What information are professors giving you that you can’t get anywhere else?

None. The value-add that good schools and curriculums provide is curation of information, and presenting it in a time-efficient way. For a practical demonstration of the value, try learning Linux shell scripting only from man pages.

Maybe about 10-15 years ago, there was this song by a group called One Eskimo that a local radio station did its duty in trying to force it to be a hit by gushing over it, and playing it all the damn time. It was a duet, but the male and female singers recorded their parts at ever. so. slightly. different. tempos.

Gah! Absolutely caused me physical discomfort listening to it. Like, wanting to jump out of my skin. Luckily, the effort to force the song up the charts failed (probably because it’s awful), and I’ve never heard it since. Amy Winehouse’s “Rehab” is bad for the same reason, but the tempo of the vocal track is so far off from the tempo of the backing band that it doesn’t cause that effect.

I studied environmental sciences in school, so the metaphor I think of is that of indicator species, which provide information about the state of an ecosystem. For example, the presence of mayflies indicates good water quality, since poor water quality disrupts part of their lifecycle. Similarly, corporations supporting good things indicates that they feel it is profitable to do so. It indicates the state of public sentiment, and I don’t see how that’s anything but good news.

Same with Harris (indirectly) endorsing Mamdani: Maybe she’s just bending with the wind, but it’s good news because of the way the wind is blowing.

Older than Gen Z, but started hating the U.S. when I was their age. All talk about “freedom,” but the moment you try to do something different than the crowd, some people will non-figuratively threaten to murder you.

Remember who? I don’t know who Farley Burke is or was.

e: Oh, Charly. I misheard. I will gladly honor the sacrifice of Ensign Charly Burke.

Blaming slow drivers for your dangerous driving to pass them immediately and dangerously has the same energy as a rapist blaming what the victim was wearing: The other person made me do it. I have no agency over my own reactions.