Opinions, art, debate
On the subject of Orban in Hungary, he absolutely stinks and is disgusting. But the ways in which the liberal opposition in the EU tries to remove him also stink and are disgusting. This is the clearest situation of both options being worse. When you are choosing between the Russian hatred of everything good and the leftist hatred of everything good, that’s a sad situation.
God help Hungary.
We had on of the catechumens read in Arabic during the Paschal service. Now I wonder what he is converting from.
In any case, what a wonderful day. Let’s celebrate triumph over death.
“You know how you often go to restaurants with your friend Maria?” N asks.
“Yes.”
“I also want to go to a restaurant with Maria.”
“With my friend Maria?”
“No, with my friend Maria.”
“But you don’t have a friend called Maria.”
“Exactly!”
“Honey, what do you want?” I ask.
“I want to go to a restaurant with a friend but since I don’t have a friend, I’d like to go by myself.”
I have observed no change in how students learn as a result of AI. There are some attempts to cheat but they are in the same scope as 10 or 20 years ago. People on social media report observing massive changes in retention or attention spans. I haven’t seen anything of the kind.
Students almost invariably use AI as a limited-function Google. They aren’t very good at using it. I’m not seeing anything even marginally different in students, let alone anything catastrophic. It’s enormously easier to teach Zoomers than Millennials but this is not related to technology.
I have no idea where people find all this massive cognitive damage from AI they keep talking about. In my teaching, AI has the most marginal presence imaginable. I teach a lot in the computer lab. I tell students “use anything you want for the assignment.” They almost always go directly to Wordreference.com or Reverso.com.
Yesterday, I took Klara to the kid’s gym, the playground and the bookstore. Throughout the trip that lasted almost 3 hours, she narrated, with a wealth of details, the story of a field trip she took with her class last year. After 3 hours of non-stop talking accompanied by vigorous physical exercise, she dropped into bed and was asleep within seconds.
Kids are hilarious.
After I posted the video of the toddlers, I saw online that people have a completely different interpretation of what they are seeing. For some, the whiny loser baby demonstrates tenacity and desire for achievement. As if people who wanted achievement sat on their butts wailing and trying to attract attention.
The video is likely AI but the reactions are very human. People assume that somebody who whines the most is the person who wants something the most. But that’s crap. The ones who really want work on it in quiet concentration.
The boys in the video perfectly symbolize the dynamic between me and my colleagues:
Even my very young students notice that the middle-aged female characters of recent works of fiction act in extremely infantile ways. I don’t bring up this topic at all to preserve the cleanliness of the experiment. The students notice and bring it up. This is especially clear in courses where we begin by reading 19th-century fiction where the heroines are strong, mature and make fun of lisping overgrown baby females.
We are reading a recent play where the female character is a 48-year-old woman who acts like an innocent, blushing ingenue. I didn’t choose the play for that reason. I’d be hard-pressed to find one where the female lead isn’t like that.
What I like about my Ukrainian Fulbrighters is that none of them tries to stay in the US after finishing their term. I like patriotism in people. And on a purely self-serving side, it’s a relief not to be pestered with endless questions about the immigration system and how to game it that Fulbrighters from other countries keep asking.
The Ukrainian Fulbrighters like America and are grateful for the experience but they are very clear on not wanting to live here. “I love my own country and I can’t wait to go home,” they invariably say. I like that.
We always do anonymous Chair evaluations this time of year. This year is my last so the evaluation doesn’t have any concrete impact. Of course, people could use this opportunity to write something nice. But that’s not how humans function.
Still, one person did bother to do the evaluation and wrote that I’m kind, patient and that my research is what justifies the existence of the department and the university. I’m shocked to have one well-wisher after six years in this role. It’s one more than I expected.
Yes, I’m very curious who it is but, again, knowing people, I’m certain it’s somebody for whom I never did any favors.
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