
dad, prof, writer. director @stugreatbooks (say it like "dine in")
Fredericton, NB
Joined June 2009
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For @nytimes, I wrote about how great teaching in the algorithmic age involves getting a little weird: nytimes.com/2026/08/17/opini…
In addition to sharing Japan's climate, we also share their sophisticated culture and love of honour
It's amazing how we're ending up with old school Augustine-style heretical minutiae. "On whether my robo-slave can be compelled to plead to the Lord on my behalf"
Maybe my most delusional view, but also the one I hold closest and with the most reason, is that the "party of the university," those of us who care about liberal education because we have experienced it and want it for others, will eventually win out.
I believe this because the other reasons to pursue university life can't justify what it actually takes, and soon won't have enough incentives stacked in their favour to bother. There's more money, prestige, etc., elsewhere.
It will come from faculty who recognize their actual *self-interest* will soon be attached to *actually* educating the next generation in the AI age. But I'm not under any illusions about being anything other than a minority
Matt Dinan retweeted
The other issue is that universities (and state legislatures) incentive exemptions from gen. ed. requirements through AP credit, community college credit, etc., meaning that there is a strong social stigma against gen. ed. as something for "unprepared" students.
I think the problem is that few people in a democracy actually respond to this sort of hauteur, so instead the move is to show why that tradition speaks to live human questions deserving of serious consideration, and to do so with genuine wonder and passion
Wisdom is knowing why you have to sing a little high to tune the fifth; prudence is knowing that you're actually the one singing the fifth. A great analogy I just thought up that will be more or less meaningless for its intended audience.




















