joshuago’s Bookmarks

An exploration of the glaring shortcomings and perverse incentives in higher education. The symptoms are increased costs without commensurate value delivered. The causes can be traced to an arms race among institutions for higher rankings.

School should be about learning, not looking good.

Journalists (or journalism students) who believe the drivel about passives being bad are just imbibing tired old nonsense repeated by generations of usage-pontificating idiots plagiarizing from each other.

Common pitfalls and temptations to avoid when designing a web user product.

The beautiful classic editorial piece published in the WSJ every Christmas.

One percent of a given population of patients could be responsible for thirty percent of the health care costs. Common sense approaches are needed, but a personal touch is often required to establish trust and to find the best way to address a particular scenario.

In every waking moment, students now are bombarded with the din of the marketplace and encouraged to join in the madness of crowds. But in an empty room—without a high-definition, widescreen TV—one stands alone and is forced to confront the truth about oneself. 

Where the blog suggests paths, the book draws conclusions. Neither is superior to the other; rather, they represent different modes of writing—the first expansive, the latter convergent. Each mode suggests and learns from the other.

Voting because Michael Moore told you to vote is really not going to do anybody any good. Voting divorced from education is a deadly mix.

A perfect implementation of the wrong specification is worthless. Write your Readme first.