Hacker News: primelens

New comment by primelens in "'The Great Shame of Our Profession'"

primelens — Tue, 14 Feb 2017 22:28:31 +0000

I'll repost what I wrote on a previous discussion of this article on FB:

Most versions of this discussion lament the fact that students come into graduate programs with little idea of what the academic job market is like. One could respond - and many do - that it's a "free market," no one is forcing them to choose this profession over any other. However, this rational-actor reasoning can only be expected to work if effective channels were set up to inform students before they've sunk in too much time, and cost (both in terms of money and lost opportunities). Do such channels exist? While I agree that the responsibility largely lies with faculty, there are few incentives in the system for them to lower the number of PhDs. And any system that depends on the uprightness, or clarity of vision of individuals (even liberal humanities professors) is bound to be leaky at best.

While this essay puts some numbers to the problem - approximately 1 job for every 4 PhDs per year, for example - I think this is one domain where more data and analysis could serve as a wake-up call. Those 1 in 4 odds, I'm sure, are far from evenly distributed. They are heavily skewed towards a handful of elite institutions. Go to school elsewhere and the odds stack up much higher. Consider the applicants who graduated in previous years but have remained in the market and the odds are even more daunting, and made worse during job shortfalls like that after the '08 downturn.

If informing graduate students of the magnitude of the challenge they are taking on is the best approach to the problem, then the profession needs to do better than trust this to individuals and institutions who have no incentive to scare away a large portion of their students. Does a dataset exist that makes this information accessible? I'd expect some resistance from departments to share detailed information, but the MLA should have enough information from their member surveys. When grad students send in their first $23 check to the MLA, perhaps they should receive a dossier with employment data for the last 10 years and a few choice graphs to scare the living daylights out of them!

New comment by primelens in "The Probability and Statistics Cookbook"

primelens — Tue, 29 Nov 2016 19:00:49 +0000

I find this to be fairly involved but a good follow-up to introductory texts. Casella, George, and Roger L. Berger. Statistical Inference. 2nd ed. Duxbury Advanced Series. Australia ; Pacific Grove, CA: Duxbury/Thomson Learning, 2002.

Introducing Jupyter Notebooks in Azure ML Studio

primelens — Fri, 24 Jul 2015 23:35:34 +0000

Article URL: http://blogs.technet.com/b/machinelearning/archive/2015/07/24/introducing-jupyter-notebooks-in-azure-ml-studio.aspx

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9945869

Points: 3

# Comments: 0

New comment by primelens in "Calvin and Hobbes embodied the voice of the lonely child"

primelens — Tue, 09 Jun 2015 20:52:39 +0000

I found the "preachy" bootleg strip referred to in the first paragraph to be rather poignant and wonderful.

New comment by primelens in "Undeveloped Film from a Soldier in WWII Discovered and Processed"

primelens — Sat, 17 Jan 2015 22:50:44 +0000

On medium format film - I can't tell if this is 120, 220, or 620, or something like 616 - many cameras can take pictures of varying width. For example, on a camera that makes 6x9, or 6x7 pics, you might be able to put in a masking attachment and make 6x6 pictures. If you forget to put the attachment, you might think you're shooting 6x6 shots and advance the film accordingly, but you'll actually make wider shots which overlap at the edges.

Boston Uber Driver Accused of Raping Passenger in Back Seat

primelens — Thu, 18 Dec 2014 16:47:20 +0000

Article URL: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/17/alejandro-done-boston-uber-driver-rapes-passenger_n_6344432.html?ir=India

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8768161

Points: 4

# Comments: 1

The Philosophy of Computer Science (2013)

primelens — Tue, 02 Dec 2014 06:19:12 +0000

Article URL: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/computer-science/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8685971

Points: 116

# Comments: 34

Show HN: Early English Print N-Gram Browser

primelens — Wed, 12 Nov 2014 02:33:12 +0000

Article URL: http://earlyprint.wustl.edu/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8593701

Points: 9

# Comments: 0

New comment by primelens in "Hugging a Medieval Book"

primelens — Wed, 29 Oct 2014 00:40:05 +0000

Chaucer and Dante certainly make any greatest hits list -- definitely worth reading.

What John Coltrane on the Billboard Charts Tells Us About Music Sales in 2014

primelens — Mon, 27 Oct 2014 17:00:10 +0000

Article URL: http://www.forbes.com/sites/nickmessitte/2014/10/21/what-john-coltrane-on-the-billboard-charts-tells-us-about-music-sales-in-2014/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8516663

Points: 5

# Comments: 0

Rental America: Why the poor pay $4,150 for a $1,500 sofa

primelens — Fri, 17 Oct 2014 21:48:22 +0000

Article URL: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/storyline/wp/2014/10/16/she-bought-a-sofa-on-installment-payments-now-its-straining-her-life/?hpid=z1

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8473541

Points: 64

# Comments: 50

New comment by primelens in "Why India's Mars mission is so cheap – and thrilling"

primelens — Wed, 24 Sep 2014 22:55:20 +0000

You misunderstand my argument if you read it as "the West is dumb and mean". What I meant to emphasize was that the West made the (IMHO right) decision, to spend on research etc while it was working on other social problems. It is never one or the other. But I would add the same model should be extended to other countries as well.

