patrick.net

Bellingham Bill says

Heraclitusstudent says

What is your point?


There was an internet bubble and y2k bug?

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?g=Bqk

And the worst is yet to come.

Exams + stipend is a sure - fire combination to kill rigorous and creative intellectual pursuits. Science and engineering have dominated universities as we know them for about a century and half. Before then, the vast majority of word's top universities churned out theocrats: exams + stipend. Harvard, Yale and Princeton were all theocratic seminaries on the Christian tract. So were their models: Cambride, Oxford and University of Paris, in reverse chronically order. Paris itself was modeled after the great Islamic universities of the Caliphate ( which now sounds utterly absurd). Then there were Chinese and Jewish book worm repositories for thousands of years before that. When you put in place government run exams and stipend, you end up with scripture memorization and re - interpretation.

Only the market rewards a century and half ago transformed universities into what we know them today in the modern context.

Recently, universities are already showing the detriment of government meddling:

1. The fastest growing science department is the pseudoscience of global warming;

2. The fastest growing major utilizing advanced math has been financial engineerimg, because the FED rigs the financial market in favor of the financial engineers/gamblers

3. The most numerous masters degrees are for education majors, because that's what the tax funded monopoly schools want for teaching positions.

It should surprise no one that students choose major based on how the game is rigged. If you rig in favor of exams + stipend, students will focus on exam taking instead of real creative pursuits. And it would not be long before lobby pressure to include pseudoscience and female - friendly subjects to be included for qualification to receive stipend. Soon enough we'd be back at the theological seminaries, where the universities began.

Reality says

Only the market rewards a century and half ago transformed universities into what we know them today in the modern context.

Market means Harvard/Wharton MBAs, etc. The key parachutes for a successful career in finance, banking, or management consulting.

Sure, there are those MIT/Stanford types, who get VC money, to start a new tech venture, but again, that's not pure R&D either.

Reality says

Science and engineering have dominated universities as we know them for about a century and half. Before then, the vast majority of word's top universities churned out theocrats: exams + stipend. Harvard, Yale and Princeton were all theocratic seminaries on the Christian tract. So were their models

Again, I'm not talking about universities and their established ivory towers. I could care less about getting an adjunct prof position with little pay and no job security.

Sure, exams don't tell the whole story, however, where else does one start? Can you give a stipend to someone, who only scores a 20% on a chemistry exam or to someone who gets a 70%?

Today, the establishment is pushing 'nano' nonsense, because they have access to the grant money and then, corral a bunch of grad students and postdocs to follow their dictum. That's not creativity, that's a game of a bunch of useless profs, building their funding empires.

My idea is to liberate everyone to do their own thing.

Reality says

2. The fastest growing major utilizing advanced math has been financial engineerimg, because the FED rigs the financial market in favor of the financial engineers/gamblers

BTW, I'm a financial engineer, though I'd never own up to that title. And my friends and I did it, w/o academia. It's basically an observation that support/resistance areas resemble phase boundaries. And then, add in some fuzzy controller theory, and you've got some financial applications. Trust me, you don't need to be Tesla to figure it out. But sure, it's good to have friends with some academic know-how to pull it off.

Rin,
The market reward a century and half ago that I was talking about was in regard to the industrial revolution (American version) in the late 19th to early 20th century.

The Harvard and Wharton MBA today is symptomatic of the rise of big consolidated multinational corporations, thanks to FED's bailouts favoring large over small. The nano nonsense is precisely the result of government funding of science. It's the new how many angels can dance on the tip of a pin research subject.

The solution is getting government out of science, and stop central banking that favor big corporations.

Reality says

The Harvard and Wharton MBA today is symptomatic of the rise of big consolidated multinational corporations, thanks to FED's bailouts favoring large over small. The *** nonsense is precisely the result of government funding of science. It's the new how many angels can dance on the tip of a pin research subject.

The solution is getting government out of science, and stop central banking that favor big corporations.

Of course I agree with the above but I think we've gone past the point of no return.

