As with yesterday’s links dump, this might become a recurring feature, but I hesitate to declare that up front in case I don’t want to. It does seem sort of useful to do a regular-ish recap of stuff I’ve written, though, particular given the delivery format of Substack, where people who subscribed later in the week (which, thanks!) may have missed stuff posted earlier in the week. Also, I do the odd bit of writing elsewhere, that’s probably worth flagging for people who read this but maybe not that (I don’t expect there are many such people at present, but maybe down the road). So, here’s this week’s round-up.
Me on Substack:
Critical Thinking Isn’t A Thing: Why the somewhat popular suggestion that teaching “critical thinking” will improve the state of the world are misguided.
Grad School and Damaged Planes: There’s a particular negative dynamic on Twitter that makes me reluctant to post positive comments about some topics, and that’s a problem.
Apathy Is Okay: You don’t need to have and share an opinion on every topic that pops up in the #discourse. It’s healthy to sit some of these out.
Stamp Collecting Is Political: A look at the different things people mean when they say “Science is political,” which range from trivially true to probably counterproductive.
Links of Change: A collection of stuff I read this week that seemed interesting, maybe a loose theme around ways of changing things, but not quite a coherent post (yet).
Me Elsewhere:
Book Review: The Price You Pay for College by Ron Lieber (Forbes): Maybe the best description I’ve seen from somebody not in the system of how the finances of the expensive side of American higher education work. Also offers what seems like sensible and solid financial and admissions advice, though I’m less well positioned to evaluate that.
Photo Hikes Update (chadorzel.com): Links to selected photos from recent hikes with my DSLR camera.
Pseudo-Random Photo of the Week:
That was a pretty full week of stuff, much of it on the serious side. I can’t swear that I’ll maintain this kind of posting pace long-term, and particularly not the weightiness; there’s probably some sillier stuff coming shortly. But as I’ve said repeatedly, the goal here is to get back to writing more regularly in a format that’s longer (and healthier) than Twitter, and I’ll try to keep to putting up something daily for a while longer.
Anyway, if any of that seems interesting enough, here’s the obligatory subscribe button:
And comments are open if you feel so moved.