Wong's education and career

[Kazeite]

Ah, yes, I see that somebody has already posted a link to elective monarchy article.

Yes, it may sound weird to most of the people, but, yeah, kings (or queens) can be elected. We Poles actually had eight elected kings :)

And now we return you to regulary scheduled thread :D

[ILikeDeathNote]

The attitude that a lot of education "doesn't count" isn't limited to Wong, however. The idea that most college education is useless and meaningless is one I've seen on the opinion pages of the WSJ on occasion:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121858688764535107.html

Oh, the Wall Street Journal? Who once wrote a glowing review of Vector Marketing, an all-but-definitively proven scam and pyramid scheme that has had to dole out settlements to the governments of Australia, Wisconsin and Arizona?

That, and their consistent, FOX News-like right-wing cheerleading has taught me that they're less a credible financial journal and more akin to a money-centric, topless babe-less American The Sun.

As for the whole idea of education, you'll find a lot of people do say that college isn't necessary, or some even going so far as to say secondary and even primary education isn't necessary. You'll also find a lot of these guys are awfully right-leaning, which is strangely enough in stark contrast to Wong's seemingly leftist leanings, despite what all his bashing the Federation for being "communist" will likely lead you all to believe.

Pen & Teller, on "Pen & Teller's Bullshit!" make the same claim, but they at least offer enough evidence to make me listen to them and consider their points.

On the other hand, I do agree that our education system is broken and inefficient, and is more geared towards mediocrity in its current form. Educational competition from Asia is hard to discount.

[GStone]

To even attempt at what Wong would like to do, you'd have to introduce metaphysics. However, to write up any equation for the 'math of metaphysics', you'd have to understand metaphysics first, but he has stated that conceptualizing and abstracting efforts are bad things, espcially when you've got mechanical engineering and physics.

But, there's a problem. Metaphysics and science began to diverge during the renaissance and became fully separated after the beginning of the 18th century and they haven't come back together. Some have attempted over the last century or so to rejoin them on both sides, but no one's been able to do that yet.

Maybe he would be the one that could do it, but he is unwilling to understand all of what's required to be successful. It's so sad that he would treat areas of knowledge that are not based on science with such contempt. TV and book entertainment are based in the humanities. The specifics of how to produce different sounds is scientifically known, but how they're applied isn't. Yet, he complains about the music choices in Trek, such as in First Contact. His only sources of entertainment must be with science equations.

With this thinking, he shouldn't be posting arguments about how Lucas or anyone else involved in SW feels about canon. Any vs canon statements are less reliable than math equations and that includes Wong's stated position. And he's not saying everything Wars is canon. He's making decisions not based on science equations. If he doesn't need science equations to make this kind of determination, his entire stance on the softer sciences is faulty. Making decisions not based on the scientific method, equations and procedures replicable independently in the lab is not as trustworthy as when you use such actions to come to conclusions.

To say otherwise is using a double standard only when it's convenient to be the one that is right all the time. It wouldn't be about science or reliability. It's pure ego.

[Jedi Master Spock]

Actually, there's a lot of marketing-oriented research that's been made in quantifying how people react to media, specifically - now, what a work of literature means is still not a scientific question.

Ethical questions are not answerable through empirical data; you have to at least choose your framework before applying any facts about something. However, ethical questions are often raised by scientific advances.

On the other hand, I do agree that our education system is broken and inefficient, and is more geared towards mediocrity in its current form. Educational competition from Asia is hard to discount.

In technical fields, and at the bachelor's level, there is a lot of global competition that can stand up to US and Canadian schools. However, the competition is not as steep outside of more technical fields and on the graduate level.

[ILikeDeathNote]

In technical fields, and at the bachelor's level, there is a lot of global competition that can stand up to US and Canadian schools. However, the competition is not as steep outside of more technical fields and on the graduate level.

This, actually, greatly intrigues me. I would tremendously appreciate if you would elaborate on this.

[Jedi Master Spock]

In technical fields, and at the bachelor's level, there is a lot of global competition that can stand up to US and Canadian schools. However, the competition is not as steep outside of more technical fields and on the graduate level.

This, actually, greatly intrigues me. I would tremendously appreciate if you would elaborate on this.

One place to look would be the various worldwide college rankings, which are supposed to measure the overall rank of universities in various ways. US schools generally dominate these rankings, even the ones less friendly to US schools, and when it comes to graduate school, it's primarily the top schools that have the large doctoral programs.

Search phds.org and you'll see what I mean. Phds.org lists just about all the accredited doctoral programs in the US that have students going through them. Let's say you want your Doctor of Philosophy degree in... Philosophy. You have 159 program options for doctoral programs in Ethics, Logic, and Philosophy at 98 institutions. Of the fifty plus North American schools that show up in one or another "top 100 worldwide" list, almost all of those will be represented on top 100 lists - and on average, they'll have larger programs than the ones that aren't.

For example, Ohio State University is well-known enough to make top 100 lists, and it has 41 philosophy grad students in its program. The less well known University of Cincinnati - still a large school, but with a weaker reputation, has 22 philosophy grad students. Harvard - which is not a large school, even if it is famous, and always makes the top 100 lists - has 50.

But let's say you think that the college rankings are a load of bunk. Then it's time to point out how many international students - especially in technical fields - go to the US and Canada for their graduate work, compared to how many jump continents for their undergraduate degrees, and how much research funding is available.

While some are claiming that the US bachelor's degree is diluted a little (because, mainly, such a large percentage of the population now has a college degree, with only a little more than average IQ and in many cases little specific preparation that relates directly to their future career), nobody is really claiming that of the American doctorate.

[ILikeDeathNote]

Hmmm. I guess it's time I seriously start thinking of getting my doctorate....