Rin says

Reality says

2. The fastest growing major utilizing advanced math has been financial engineerimg, because the FED rigs the financial market in favor of the financial engineers/gamblers

BTW, I'm a financial engineer, though I'd never own up to that title. And my friends and I did it, w/o academia. It's basically an observation that support/resistance areas resemble phase boundaries. And then, add in some fuzzy controller theory, and you've got some financial applications. Trust me, you don't need to be Tesla to figure it out. But sure, it's good to have friends with some academic know-how to pull it off.

Trust me, I have written those things myself. They have limited shelf life, typically one 8 yr economic cycle. It breaks when too much money is riding on the same wagon. There just isn't enough market inefficiency to accommodate too much money exploiting it. Soon enough you run the margin thin and run out of counter parties to sell to when you and everyone else punch the sell button. The real business model there is taking the winnings home when the taking is good, then count on FED bailout or bankruptcy court protection when the market turns on your model. Just like the original Black-sholes.

Reality says

Trust me, I have written those things myself. They have limited shelf life, typically one 8 yr economic cycle. It breaks when too much money is riding on the same wagon.

Why do you think I'm trying to get out of this current career track, with a decent exit package? Also, why do you think that my firm uses both discretionary trading (meaning trader intuition) along with the software tools? It's basically as you'd stated, these things can't hold up indefinitely.

LOL. I like your New England sensibility

Reality says

LOL. I like your New England sensibility

Believe me, I hate the world of big business & finance.

I wish I were simply born rich and I could do my own research & development in my family's summer mansion.

It's not cheap to run a masion. You'd need a gardener, etc, then the gardener's daughter will be way too distracting to allow you indulge in your scientific pursuits when you are young and creative.

Reality says

It's not cheap to run a masion. You'd need a gardener, etc, then the gardener's daughter will be way too distracting to allow you indulge in your scientific pursuits when you are young and creative.

You don't know me then.

I'd have an esc*rt gal up in Montreal [ everything is 'ok' legally up in Canada ], ready to serve me, when I'm on R&R.

As an offspring of a rich person, Rin Rockefeller, they'd be very proud of me and my perseverance in the arts and sciences.

What sucks is when you're middle class and trying to appease a bunch of corporate bozos.

Well, there's also the chance that Rin Rock might follow Michael Rock into the stomachs of some cannibals in Borneo. Having a wing of the museum named after you would be small consolation.

Visiting brothels in Montreal might also be a security risk. At least the family would not be proud of you at all in that case. You'd better fall in love with the gardener's daughter "Sabrina" style, or was she the chauffer ' daughter?

Reality says

Rin Rock might follow Michael Rock into the stomachs of some cannibals in Borneo. Having a wing of the museum named after you would be small consolation.

Visiting brothels in Montreal might also be a security risk. At least the family would not be proud of you at all in that case.

I think I'll survive that dangerous passage of i-87, between Westchester NY and Montreal QC :-)

As for security, since we own a few of the Ritz-Carltons & Four Seasons, the security detail can check out the esc*rt before she enters the room.

Reality says

You'd better fall in love with the gardener's daughter "Sabrina" style, or was she the chauffer ' daughter?

That's the problem with this generation, everyone is into chick flicks. It's time to leave that stuff to Hollywood and live a real life.

Strategist says

So where will the jobs be?

Reference loop to an alternate thread on robots

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https://static.uglyhedgehog.com/upload/2018/3/3/369873-the_generation_gap.mp4

Every 3 or 4 generations there are a lost generation of people who for what ever reason exempted themselves from the normal human social contract.

The Millennial will go down as one of those. While they impact our current affairs. History will find them boring and pointless.

Thousands of years of human evolution requires we innovate or be productive. People will not stop working because the lunch vending machine is spitting out quarters.

Rin says

Thus, Millenials despite all their adoration for smart phones and automation tools, will see that their actual work is of no value

Most govt. employees, despite all their adoration for affirmitive action, have seen that their actual work is of no value

komputodo says

Rin says

Thus, Millenials despite all their adoration for smart phones and automation tools, will see that their actual work is of no value

Most govt. employees, despite all their adoration for affirmitive action, have seen that their actual work is of no value

That's already been established for at least one generation.

What's not established is when a sizable majority of ppl formally working for places like State Street, Ernst & Young, MetLife, etc, discover that their work is automated and that those companies could suffice with 10-15% of today's headcount.