Links to Consider, 11/10

I review Mike Gibson's memoir/manifesto; Erik Hoel on tutoring; Daniel Williams on the marketplace of rationalizations; Strong response to rent increases?; William Galston on Catholic Integralism

Venture Capitalist Michael Gibson has written Paper Belt on Fire, a book I describe as a memoir and a manifesto. I write,

Without the memoir describing his accomplishments and how he achieved them, the manifesto might seem deluded and grandiose. Without the manifesto, the memoir would lack passion. Together, they make for a compelling read.

Gibson is among those who question our current models of education. On the topic of educating geniuses,

Erik Hoel

writes,

the key ingredients, judged from some of the most stand-out and well-documented accounts, are (a) the total amount of one-on-one time the child has with intellectually-engaged adults; (b) a strong overseer who guides the education at a high level with the clear intent of producing an exceptional mind (in Mill’s case, his father, in Russell’s case, his grandmother, in Hamilton’s case, Knox, and we can look to modern examples like mathematician Terence Tao, whose parents did the same); (c) plenty of free time, i.e., less tutoring hours in the day than traditional school; (d) teaching that avoids the standard lecture-based system of memorization and testing and instead encourages discussions, writing, debates, or simply overviewing the fundamentals together; (e) in these activities, it is often best to let the student lead (e.g., writing an essay or poetry, or learning a proof); (f) intellectual life needs to be taken abnormally seriously by either the tutors or the family at large; (g) there is early specialization of geniuses, often into the very fields for which they would become notable (even, e.g., Hamilton’s childhood experience with logistics making him an ideal chief of staff for Washington’s war); (g) at some point the tutoring transitions toward an apprenticeship model, often quite early, which takes the form of project-based collaboration, such as producing a scientific paper or monograph or book; (h) a final stage of becoming pupil to another genius at the height of their powers

Daniel Williams writes,

We are desperate to view the world in ways that reflect favourably on our communities and that protect our reputation and status within them.

When this happens, the result is almost always an emergent marketplace of rationalisations. Ambitious individuals and firms compete to produce intellectual ammunition for society’s political and cultural factions. In return for their often-intense cognitive labour, the winners of such competition receive attention, status, and financial rewards.

Pointer from

Rob Henderson

Rob Henderson.

Jacob Siegel and Sean Cooper report,

[18 percent] of American adults…now live with friends and family without paying any rent, a jump compared to 11% a year ago, and the highest percentage ever on record.

I would not have expected the adaptation to higher rents to be that dramatic.

On the apparent housing shortage, note that

Erdmann Housing Tracker

writes,

there are currently about 144 million homes in the US. So, about 20 million units would get us back to the 2010 trend

Persuasion

William Galston explains and critiques Catholic Integralism. But he then hits illiberal progressives at least as hard.

If political liberals cannot offer a plausible account of social order, our adversaries will prevail by default, and the threat to liberal freedoms will deepen. It is a mistake to suggest that groups whose objectives we approve are not bound by the rule of law. It is hypocrisy to imply that law-breaking is unacceptable on Capitol Hill but acceptable in Portland and Seattle.