Post your asides here

[Parasaurolophus]

<unrelated>

Biting my tongue. Let it die, let it die.

[aside]

<unrelated>

Biting my tongue. Let it die, let it die.

Why do you want your tongue to die?

[little bongo]

<unrelated>

Wow--as brilliant as Sartre was, it took him the better part of an essay to describe that poster, and you nailed it in one cogent sentence. Which I guess makes you that much more brilliant.

And I finally discovered and successfully used the "ignore" list! And I put him on it! I am so elated!

I mean, between this and the massive celebrating I'm doing through inauguration day, I might not be able to take all this happiness.

[mahagonny]

How nature says 'do not touch'

https://newbeautifulera.wordpress.com/2013/03/30/how-nature-says-do-not-touch-a-classic-far-side-comic/

[ergative]

apl68 and Hegemony, telling it like it is.

[polly_mer]

For so many threads lately:

* Ignoring the national trends because you don't like those trends will not save your job.

* Relying on your own wishful thinking instead of peer-reviewed publications, credible sources of trend data, and even the torrents of overview-of-the-trends articles in the relevant specialized higher ed outlets will not save your job.

* The union and/or tenure are not magical wards against the institution firing you as enrollment changes.  The union and/or tenure mean the institution has to follow the process or is subject to lawsuits.  Suing an entity will not get your job back in a timely manner and may not be worth the hit to your reputation in a very tight job market.  Higher ed institutions know that and will act accordingly as the budget realities become pressing.

*  If you're teaching mostly general education sections at multiple non-elite institutions and you aren't regularly turning down offers to be full-time, then now would be a good time to spend an afternoon with the data of your institutions.  Confirm that what you think is true is really true and then act accordingly.

* If you are tenured at an elite institution with tons of majors in your field, then your job is probably safe enough.  If you're not tenured or you're in a department without tons of majors, then also spend the afternoon with the data of your institution and act accordingly.

This spring will also bring a bunch of "but nobody told me!" blog posts in various places as more jobs are lost in the entirely predictable areas.

This follows the past four years of accelerated programs closing and then a big chunk of non-TT jobs being cut.  The first trickles of the tiny institutions closing has already started as the budget realities of January are starting to hit.  The AAUP deadline for notifying continuing faculty of their non-renewal just passed last week.  That will not stop institutions from sending official letters in January and February.

[FishProf]

Confirmation bias is a thing.

Even for the people pointing out that confirmation bias is a thing.

[polly_mer]

Confirmation bias is a thing.

Even for the people pointing out that confirmation bias is a thing.

Yep, but confirmation bias is much, much less likely when one engages with a variety of outlets that tend to usually be at odds in terms of focus and spin on the data.

That good ol' "I read the NEWS" is only credible when the news includes a wide variety of outlets who generally don't agree on what should be done, but allow critical readers to figure out what the issues are with links to all the different data instead of blindly repeating only the opinions on the data or repeating the one press release that completely ignored the data in favor of interpretations of the data.

[spork]

Confirmation bias is a thing.

Even for the people pointing out that confirmation bias is a thing.

Confirmation bias by several physicians nearly killed me in 2019, so 2020 has personally been a much better year even with a pandemic.

[apl68]

Confirmation bias is a thing.

Even for the people pointing out that confirmation bias is a thing.

Confirmation bias by several physicians nearly killed me in 2019, so 2020 has personally been a much better year even with a pandemic.

I have to confess that I and my immediate family have also had a better 2020 than 2019, since none of us has been injured or had bypass surgery this year.

[Katrina Gulliver]

JFC again with this shit.

[polly_mer]

JFC again with this shit.

Yes. 

Individuals here are supporting the going-through-the-motions of education for a paycheck and are actively undermining their own interests by propping up the bad parts of the "higher education" system instead of letting those parts of the system die.

I'm not going to let that go, especially when individual action would benefit the individual in the long-term as well as go along way towards fixing the broken parts of the system.

[Katrina Gulliver]

JFC again with this shit.

Yes. 

Individuals here are supporting the going-through-the-motions of education for a paycheck and are actively undermining their own interests by propping up the bad parts of the "higher education" system instead of letting those parts of the system die.

I'm not going to let that go, especially when individual action would benefit the individual in the long-term as well as go along way towards fixing the broken parts of the system.

Ok. Not sure what thread you're talking about, obviously not the one I was responding to!

[little bongo]

<unrelated>

But do you really "have" to?

ON EDIT, WRT another thread:

At some point, we must decide, "Do I want to argue, or do I really want to try to learn something?"

[polly_mer]

<unrelated>

But do you really "have" to?

ON EDIT, WRT another thread:

At some point, we must decide, "Do I want to argue, or do I really want to try to learn something?"

What is it you think I could learn from people who sound just like the students who insist that something that is mathematically possible is really, truly, no-foolin' going to happen at the end of the term, even though it never does because it's not the math that's the issue?

Pattern matching is a thing, even in the absence of mathematical models that would give quantitative predictions.