Barry Lam 🥢

Philosophy Professor at UC Riverside. Associate Director at Marc Sanders Foundation. Executive Producer of Hi-Phi Nation podcast. I mostly tweet at @Hiphination

[Barry Lam 🥢 @ProfBarryLam]

Announcing my first book, with my style of longform narrative journalism and philosophy. It's about the clash between governing by top-down rules versus discretionary decision-making, in law, in sports, in the household. Pre-order now. @wwnorton https://t.co/kMg0zgaK2f

[riversorare @riversorare]

Would recommend a quick read of this excelletn little book.

Although I like the idea and I think we really must explore it further as we are clogged up with rules and bureaucracy and process which greater discretion might help unlock - I’m really not convinced I trust current elites with greater discretion. I think the idea works in less politicised periods perhaps with more homogeneous less polarised states.

The Liberal idea of Rule by Law was intended to reign in tyrannical or arbitrary monarchs. In an increasingly politicised world there may still be a role for this .

Also, as with anything that requires change teansitional issues are importsnt. You cannot just change the system and expect better people to emerge to wield the discretion overnight.

@ProfBarryLam @UnderSneege @RollingHedge

[Barry Lam 🥢 @ProfBarryLam]

Imagine claiming for real estate what people claim for college.

"Buying that house is not worth it, it costs $200,000 and you have to take $100,000 in debt."

The median debt for college is $35,000 and average ROI over a lifetime is >$500000

[Barry Lam 🥢 @ProfBarryLam]

It just occurred to me that young people might not know what a dial tone sounds like.

[TaraBull @TaraBull]

Parents gave their kids just 4 minutes to figure out how to use a rotary dial phone.

The confusion was instant.

Gen Z vs old school tech is pretty hilarious

[Barry Lam 🥢 @ProfBarryLam]

College students & their parents: "There aren't going to be any jobs left for me in the future."

Me: We've had a chronic shortage of physicians, engineers, STEM teachers, skilled trades, aviation and maritime workers.

Them: I don't mean those jobs.

[Barry Lam 🥢 @ProfBarryLam]

@zenahitz Never ceases to amaze me that the more we spend on administration, the less administering of the basic tasks of education we get.

[Barry Lam 🥢 @ProfBarryLam]

@elonmusk This is a pan-Asian adaptation of King Lear staged in Singapore in 1997. King Lear is, famously, a Celtic monarch.

[Barry Lam 🥢 @ProfBarryLam]

This is a pan-Asian adaptation of King Lear staged in Singapore in 1997. King Lear is, famously, a Celtic monarch.

[Barry Lam 🥢 @ProfBarryLam]

I want to normalize saying complimentary things after “It’s not personal, but…”

“It’s not personal, but your writing is amongst the best I’ve read.”

[Barry Lam 🥢 @ProfBarryLam]

Amongst many other reasons, maybe the young-uns aren’t drinking and screwing because the rent is too damn high and they’re still living with their parents.

[Barry Lam 🥢 @ProfBarryLam]

Besides for doctors, veterinarians, engineers, scientists, nurses, pharmacists, accountants, lawyers, judges, architects, quantitative analysts, teachers, military officers, forestry and land management, historians and museum archivists, what is the practical value of college?

[Barry Lam 🥢 @ProfBarryLam]

@AGoldmund The only celebrity moment I ever had was when we were walking around at Princeton and someone approached you and said “Are you Alex Goldman?”

[Barry Lam 🥢 @ProfBarryLam]

@cdfoudy That sounds like a fun course!

[Barry Lam 🥢 @ProfBarryLam]

I've taught at Princeton for a semester three years ago, and then during 5 years I was a graduate student. It is just false that Princeton only admits the very top students. Like a lot of Ivies, it admits middling students who play sports, legacies, kids of famous people.

[Joyce Carol Oates @JoyceCarolOates]

Ivy League universities admit only the very top students; it is hardly surprising when these students earn top grades.
if you want a wide distribution of grades, admit a wide distribution of students. if you admit only A students, why be surprised when they earn mostly A's?

[Barry Lam 🥢 @ProfBarryLam]

Nor is it surprising that the captain of the lacrosse team feels no particular motivation to do well in Medieval Art. The fact that everyone gets an A/A- in everything shows there is a problem. It is contrary to everything we know about human development and variety. End 🧵 9/9

[Barry Lam 🥢 @ProfBarryLam]

Academic performance isn’t a straight line from high school to college, and academic performance is not the sole or even most important value for selective school, incl., Ivy league admissions and graduation. These are not institutions meant just for nerds! 🧵 1/9

[Barry Lam 🥢 @ProfBarryLam]

Just to get back to the original point of the twitter exchange about grading; grade inflation is necessarily real just as a logical consequence of these perfectly normal developments. The greatest poet at Princeton not being good at linear algebra or o-chem is not surprising, 8/9