Starting PhD student pro tips:

- Keep a backlog of “small ideas” that you don’t find the time to work on. Soon enough you will be asked to supervise undergrad students in some capacity, and these ideas will be exactly what they need to get started.

This thread is for parents of teenagers. I have something for you: the first chapter of @ronlieber’s THE PRICE YOU PAY FOR COLLEGE. Because ye gods, here’s what we and our kids are facing.

Beyond obvious changes, like $$$ tuition prices, the system has changed from when we were in school. Nearly all colleges use so-called “merit-aid” to pay kids for good grades.

This is NOT need-based financial aid, and it’s not about expanding college access for the poor... it's an arms race by schools scrambling for US News rankings.

Tuition list prices are misleading at this point. College seats are more like airline seats, and your kid's actual price is calculated based on everything from his zip code... SAT scores... how much interest he and his cohort have shown in school X (yes they can figure that out.)

Ron has seen NYC high school classes in which three kids were offered admission to the same small school at three different prices-- and *none* of them had applied for need-based financial aid!

What if you could avoid competition forever?

How to Build a Personal Monopoly with @david_perell + @jackbutcher

THREAD👇

1/ What is a personal monopoly?

The intersection of...

• Curiosity: What do you care about?

• Competence: What are you good at?

• Character: Who are you?

These combinations SHRINK the area of competition.

"Competition is for losers."
@peterthiel

2/ Where to Start

"You can't connect the dots looking forward: you can only connect them looking backwards."
-- Steve Jobs

Trust your curiosity and intuition.

Only curiosity creates uniqueness.

3/ BUTCHER'S FRAMEWORK

DICE = Diverge, Converge, Emerge

DIVERGE (Collect Dots): Pursue things you're interested in

CONVERGE (Connect Dots): Find the connections among interesting things

EMERGE: You've found where to start. Now attack it everyday.

4/ "Make a single decision to eliminate 1,000 decisions."
-- @tferriss

For @visualizevalue + @jackbutcher: How do you visualize something to make it simpler?

Eliminate anything that doesn't compound towards achieving that goal.

HOW TO COME TO AUSTRALIA (WA) AS A STUDENT

Unfortunately, you can not come as a student to study most trade occupations as they are offered as apprenticeships and heavily subsidised for locals. Only if you want to be a Light vehicle mechanic.

This thread is to help anyone interested and can afford to study in Australia but have 4 O levels or as low as 2 A level points. Most people think Uni when we talk about studying abroad, but do you know you can study in Australia and end up getting a work visa and/or a degree?

The answer is yes, and I will show you how! The information I will share now pertains to Western Australia only, as I do not know how other states go about it.
Before I continue, a note to those who might consider migrating to Australia or might want their kids to end up here.

If you can afford, it is better to come here as a student. Australian graduates have any easy pathway to PR whereas if you study outside Australia you will need work experience first and yet you are not guaranteed of success.

Now back to study stuff.

The equivalent of a Polytechnic college here is Technical and Further Education college, shortened to TAFE. TAFE colleges in WA have courses streamlined for international students ranging from certificate III (equivalent to NC) to Advanced Diploma (HND).

For months, but especially after the new CDC school recs came out, supporters of reopening all schools now have been peddling the idea that schools across the country have been open all year successfully. This argument is used to push for ALL schools to be opened now.

A long 🧵

Though some schools in the U.S. are open & doing well with safety protocols, many places used as examples of opening success have profoundly unsafe schools & are neglecting covid safety. Some have been lucky not to have outbreaks and other issues--it's not that they're safe.

In the last few weeks, I've been in touch with teachers in Ohio, Florida, Texas, Wisconsin, New Jersey, Utah, and Pennsylvania.

(Thanks to @eduwonkette_jen @GeoRebekah and @saribethrose for the threads and forums that have helped me meet SO MANY teachers this year).

I collected the accounts of dozens of teachers. Obviously, this isn't an exhaustive list and it isn't a study! It's what teachers on the ground in some states are experiencing. And it's easy to see why so many in our profession are so frightened this year.

Here's the list:

There are currently open schools in the US that are being hailed as "successful" that have:

▪️no safety protocols at all besides contact cleaning, in some districts
▪️some districts with no mask mandate
▪️classes in windowless rooms, some with full classes of 20-30

Unexpected #Etymology

Words you wouldn't guess are etymologically linked.

An ongoing, continually updated thread 👇🏻

Medicine and remedy both come from the Latin verb medeor, meaning to heal.

Medicine comes from the Old French medecine, from the Latin medicina meaning medicine.

Remedy comes from the Old French remede, from the Latin

Feminism, fawn and fetus both come from the PIE root *dʰeh₁(y)-, meaning to nurse or

Pine (tree) & Piñata (papier-mâché container) both come from the Latin pinus—meaning pine.

Piñata (Spanish), came from piña meaning pineapple, as the paper-covered box resembles one. Piña comes from the Latin pinea meaning pinecone (derived from

Whiskey and wash both come from the Proto-Indo-Euro root meaning "water; wet."

Whiskey (Irish uisce beatha & Scottish uisge-beatha) literally means "water of life."

Wash cames from the Middle English weschen, meaning "to