À propos of figuring out how to enable students to enrich their lives and provide value to their employers, as they live as free people do, by their wits, in having lives and careers as good front-...
I would be wary of the idea that the "attention" economy is of major long-term importance compared to computing and biotechnology. It may prove as evanescent as CB radio. It certainly is not as important as broadcast media from newspapers to radio to video (tv or internet delivered). I would argue it is more like the spasms of pamphleting, or even a fad that will burn itself out with little lasting effect on the development of nations and economic well-being. If anything, it may even stimulate a revolt against "surveillance capitalism" that enriches the few to the detriment of the many. AI may be a more important development, but I see that as part of the development of computing, even if it turns out that it is more widely used in social media.
In the era of billionaire bros, the supply chains are the most engaging feature you have noted. It claims relevance for future: historians, futurists, lawyers, science fiction writers, governance buffs and many other non-stems. Sometimes even astrophysics and painters might find the subject beneficial. When despotic and self-worshiping individuals control the use of something like ports or traffic lanes the rest of the chain must live with threat. ben
I think one of the tricky parts is the mismatch between the process that helped that story grow in your mind and the process that will happen in the students' minds over the ~15 weeks of a semester.
True, part of the point of teaching and writing is to shorten the path for subsequent students or readers to understand this thing that you worked out over decades.
Still, how much of why the chunks make sense is implicit knowledge that you're carrying around that will be unavailable to the students?
Dear Brad, I think the answer to your question “Am I trying to bite off more that I can show?” is Yes.
I've been trying to think of my own experience in teaching law to come up with some advice.
The nearest course to the one you're proposing that taught was a survey course on intellectual property. (Intellectual property is smart property as opposed to that dealing with real estate, which is dumb property [joke]). Subjects included common law intellectual property, trademarks, copyright ,and patents.
I found that it was better to teach one subject at a time. One can make comparisons between the systems, but it was better to talk about one set of laws rather than all at once.
One problem you will be dealing with is that there's too much to talk about for any one division of your course. You have to decide what's the most important thing for each part of human history and concentrate on that.
When I went to Berkeley, it was on this semester system. Now I think It is on the quarter system. Wouldn't it be possible to have your course be at least two quarters long?
Maybe Berkeley is different, but I’ve met a significant number of professors who just teach last year's notes. I think it's great that you're trying new approaches in teaching.
Allen Kamp, Professor Emerirus,, University of Illinois Chicago Law.
I still want to see the advice of X's CEA. Ex ante, was Dacia a good acquisition? Was Rehoboam on the wrong side of the Laffer curve? When should Britain have withdrawn from governance of India? Answers supported with data!
“Yellow Journalism” was just the attention economy of a century ago, and was perfectly able to gin up a war. But it is a phenomenon that stretches far back, at least to the origin of organized religion (and surely back to the first cities at least).
If you really think it’s a novel aspect of today’s culture-economy you’ll have to make a case that technology has caused it to have a discontinuous level of impact — a hard case to make, especially for this particular class which focuses on the longitudinal.
Sitting here 2,000 miles from Berkeley leaves me wondering if you might be planning to scale this beyond 150 students to book form.
Christmas break senior year in high school my school set aside a large meeting room for returning collegiate freshman to reunite with classmates and talk with seniors about what it was like where they were.
This was 12/1966 and I was talking with someone gushing about JK Galbraith’s lectures based on The New Industrial State. Very well, I thought, but I could buy the book and engage with professors in a seminar format.
I recall you writing a post a few months ago entitled something like “Lash, Cash, etc.” about slavery. Is there a syllabus for that course? Will there be a syllabus you can share for this one?
Would it help in examining globalization to look at the Mediterranean/Tang China trade era? What effect did the reciprocal trade have on each society? Was it a microcosm on what is happening now?
I would be wary of the idea that the "attention" economy is of major long-term importance compared to computing and biotechnology. It may prove as evanescent as CB radio. It certainly is not as important as broadcast media from newspapers to radio to video (tv or internet delivered). I would argue it is more like the spasms of pamphleting, or even a fad that will burn itself out with little lasting effect on the development of nations and economic well-being. If anything, it may even stimulate a revolt against "surveillance capitalism" that enriches the few to the detriment of the many. AI may be a more important development, but I see that as part of the development of computing, even if it turns out that it is more widely used in social media.
In the era of billionaire bros, the supply chains are the most engaging feature you have noted. It claims relevance for future: historians, futurists, lawyers, science fiction writers, governance buffs and many other non-stems. Sometimes even astrophysics and painters might find the subject beneficial. When despotic and self-worshiping individuals control the use of something like ports or traffic lanes the rest of the chain must live with threat. ben
I think one of the tricky parts is the mismatch between the process that helped that story grow in your mind and the process that will happen in the students' minds over the ~15 weeks of a semester.
True, part of the point of teaching and writing is to shorten the path for subsequent students or readers to understand this thing that you worked out over decades.
Still, how much of why the chunks make sense is implicit knowledge that you're carrying around that will be unavailable to the students?
Dear Brad, I think the answer to your question “Am I trying to bite off more that I can show?” is Yes.
I've been trying to think of my own experience in teaching law to come up with some advice.
The nearest course to the one you're proposing that taught was a survey course on intellectual property. (Intellectual property is smart property as opposed to that dealing with real estate, which is dumb property [joke]). Subjects included common law intellectual property, trademarks, copyright ,and patents.
I found that it was better to teach one subject at a time. One can make comparisons between the systems, but it was better to talk about one set of laws rather than all at once.
One problem you will be dealing with is that there's too much to talk about for any one division of your course. You have to decide what's the most important thing for each part of human history and concentrate on that.
When I went to Berkeley, it was on this semester system. Now I think It is on the quarter system. Wouldn't it be possible to have your course be at least two quarters long?
Maybe Berkeley is different, but I’ve met a significant number of professors who just teach last year's notes. I think it's great that you're trying new approaches in teaching.
Allen Kamp, Professor Emerirus,, University of Illinois Chicago Law.
I still want to see the advice of X's CEA. Ex ante, was Dacia a good acquisition? Was Rehoboam on the wrong side of the Laffer curve? When should Britain have withdrawn from governance of India? Answers supported with data!
“Yellow Journalism” was just the attention economy of a century ago, and was perfectly able to gin up a war. But it is a phenomenon that stretches far back, at least to the origin of organized religion (and surely back to the first cities at least).
If you really think it’s a novel aspect of today’s culture-economy you’ll have to make a case that technology has caused it to have a discontinuous level of impact — a hard case to make, especially for this particular class which focuses on the longitudinal.
Sitting here 2,000 miles from Berkeley leaves me wondering if you might be planning to scale this beyond 150 students to book form.
Christmas break senior year in high school my school set aside a large meeting room for returning collegiate freshman to reunite with classmates and talk with seniors about what it was like where they were.
This was 12/1966 and I was talking with someone gushing about JK Galbraith’s lectures based on The New Industrial State. Very well, I thought, but I could buy the book and engage with professors in a seminar format.
I recall you writing a post a few months ago entitled something like “Lash, Cash, etc.” about slavery. Is there a syllabus for that course? Will there be a syllabus you can share for this one?
Well, the hope is to scale it first to the website... - B.
Would it help in examining globalization to look at the Mediterranean/Tang China trade era? What effect did the reciprocal trade have on each society? Was it a microcosm on what is happening now?