on, but even most professional education.) What was supposed to help you prepare for your future, has somehow become to many just another box to check on the way towards it. As a society, we've lost the plot a little bit. "I've never let schooling get in the way of my learning" - Mark Twain Its understandable how we got here, but the technology we have at our disposable now gives us little excuse to stay put or continue in the same direction. Assuming someone wants to learn (i.e. is willing to study, learn etc.) , most education (in fact everything that excludes academia and research) , finally comes down to three things that you expect from an institution: Instruction : - i.e. teaching you and telling you ...

New Year Resolutions!

Happy New Year! I finally wrote my resolutions for the year down. Hey, the first week of the year is a totally acceptable time frame to do it in! :-) While I have a nodding sympathy for (i.e. I will politely smile and nod at people who say this)   the "there's nothing special about the New Year.", "Resolutions are silly", "You can make one at any time." sayers in our midst, I think any ritual that makes you take stock of where you are and plan for where you want to be is worthwhile; and the power of the ritual increases as more people do it. So, I wrote mine down and hope to do a half-decent job revisiting and tracking them. And while I understand the power of public commitment, this year I decided to keep mine private. Good luck with your New Year Resolutions!