On the subject of hiring foreign labor, I have witnessed my sister’s 20-year-long struggle to hire Canadian secretaries and after endless drama finally giving up and hiring a Ukrainian secretary to work remotely. Now she’s in paradise (metaphorically speaking), and I’m not hearing any more secretary-related horror stories.

It’s not a money issue as much as it is about not wanting drama. It’s also definitely not about any particular sort of talent or skill.

I have an American secretary, and I’m happy but then I’m an ogre in the workplace, and everybody shapes up very fast because I’m legit scary.

While the American Twitter is engulfed in the H1-B drama, the Ukrainian Twitter is battling over which grain should be used to make the traditional Christmas dish called kutia.

As a result my feed looks like this:

Indian talent, Indian tech bros, Indian talent, kutia with rice, kutia with wheat, Indian CEOs, Indian CEOs, kutia with rice, kutia with buckwheat, kutia with wheat, Indian, Indian, Indian, kutia, kutia, kutia.

I’m going on in a few hours to talk about the ongoing debate about H1-B visas.

For those who aren’t following, Elon Musk expressed vast enthusiasm for dramatically increasing the number of tech specialists brought from overseas. He’s been receiving enormous blowback since then.

I know what I want to say but is there anything you, people, want me to mention? Insights, stories, numbers?

I think that contemplating these two sentences is actually very useful to get a feel for what makes art. Look, for example, at how the words “more vulnerable” in the original slyly undermine what comes after them. The narrator seems to be saying that his father’s advice only stuck because he was vulnerable. Would he have noticed the father’s words otherwise?

Then, let’s look at “turning over in my mind” as opposed to “still think about.” It’s kind of the same but not really. “Turning over” feels different. “More vulnerable” and “turning over” are little hooks that the sentence gets into us, and it becomes part of us, maybe for a bit or maybe forever.

My whole thing is to see these hooks and figure out why they snag me. Life would be a lot more boring if all we had were these straightforward, robotic sentences that deliver information and do nothing else.

No, this isn’t my Christmas table. This is the traditional 12-course Christmas dinner of some lucky Ukrainian who still has his health and isn’t doomed to eating nothing but grass from now and until the end of days.

Not that I’m resentful or anything.

Merry Christmas!

People keep asking how I got my kid to be so into reading.

Here’s how. Between the ages of 1 and 6, when kids are already mobile but can’t entertain themselves for long periods of time, I told her stories. All the time I told stories. My mouth still hurts from all the stories I told.

As a result, she got used to constantly absorbing stories. Reading, as we all know, is hallucinating while awake. Words come in, and your brain starts creating images on their basis. Once you get used to this form of hallucination, to your brain creating images out of words, you can’t stop. It’s addictive.

Now my daughter seeks words to trigger the creation of images by herself. Of course, TV, screens, etc create images for you, and it’s so much easier. This is why stories should come first. Kids need to learn to create images out of words. That’s the number one goal. Then they won’t be seduced by the easy, ready-made images offered by screens.

Why in English, though? Are these English-speaking refugees? I’m guess not, so who is the intended recipient of the statement? For whose sake is the posturing conducted? Who lives rent-free in the brains of these performatively welcoming Germans?

It’s mystifying.

This semester I learned most of my freshmen had never taken an exam on which only one attempt was allowed.

I am… deeply frustrated with our education system.

High schools that offer students exam retakes are seriously impinging on students’ ability to succeed in college.

https://x.com/HKBradshaw/status/1870975068635054588?t=7YUeh8YU8DgwKajCJKd9rA&s=19

This explains a lot. I’ve been wondering why Freshmen expect to be able to rewrite the exam before even taking a look at the corrections. It makes no sense because if you don’t have a skill, you can rewrite a hundred times, and it won’t help.

But yes, it’s some sort of a new technique they are doing in high schools where you get endless retakes until you somehow stumble into a better grade.

Dear parent, don’t be a weirdo creep.

Seriously, can the dude figure out his own sex life without mommy and daddy helicoptering around?

I’ve been lecturing for years about the imminent threat of China effectively overtaking the Panama Canal. We will all be massively screwed when China and Russia control our number 1 trade route. I’m kind of shocked that finally somebody on route to the WH is taking notice.

People who are bleating excitedly about how horrible Trump’s statements are, please unveil your own plan. Forget who built what and when. What are we all going to do if China decides to cut us off from the canal it now largely owns?

I can’t believe this issue is finally getting raised, and I’m very glad.