Things that people don’t know how to do anymore

[Waltesefalcon]

Doc Savage

Read.

I'm a college professor, and this is an alarming new trend. The percentage of freshmen who arrive on campus either 1) functionally illiterate; or 2) possessing such a hatred for reading that they won't read an assigned book, is shocking. It's far from the majority, thankfully, but it's still a surprise.

These students will go to great lengths to find summaries of any text and have AI read it to them. They won't even listen to the whole audio book, because they don't have the patience.

I was just having this conversation with a colleague last week. The percentage of students who are functionally illiterate has sky rocketed in the past few of years. High school has to bring back some kind of rigor in the classroom, if not college is going to turn into what high school used to be. It's been four years and we can't keep expectations low and blame it on Covid any longer. It's a scary situation to watch unfold.

 

[Dsloan]

Doc Savage

Read.

I'm a college professor, and this is an alarming new trend. The percentage of freshmen who arrive on campus either 1) functionally illiterate; or 2) possessing such a hatred for reading that they won't read an assigned book, is shocking. It's far from the majority, thankfully, but it's still a surprise.

These students will go to great lengths to find summaries of any text and have AI read it to them. They won't even listen to the whole audio book, because they don't have the patience.

How do you find them performing on assessments and quality of work? I have some younger colleagues who use AI for research and summaries, but it seems to actually let them move more quickly, but with sometimes more superficial understanding. But, that sometimes might be an acceptable trade-off in some of their work.

 

[STANDY]

AI

Had someone I know get 30-40 applications for a job and 12 had used the same AI for the answer to one of the selection criteria’s.

 

[hen]

Education is expensive, it takes money from tax breaks for the well to do. Its a problem no government have found a solution to.

 

[ErichPryde]

Sharpen knives with an actual whetstone.

Refinish and maintain cast iron cookware.

 

[sheepdoll]

Waltesefalcon

I was just having this conversation with a colleague last week. The percentage of students who are functionally illiterate has sky rocketed in the past few of years. High school has to bring back some kind of rigor in the classroom, if not college is going to turn into what high school used to be. It's been four years and we can't keep expectations low and blame it on Covid any longer. It's a scary situation to watch unfold.

It has been that way for the last 40 years. Ever since the loan industry discovered "Grandma's College fund for the kids." From what I have seen most schools are diploma mills. Local schools can not fail students (or get sued.)

HS and college are about building social networks and determine your 'Brand.'

I never finished my degree. True of many people in the computer industry of the 1980s and 1990s. I worked with people who had advanced degrees. PhDs really do not make for practical work outside academia.

It really comes down to a person's temperament. I heard that Steve Jobs told other people I had three PhDs. When people asked I told them I had the same education as Steve. Often I would have to add, No I did not go to Reed. (One of my cousins did though.) A lot of my friends went to Mills, which was a real school. Sadly it is no more, now another diploma mill for 'Grandma's college fund.'

What most people now have is a third grade education. I shared a cubicle with a bloke who was an Oxford graduate. He knew Latin like a second language. Most in the US barely know English language. What it does did show is that people can follow the rules and follow instruction.

What the degree does is give the company CYI accountability when management FU. So much modern business in unrealistic and unsustainable. Everything focuses on Now, Now, Now. No sense of past or future.

I used to take my lunch breaks and visit the local surplus stores. (now eWaste is big business, controlled by international syndicates and exported overseas.) The shelves were packed with many "of the stuff dreams are made of."

 

[BlackTalon]

ErichPryde

Sharpen knives with an actual whetstone.

Refinish and maintain cast iron cookware.

You need to spend some time at kitchenknifeforums.com...

And it seems like the majority of pro cooks now use japanese/ japanese-style knives that require sharpening on whetstones.

In July there will be a kitchen-knife-related gathering in the DC area that will bring in people from the mid-Atlantic area and beyond; it will include a couple natural stone gurus who help people tweak their sharpening and polishing techniques.

Whetstone sharpening has become a 'thing' again over the last decade, and keeps growing.

On the same forum there are some god threads on seasoning and maintaining CI cookware. If you can maintain a few dozen carbon knives you can probably maintain CI and carbon steel cookware.

 

[Archer]

sheepdoll

PhDs really do not make for practical work outside academia.

Having worked with many over the years, I can confidently say that's nonsense.

 

[Foo2rama]

Manually figure out a subnet mask without a subnet calc.

 

[dsio]

Doc Savage

Read.

I'm a college professor, and this is an alarming new trend. The percentage of freshmen who arrive on campus either 1) functionally illiterate; or 2) possessing such a hatred for reading that they won't read an assigned book, is shocking. It's far from the majority, thankfully, but it's still a surprise.

These students will go to great lengths to find summaries of any text and have AI read it to them. They won't even listen to the whole audio book, because they don't have the patience.

