You expect to pay less today for a computer than you did ten years ago. But universities are more like media companies than computer manufacturers, so imagine if universities were subject to the same disruptive market forces as, let’s say, newspapers, what would things looks like? The Economist has three terrific articles on higher […]
Speaking of giants: Congrats, Macaulay Class of 2014 graduation!
June 9, 2014 by
To the Macaulay Honors College, Class of 2014 — Do you remember the first time we met, back in 2010? Under a certain giant whale? Right from the start, I knew you were something special. But I’d almost forgotten about that welcome reception at the American Museum of Natural History until we asked you a […]
Attention college students: if you want to know what to do RIGHT NOW to unlock the secrets of a successful future, click here. #highered
May 6, 2014 by
Today’s release of the Gallup/Purdue Index is mind-blowing in its findings — and yet they are all intuitively obvious. All college applicants should be thinking about this, as they go about the process of selecting a college. All college students should be testing their experience against these findings. Unless you’re about to graduate, it’s not […]
The Confidence Gap: check this out.
April 17, 2014 by
A review of personnel records at Hewlett-Packard found that women applied for a promotion only when they believed they met 100 percent of the qualifications listed for the job. Men were happy to apply when they thought they could meet 60 percent of the job requirements.
Two ends of my holiday table. #Passover
April 15, 2014 by
Two ends of my holiday table: one spans nine decades, the other is approaching just nine weeks. These are the new guests at my Passover celebration tonight: my new grandbaby and my parents, now 90 and 92. We took note of the unexpected similarities between them. They are much loved, and they couldn’t […]
Ding, dong, the #SAT is…not quite dead. My 2 cents on where College Board and Coleman got it right, plus a roll-up of some press.
March 6, 2014 by
He’ll be blamed for doing too much, for doing too little, and for thinking that he can swap the Darth Vader cloak of the College Board for the Technicolor Dreamcoat of Sal Khan. But really, let’s give a major t/h to David Coleman for acknowledging the failure of the SAT. For saying bold words like […]
One thousand to-lists later, and @Beesy is a close miss. Can’t somebody build a better to-do manager?
February 13, 2014 by
I know i’m not alone in struggling to find a good way to manage my project lists, everything from the big ongoing stuff to the daily to-do. I know I’m not alone because I’ve read endless articles about getting organized. And tried dozens of methods, from Outlook to…. See? I’m so scattered: just writing about […]
I am sincerely sorry to miss the first snowstorm of 2014. Really.
January 3, 2014 by
Fearing that my flight to Florida to visit my folks would be cancelled, I left yesterday. And so, thanks Jet Blue, here I sit, 62 degrees at 8am, devouring every word and image of the storm. NYC is never more beautiful than in the snow. And I miss the solidarity of family, colleagues, friends, the […]
The fine art of UNFINISHING, or why I still like MOOCs.
December 31, 2013 by
I intend to run for 30 minutes today. But it is hot and I stop at 25. I pick up the latest issue of The Economist, drink deeply of an article on Mandela’s legacy, marvel at a stimulating reconsideration of Ozymandias, enjoy a pointed editorial welcoming Bulgarians to the UK. And then I flip aggressively […]
My Carrie would never be Istanbul bureau chief. Why I am still grousing about #Homeland finale.
December 19, 2013 by
Homeland should have ended with Brody’s death and some lingering close-up on our Carrie and her dark future: pregnant, out of work, her relationships shredded. The show itself could have ended there, and that would have been fine with me. But if we are to have the promise of another season, let’s get real about […]