kaa2102

I'm referring to "the curve" when I say forced failure. Grading models at public and private universities require that x% of students receive a failing grade. The goal is not to teach the student to be knowledgeable of subject X but to rather weed out those who do not cross a subjective proficiency threshold.

The college model has a forced failure system. The competition model should have no place in educating children who will become working, tax paying, and voting adult citizens.

Great article and food for thought as politicians and education reformers push school vouchers, Common Core, union-busting, etc., and other theories without really measuring, testing or optimizing the option's ROI. The idea has been "well let's just try something new" without rhyme or reason.

Folks would bring cots and blankets during Finals week while studying in the Engineering building at my university. Engineering students were not being coddled - you had to put in countless hours of study to make the grade.

Cheers to a fellow lifeguard! It was a great summer job in high school and my first year of college.

Congratulations! The journey is long and challenging but totally worth it. Approach the startup world with the intellectual curiosity of a visitor in a foreign country. There are some great ways to learn how to code. Instead, I've found it beneficial to Learn How to Do X to Accomplish Y. There are numerous programming languages, APIs, platforms, devices, technologies, methodologies, etc. Focus on the X that helps you do Y. Udacity, Khan Academy, Coursera, and W3Schools.com offer a great start (some are free) for programming. A good start is learning front end development: HTML, Bootsrap. CSS, Javascript.

Find some like-minded individuals. You can join tech meetups, Google Developer groups, etc. Good luck on your journey my friend! Keep building!

Conservatives, progressives, and libertarians call it different things. Basic income, negative tax rate, social safety net, etc. Milton Friedman advocated for a negative effective tax rate for low income folks. Rand Paul recommended not taxing (Federally) folks who make less than $50k USD.

We also need to consider micro and macro-economics. Folks with less money have a high marginal propensity to consume or likelihood of spending most or all of the extra funds they receive. Also, consumer spending is a factor of economic output or GDP. Increasing consumer spending increases economic output. Q.E.D. Give people with no money enough money to not fall through the cracks.

That was quick but the corporate agenda being pushed flew in the face of the Reddit community. Power to the people!

I was interviewing Java developers for Booz Allen when I rant into a candidate that was super-smart but had no hobbies except for coding in his spare time.

I thought it was a negative because the hiring managers and recruiters were pressing for a well-rounded person with "hobbies" and interests outside of work. However, the team lead for Java developers considered the super-focus on coding a plus.

In retrospect, all of these different factors were just subjective and not a good way to evaluate candidates potential effectiveness on the job.

One problem is that replacing truck drivers with self-driving trucks could save lots of money. However, truck driving is one of the most popular professions in America.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/truck-driving-may-be-america-s...

The "bad investment" is worrisome in a capitalist society. Smart investors are supposed to make wise decisions but regulation from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission determine how much capital and experience is required to become a registered investor. However, someone seeking an occupation is not a sophisticated investor. Nor would a factory worker be expected to be able to predict major changes. Yet, working and middle class folks must invest and take risks on education, certification, and career-paths lest they suffer the consequences.

This actually does present a dilemma for working class folks. The article indicates that taxi drivers have experienced a loss in income of 30-40%. I don't imagine French taxi drivers earn a whole lot of money. Moreover, an idea could be that the French taxi drivers could just switch over to Uber. The tax driver may be stuck if they have already paid a certain amount of a car, registration, etc.

Also, they may not be able to make as much with Uber. Buzz Feed News estimated that US Uber drivers can make $34,164 per year. French laws may also include benefits for driving a taxi vs. being an independent contractor with no benefits with Uber.

Services like AirBnB and Uber can be great for entrepreneurs, investors, part-time workers, and consumers. We should be reminded that disrupting industries sometimes creates losers in the working and middle class that don't have an easy way to switch jobs in some countries or economies.

Looking at some of the comments it would be helpful if you took a step back and clearly defined for the data, data markers and relationship hypothesis you are looking for.

I've done some text file parsing and analysis with just C++ and Excel. You could possibly simplify the analytical process by clearly defining what you need from the text file.

Yes, hiring a successful entrepreneur and legitimate business mogul who is also African American is just a PR stunt.

Magic Johnson's company is one of the few (maybe only) to own a Starbucks franchise. The idea was that Starbucks wouldn't work in urban areas with minorities. I've been to the Harlem Starbucks plenty of times while in grad school and it stayed as busy as most other Starbucks. I wonder if this is still the case.

I studied Industrial Engineering & Operations Research in undergrad and grad school. Optimization and mathematical modeling has been helpful in consulting, problem-solving, business and programming. I highly recommend taking a deep dive into this subject.

The best and worst ways to look for a job from What Color is Your Parachute 2015

Method, probability of success

Assess personal strengths and go on informational interviews, 86% *

Use the yellow pages, 65%

Ask for job leads, 33%

Knock on the door of an employer, office or manufacturing plant, 47%

State or federal employment office, 14%

Job club or Job Search Support Groups, 10%

Mailing out your resume to employers, 7%

Job boards in professional or trade journals, 7%

Employment agency or search firm, 5% to 28% est.

Answering local newspaper ads, 5% to 24% est.

Looking for employers' job-postings on the Internet, 4%

* This method is referred to as the What Color is Your Parachute method. I grossly oversimplified the methodology.

Solutions do not need to be complicated or elegant - they simply just need to solve the problem.

The diagrams are exemplary.

No, problem solvers that can implement solutions can change the world.

Teachers, bikers, and now FIFA - we have no problem throwing the hammer at these folks but the criminals that threaten the world economy get a free pass.

This is a little mysterious because none of the articles have addressed the exact vulnerability that enables thieves to do this. I've heard a news report suggest "changing your password". This is curiously interesting.

Sleep is a physiological need. Lack of food, water or sleep and the body and mind cease to function properly before completely shutting down.

Check out w3schools.com to see snippets of code to do specific things. Sites like STackoverflow and PHP.net are also helpful if you get stuck trying to solve a common problem.

A major bonus and challenge is that the sky is the limits with development. On one hand, it's important to learn what you can do AND figure out how to break projects down into small bits and pieces.

Visuals HTML5, CSS Dynamic Visuals: Javascript, JSON, Node.JS Browser Storage: WebSQL, Local Storage Data Storage: SQL, MySQL Server-side scripting: PHP, ASP, Python, Ruby, Java, C++

Survivorship bias. I went to a happy hour a week ago right after the Baltimore riots when a real estate exec starting going on and on about how blacks just needed to work harder - like many different immigrants.

This is survivor ship bias - comparing immigrants who left hell for the American Dream vs people living an American Nightmare. This is akin to comparing Olympic gold medal winners to members in a high school band. A better comparison would be comparing people of a similar socio-economic level in different countries.

No, the studies showed that black males with NO criminal record were called back at the same rate as white males WITH a criminal record.

Thanks. I meant to say fewer callbacks.

I think you missed the point that the studies actually found that black-sounding names got more callbacks despite having the same credentials, e.g., degree, GPA, etc.

"We are blind to our blindness." Where do the generalizations stop?

It is absolutely unreasonable. When you say it "works out more often than not" I would ask "For whom?" Many snap judgments based on race lead to the death of unarmed black men and women.

Studies have shown that resumes with black-sounding names get fewer callbacks and we treat black men like white men with a criminal record.

Are Emily and Greg More Employable than Lakisha and Jamal? http://www.nber.org/papers/w9873

Norton Pscyhology: Devah Pager and Dalton Conley discuss racism and the stigma of criminal record https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CofLE3q3Qh0