I had only read one novel by the age of 30, which was Dune as it somehow kept me engaged. ADHD had me in this loop where I would read a sentence, not absorb it, move on to the next, and then have to re-read the whole paragraph or page as I got the words, but the act of reading distracted from taking in the material. Dune was the one exception, when people said “the book was better than the movie” about something I figured they were lying because how could that be true, but Dune managed it through great writing.

At 30 I discovered audiobooks and it changed everything’s separating the reading and the absorbing solved it. I could write very well, exceptionally well at times even as the creative part came before the mechanical part but reading just never worked for me which is why I resented all of those claims that intelligent people read X books per year.

 

[ErichPryde]

Archer

Having worked with many over the years, I can confidently say that's nonsense.

I think it depends at least somewhat upon the subject / type of work. A PhD in accounting really doesn't provide a lot more in terms of employer interest for a professional job over a masters, but a certification like CPA absolutely would hold more value to most professional job employers than a phd. There are definitely jobs where this doesn't seem to be the case, however.

 

[ErichPryde]

BlackTalon

You need to spend some time at kitchenknifeforums.com...

And it seems like the majority of pro cooks now use japanese/ japanese-style knives that require sharpening on whetstones.

In July there will be a kitchen-knife-related gathering in the DC area that will bring in people from the mid-Atlantic area and beyond; it will include a couple natural stone gurus who help people tweak their sharpening and polishing techniques.

Whetstone sharpening has become a 'thing' again over the last decade, and keeps growing.

On the same forum there are some god threads on seasoning and maintaining CI cookware. If you can maintain a few dozen carbon knives you can probably maintain CI and carbon steel cookware.

This is true. I've been doing both of the things I mentioned for about the last three decades and I have noticed that in about the last 10 years cast iron has made a huge comeback, and that brands like Shun have become super popular.

 

[BlackTalon]

Shun is a gateway knife -- nothing like the 'real' j-knives.

 

[DaveK]

ErichPryde

Refinish and maintain cast iron cookware.

Which is why I switched to All-Clad

 

[Canuck]

Why do police not use bait cars with standard transmissions? Because scofflaws can’t steal them! On the topic of car theft, Toronto, Ontario has just enacted a law that means one car stolen and your license is taken away for ten years, second offence, 15 years. Three offences, and you lose your license for the rest of your life!

Edited: May 14, 2024

 

[Archer]

ErichPryde

I think it depends at least somewhat upon the subject / type of work. A PhD in accounting really doesn't provide a lot more in terms of employer interest for a professional job over a masters, but a certification like CPA absolutely would hold more value to most professional job employers than a phd. There are definitely jobs where this doesn't seem to be the case, however.

I worked with many engineers and metallurgists who had PhD's, doing lots of practical work outside of academia...

 

[ErichPryde]

Archer

I worked with many engineers and metallurgists who had PhD's, doing lots of practical work outside of academia...

My sister-in-law has a PhD in geology and does good work outside of acadamia as well, so I don't disagree with you.

 

[ErichPryde]

DaveK

Which is why I switched to All-Clad

Well, I can't say there's anything wrong with all-clad- and there's definitely a place for it- having some steel pans that have better conductivity is a good idea. Sometimes it's nice to have cast iron though, that holds onto heat for longer because of its bad conductivity. Have you ever looked at anything like Le Creuset or Staub, that heats like cast iron but doesn't have to be maintained in the same way?

 

[ghce]

BlackTalon

You need to spend some time at kitchenknifeforums.com...

And it seems like the majority of pro cooks now use japanese/ japanese-style knives that require sharpening on whetstones.

In July there will be a kitchen-knife-related gathering in the DC area that will bring in people from the mid-Atlantic area and beyond; it will include a couple natural stone gurus who help people tweak their sharpening and polishing techniques.

Whetstone sharpening has become a 'thing' again over the last decade, and keeps growing.

On the same forum there are some god threads on seasoning and maintaining CI cookware. If you can maintain a few dozen carbon knives you can probably maintain CI and carbon steel cookware.

I've been into proper functional kitchen/commercial knives for most of my life starting at about 10 years old with pocket knives as a boy this soon morphed into a deeper understanding of metallurgy and blade profiles, engineering is in my DNA and profession however all this knowledge and practical experience means I can't help but feel angry when you see the rubbish that is offered to the public by big brand retailers and knife manufacturers, it's hardly surprising that people these days have no idea how to sharpen a proper knife having never owned one.

 

[Waltesefalcon]

I like a good kitchen knife, but I'm into vintage American steel. Most of my knives are from the 30s to 60s, and include Case, Robeson, and Gerber. My dad taught me how to hone a knife with my pocket knife back when I was only about five or six. He had an entire bag with hones from carborundums and Japanese whet stones, to ceramic and black Arkansas stones. Very few things make me as happy as pulling that old bag out and sitting down to sharpen a knife or razor.