The problem with education is that it can’t be measured effectively, so instead we turn to credentials, which can.

Today it occurred to me that inherent in experiencing any artwork is the idea that I could someday meet the artist and ask them questions about it or at the very least have a conversation with them.

If the whole artwork is generated then there are no real questions that could be asked, because prompt engineering is not a real process.

I’ve been thinking a lot about how one’s background influences one’s experiences in education (and, in turn, what advice one gives to the next generation). Two people can have wildly different experiences in the same course, with the same instructor, at the same institution, and if you look deep enough the culprit is often socioeconomic differences, which tend to also line up with differences in academic achievement (but not always… it’s complicated).

Here’s my possibly elitist university education hot take: I think completing a minor in a discipline should require you to take at least one fourth year course in that discipline.

A minor isn’t a degree, true. But I think claiming to have a minor in a field should mean you’re somewhat literate in a reasonable subset of the basics that any major in that discipline would know and that you have exposure to at least one advanced topic.

I’ve started thinking a little bit about creativity in the context of AI. If you’ve known me for several years, you might be aware that I’m really not a fan of the word “creativity” or of its noun and adjective form “creative”. I’ve mellowed on it a little bit over the years, but generally speaking I still believe that it’s a wildly misused buzzword with dubious meaning in the average colloquial setting, and that lots of people actually have no idea what creativity is. It really bothers me when people conflate creativity with artistic ability, or when people act like it’s some sort of gene you either have or don’t, instead of understanding that it’s a skill you can improve. But in a lot of ways, it’s the best word we have, and so I’m going to use it today.