New comment by primelens in "Why India's Mars mission is so cheap – and thrilling"

primelens — Wed, 24 Sep 2014 21:56:22 +0000

Thank you! After reading this same statement about toilets vs space missions dozens of times I could hardly muster anything more articulate than "aaargh!" Apparently the West had solved all of humanity's problems and ensured a reign of perfect equality and peace before embarking on trivial things like research!

New comment by primelens in "I Had a Stroke at 33"

primelens — Sun, 21 Sep 2014 20:37:34 +0000

My dad had a cerebral stroke a few years ago. As everyone else was trying to arrange an emergency ambulance, his doctor was on the phone with him asking him to stay awake. Apparently, he said "if you fall asleep, you'll die." Fighting to stay awake for those few hours was one of the hardest things he's ever had to do.

New comment by primelens in "Bézier Clock"

primelens — Wed, 10 Sep 2014 19:56:24 +0000

Yes. Perhaps hitting the optimum form at 45 would be ideal. So 4 would start becoming clearer at 40 and then start degenerating after 45.

US cable giants calls on FCC to block cities' expansion of high-speed internet

primelens — Sat, 30 Aug 2014 07:58:02 +0000

Article URL: http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/aug/29/us-telecoms-fcc-block-high-speed-internet-chattanooga

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8245907

Points: 460

# Comments: 154

New comment by primelens in "Is De-Skilling Killing Arts Education?"

primelens — Sat, 30 Aug 2014 00:27:18 +0000

Most contemporary art needs to be illuminated by some mumbo-jumbo narrative about what it "means" before one can appreciate it. I get the fact that one of the things that makes art great is that it pushes the envelope on accepted norms - stretches the bounds of tradition. To have mere skill and craftsmanship and no individual vision does not make great art. But for me, the reverse should also hold - you can't have a total lack of coherence or skill and just get by on a pretension of "edginess." Unfortunately that is all that seems to matter in contemporary institutionalized art.

I am repeatedly surprised by how contemporary early modern art (a.k.a. renaissance art) -- both literature and the visual arts -- seem to me at time and how they can combine truly radical innovations with an unwavering commitment to basic skills. Write that searing tragedy about the frailty and absurdity of the human condition ... but make sure you absolutely master your iambic pentameter first!

New comment by primelens in "Amazon has sold no more than 35,000 Fire phones, data suggests"

primelens — Wed, 27 Aug 2014 03:49:45 +0000

They missed their opportunity in mid to late 2012 when NFLX hovered around $65. They're in the high 400s now.

New comment by primelens in "Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy"

primelens — Fri, 22 Aug 2014 19:43:23 +0000

Apart from Russel's book, Will Durant's _The Story of Philosophy_ provides a fun light introduction. If you'd rather read primary texts there are many choices - the history of philosophy can seem like a summit conference between dazzlingly brilliant but at the same time really dense, almost obtuse masterworks. I'd recommend starting with Plato's _Republic_, skipping forward to Descartes' _Meditations_ and then directly on to Wittgenstein's _Philosophical Investigations_ for a whirlwind tour of the subject with three of the sharpest people you'll ever meet. If you finish these three, I would bet that you'll continue to read on your own and will forever remain a student of philosophy.

New comment by primelens in "The Indian Miracle-Buster Stuck in Finland"

primelens — Tue, 03 Jun 2014 18:12:34 +0000

Here's my version of Pascal's wager:

Even if there is/are god(s), she/he/they obviously don't want to be known/found as she/he/they have left no obvious clues from which we might deduce such a being or beings. So, we should all be atheists/agnostics because once we die, if it turns out that there is/are god(s), atheists/agnostics are the ones who will end up in heaven. Why? Because, they alone are following the will of a possible creator.

"Did I not give you a brain," such a deity would say to believers of various religions. "Did I not hide all indications of my existence, so that you try to make sense of the universe with the data available to you? Why, then, did you go and make up random fantastic beings to worship without a shred of evidence? You have ignored my will. How dare you presume that you are capable of knowing an almighty being that obviously doesn't want to be known? Look at these atheists, this small band of the faithful, who have stayed true to the faculties of reasoning I endowed them with and reached the logical conclusion that they could to the best of their ability. These alone have stayed true to their creator's purpose, and these alone shall party with us in Valhalla."

So there. :-)