This post is an op-ed that Steven Pinker published in the New York Times in 1994. Here's a link to the original. It's about a tendency toward euphemism that was in its infancy back then but has how now become the new norm. The bewildering feature of political correctness is the mandated replacement of formerly unexceptionable … Continue reading Steven Pinker — The Euphemism Treadmill
This post is a piece of mine that was published a few years ago in Inside Higher Ed. Here’s a link to the original. It's also included in my newish book, Being a Scholar. It’s about an inherent tension in the act of writing between arrogance and humility. AN EXERCISE IN ARROGANCE AND HUMILITY TO BE … Continue reading Writing as an Exercise in Arrogance and Humility
This post is a collection of some favorite cartoons about the nature of academic research. All of them are from the website PhD, which stands for Piled Higher and Deeper. The author is Jorge Cham, who got his PhD in Mechanical Engineering at Stanford and then taught at Cal Tech. Enjoy!
This post is an overview of the book I published several years ago. It’s available on Amazon both as an e-book and a paperback. The title is Being a Scholar: Reflections on Doctoral Study, Scholarly Writing, and Academic Life. Below is the book’s introduction, which provides the rationale for the book and summarizes the eleven pieces that you … Continue reading Being a Scholar
This post is an essay by Carl Hendrick published on his Substack, The Learning Dispatch. Here's a link to the original. In it he develops a pleasingly optimistic argument about the increasing role that humans will have to play in the emerging world of artificial intelligence. Given all the gloom and doom surrounding the subject, I … Continue reading Carl Hendrick — AI Automates Scut Work But Requires Increased Human Supervision
This post contains all of the material for the class on the History of Higher Education in the US that I taught for at the Stanford Graduate School of Education for the last 15 years. In retirement I wanted to make the course available on the internet to anyone who is interested. If you are … Continue reading Course Syllabus: History of Higher Education in the US
This post is an essay by Toke Reichstein from his Substack. Here's a link to the original. The key issue is the title: "Who Gets to Decide What Matters Most?" In the course of this essay, he deploys economics at its best in trying to sort out this problem. He shows that simplistic approaches to setting … Continue reading Toke Richstein — Who Gets to Decide What Matters Most?
