Hat tip: Charlie Brown
Monday, December 31, 2018
Friday, December 28, 2018
On professional behavior in economics
I am delighted to see the names of so many students I know and respect (at five different instituitons!) on this open letter.
I generally agree with the contents but have two concerns about omission. First, in order for this all to work, the procedures that departments and universities use to adjudicate claims need to be completely serious, well-documented, and scrupulously fair. Without that, they serve only to generate sympathy for the guilty and abuse for the innocent. Second, harassment comes in many shapes in forms, and includes bullying of faculty by graduate students and mistreatment of one faculty member by another. Those behaviors matter too and should be taken equally seriously rather than being ignored.
I generally agree with the contents but have two concerns about omission. First, in order for this all to work, the procedures that departments and universities use to adjudicate claims need to be completely serious, well-documented, and scrupulously fair. Without that, they serve only to generate sympathy for the guilty and abuse for the innocent. Second, harassment comes in many shapes in forms, and includes bullying of faculty by graduate students and mistreatment of one faculty member by another. Those behaviors matter too and should be taken equally seriously rather than being ignored.
Syria
Despite our supposedly hyper-partisan present, bipartisan support for ill-advised military deployments shows no sign of going away. In regard to Syria, I liked this piece and this piece by Conor Friedersdorf at the Atlantic.
Wednesday, December 12, 2018
Professorial disses
A fine thread of professorial digs at twitter.
Addendum: A former Michigan doctoral student on whose committee I served reminded me by email that another committee member (who will remain anonymous despite how entertaining it would be to out them) said that their first draft read like it had been "written by someone who was autistic."
Addendum: On the other end of the spectrum, there is this.
Addendum: A former Michigan doctoral student on whose committee I served reminded me by email that another committee member (who will remain anonymous despite how entertaining it would be to out them) said that their first draft read like it had been "written by someone who was autistic."
Addendum: On the other end of the spectrum, there is this.
Wednesday, December 5, 2018
Assorted links
1. Fabio Rojas on what happy sociology would look like.
2. I quite enjoyed this Atlantic piece on "refugee detectives" in Germany. As always, the applied epistemology draws me in.
3. Stormy Daniels' visit to Madison.
4. An entertaining economics tweet with a point.
2. I quite enjoyed this Atlantic piece on "refugee detectives" in Germany. As always, the applied epistemology draws me in.
3. Stormy Daniels' visit to Madison.
4. An entertaining economics tweet with a point.
On presidential funeral rites
I am with these folks at CATO and at National Review. The spectacle is appalling, and better suited to an emperor than an elected manager.
Perhaps what people really want to morn is what someone - I do not recall just who - noted, which is that the first Bush was the last president recognized as clearly legitimate by both legacy parties.
Perhaps what people really want to morn is what someone - I do not recall just who - noted, which is that the first Bush was the last president recognized as clearly legitimate by both legacy parties.