Will AI make us better? Can AI teach us, or do we learn on our own, irrespective of the presence of a human teacher?
“Unlike carpentry or calculus, learning is not a skill that can be “mastered.” It’s true that the more research you do, the better you’ll get at doing research, and the more papers you write, the better you’ll get at writing papers, but the pedagogical value of a writing assignment doesn’t lie in the tangible product of the work — the paper that gets handed in at the assignment’s end. It lies in the work itself: the critical reading of source materials, the synthesis of evidence and ideas, the formulation of a thesis and an argument, and the expression of thought in a coherent piece of writing.”
From Nicholas Carr, The Myth of Automated Learning
While most of us know the power of compounding interest, few outside the financial community are aware of the float – a sum of money that exists simultaneously in the accounts of both the payer and the payee due to delays in processing payments.
“Starbucks can make money on the float and it makes more money as interest rates rise. At $2 billion [the amount of prepaid payment cards] and 4%, they can earn about $80 million annually on the float.”
From Marginal Revolution, The Bank of Starbucks
Elon’s Boring Company seems to be boring to the media; it is rarely mentioned. That being said, urban areas still require rapid transportation, and subways, at least in regions with inclement weather, seem a good choice.
“Tunneling is one of the many technologies that make modern civilization possible. For one, a tunnel can dramatically reduce transportation costs by shortening travel times between two points. Prior to the construction of the Holland Tunnel beneath the Hudson River in New York, for instance, the only way across was via ferry, a journey that could take hours if the ferries were backed up. Tunnels are also needed to build large-scale infrastructure projects: hydroelectric dams require tunnels to divert water around the construction site and to feed water to the turbines. And tunneling can create new, valuable land beneath dense urban areas. By going underground, we can create the space for horizontal infrastructure such as subway lines without destroying existing buildings or disrupting the urban fabric. This makes tunneling an important technology for building cities that people like living in.”
Here is a chance to learn a bit about why subways cost so much. From Works in Progress, Why we stopped building subways cheaply
In today’s media landscape, any health concern is an epidemic or at least a crisis. In some ways, how the media portrays medical concerns is like how others size olives; the smallest is usually jumbo and grows from there.
“The danger of basing a new normal on a single study — and then proclaiming from that study that we have a numerical epidemic that requires aggressive and immediate treatment, as so many doctors and media outlets did — is rife with flaws. The primacy of numerical measurements in diagnosis glosses over salient differences between people, some of whom might require different normal numerical values than others. It also fails to recognize the harms of treatment and the way that “fixing” one number can affect the body more broadly.”
From STAT, The U.S. medical system is overrun with ‘numerical epidemics’
Chuck Dinerstein, MD, MBA
Director of Medicine
Dr. Charles Dinerstein, M.D., MBA, FACS is Director of Medicine at the American Council on Science and Health. He has over 25 years of experience as a vascular surgeon.
