Category Archives: Robert’s posts
An old-fashioned take-down
Becca Rothfeld’s book review “Lauren Oyler thinks she is better than you” is a thorough evisceration of Oyler’s book No Judgment. You don’t see many reviews like this these days. Critics that attack books typically go after the author’s political … Continue reading
Learning but slowly
Apropos the use of AI in academia, a student asked me, “We want to work more quickly in the workplace, but do we really want to LEARN more quickly? Is that even possible?” To the latter question, I would say … Continue reading
Autofilling the Data Gaps
My macroeconomics professor at The University at Buffalo told our class, at semester’s end, that people in his profession “had a lot to be humble about.” I loved that line and have used it hundreds of times since, to describe … Continue reading
The work international students must do in B.C.
Several years ago my late Kwantlen colleague Arley McNeney organized a class project in which her students presented research on the challenges international students at our school face. I was embarrassed when I read their report; I had been so … Continue reading
Leaving Substack …
One of my favourite authors, Talia Lavin, has moved her blog, “The Sword and the Sandwich,” from Substack to the Buttondown platform. That’s because [Substack] founders stated, in no uncertain terms, that they’re not just OK with, but in principle supportive … Continue reading
An artist’s hand
I suppose we could file this post under “learning” and “technology” – themes from our website’s subtitle. In this case the technology (the “application of conceptual knowledge for achieving practical goals”) is a carefully placed and pressing hand. The learning … Continue reading
Talia Lavin’s cri de coeur
I admire the writing of Talia Lavin. Her beautifully written Substack blog, “The Sword and the Sandwich,” always charms me. This week she published “Fuck You and Your Word-Stealing Machine: A Luddite stands against AI language models and their plunder.” … Continue reading
Threads and news reporting
In part as a consequence of the Israel-Hamas war, more journalists are posting news and analysis on Meta’s Threads platform. From QZ’s Ananya Bhattacharya: Since its inception, Threads has decided to steer clear of handling hard news—and the Israel-Hamas war … Continue reading
