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The Disneyfication of a University

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Re: The Disneyfication of a University

#241

Post by austhrow743 »

riyadparvez wrote: post #48

As someone who is not from North America, this positive/good vibe culture really baffles me. You are a human being. Negative emotions are part of life. World is full of pain and sufferings. You are supposed to feel empathy for other people and feel bad for their misfortune even if you have the good luck of not going through suffering. I just don't understand this obsession of feeling good all the time. I don't know h…

>World is full of pain and sufferings

This is exactly why you need to put an inordinate focus on the bright side.

>You are supposed to feel empathy for other people and feel bad for their misfortune even if you have the good luck of not going through suffering

Yeah if you live in a tribe of like 30 people maybe. You can't scale that sort of empathy to collectives the size of "all coworkers at $bigco". That's way too much empathising. Way too many people who are going to be down. Particularly in an office. You can't combine "unmasked feelings" and "dreaded place we have to be compensated to go to".

>I just don't understand this obsession of feeling good all the time. If you have never felt sadness, pain, shame, or embarrassment, is it something to brag about?

It's not about feeling good all the time. It's about not throwing your bad feelings at people who also feel bad while 50 other bad feeling people do the same.

Re: The Disneyfication of a University

#242

Post by erklik »

downerending wrote: post #140
Loughla wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is your imagination. And now I'm going to make a wild claim with no citations because I'm on mobile, but. . . Graduate quality and skill has increased since 1990 [citation here] for each school individually. What you're seeing is an increase in the variety of institutions you are seeing graduates from. Not everywhere is created equal. Universities and graduates are all mostly getting better, but they're not all as…

Well, there's two wild claims--one of 'em must be wrong. :-) For context, I'm comparing graduates from a local name-ish school with my no-name school back in the day. Back then, there was a lot of theory, math, proofs, etc. These days it seems more like websites, apps, etc. Some ML, though more because it's trendy, I suspect, and I don't think linear algebra is required.

And most average graduates aren't using theory, math proof etc in every day employment. Websites and apps however are bread and butter of the majority of developers out there. Good schools still build a lot of fundamentals though, and I'd argue people are better with data structures and algorithms mainly due to their increase of usage in interviews.

Re: The Disneyfication of a University

#243

Post by eschutte2 »

joelnc52 wrote: post #229
bitwize wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not long ago at $JOB I sat through what I call "mandatory psychobabble day". The particular psychobabble being peddled to, or rather, imposed on, us was the DISC system -- a variant of which was recently outed on Hackernews as pernicious hucksterism which somehow held much of Sweden in its sway. It was supposed to make us better collaborators, under the rubric that understanding the traits of both your own star sign…

Link for the recent HN DISC post? Not finding it via search and would be interested to read...

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22064530

Re: The Disneyfication of a University

#244

Post by ACow_Adonis »

jhbadger wrote: post #227
ACow_Adonis wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If by not go well, I'm assuming you mean adopted by many American firms. I'm assuming you're unfamiliar with "the Wal-Mart cheer". I'd love to say it was isolated, but my wife worked for a big 4 consultancy firm straight out of university. Just do a Google search for "Ernst and young happy day". I'd paste a link, but I'm afraid I'd actually have to watch it again...

There's a long history of US firms doing this sort of thing. IBM used to have an official songbook and employees would sing "Ever Onward" like they were at a school pep rally. https://www.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/music/music_EO1.htm...

Actually, I'm not a historian in this area, but it would be fascinating to know whether this kind of thing actually started in America, got exported after ww2 (like Japanese baseball), and then reimported with new/old takes from the likes of Japan post 80s and seemed weird to the now globalizing US corporate culture. (Like how 'do the needful' supposedly got imported into India during the days of the English empire, fell out of use in the modern English world, and is now being reimported from India).

I only bring it up as there are just so many parallels in American culture that would see corporate team building and identity type activities as a natural extension: prep rallies, cheer leaders, pledges, marching bands, frats, school songs, etc.

These activities have some parallels outside the US, but they're activities that can seem distinctly 'weird' and not done to the same extent if you come from outside the US.

And not only do we have actual history (ibm) and many contemporary US companies doing these kinds of practices, in many ways the practices make much more sense if taken as a natural extension of already common American cultural practices...

Re: The Disneyfication of a University

#245

Post by jacques_chester »

volkl48 wrote: post #128
cs702 wrote: post #24

It's part of the ongoing "corporatization" and "MBA-ization" of US colleges and universities. GW's attempt to institute a "culture" using techniques developed at Disney is just one of many possible examples, although I will admit it is a particularly easy one to mock. (Quoting the OP: "The GW culture initiative can be summed up in two words: Mickey Mouse.") Much of higher education in the US is now controlled by an a…

So, I have been professional staff at two different major universities in the past. It's easy to point at certain areas of staff growth as excessive (cue someone quoting the number of "diversity" administrators at college X) and I agree there's plenty of areas of waste. However, the big picture is that I think the "big research university" has defined it's mission as something which is inherently going to be an extra…

The "town and gown" separation is a tradition born from the upheavals of the Reformation, not some natural law. Many places have abolished it successfully.

The whole of Australia, for example.

Re: The Disneyfication of a University

#246

Post by jacques_chester »

PakG1 wrote: post #88
Consultant32452 wrote: post #65

The most common reason people leave companies is not compensation. It's usually about relationships, primarily with the boss but also coworkers. I'm on the spectrum, so I function a bit like an automaton which places little value on the social aspects of work, but most people aren't like that. This is how "on the spectrum" I am. One time I was on a team that did a team building exercise where we went to a local chari…

Whenever I see someone post on Facebook or LinkedIn the meme that "People don't remember what you do for them, they remember how you make them FEEL", I'm always like: hell no, doesn't happen with me. Really get annoyed by that meme.

It seems like you remember that meme because of how it made you feel.

Re: The Disneyfication of a University

#247

Post by sizzle »

throwaway3849 wrote: post #107
bitwize wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not long ago at $JOB I sat through what I call "mandatory psychobabble day". The particular psychobabble being peddled to, or rather, imposed on, us was the DISC system -- a variant of which was recently outed on Hackernews as pernicious hucksterism which somehow held much of Sweden in its sway. It was supposed to make us better collaborators, under the rubric that understanding the traits of both your own star sign…

You must have more tact than me. I caught the ire of the iridologist when I asked 'What if we disagree with the chart?' Could not find a more uncomfortable way to spend a morning.

For anyone else wondering:

Iridology: the inspection of the iris of the eye as an aid in determining a person's state of health or in diagnosing a health problem.

Re: The Disneyfication of a University

#248

Post by Koshkin »

roland35 wrote: post #178
JackFr wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A saying I learned from a Russian coworker: "The only people who smile all the time are idiots and Americans." As an American, I find that quite amusing. I'd say it brings a smile to my face, but there's likely one there already.

Russians certainly have a funny and direct way to answer questions! My grandma (came to the US from the USSR during WW2) would always answer a little too honestly when we asked "how are you doing?" Sometimes she would say "Still walking" and sometimes she would talk about how the neighborhood is going downhill. I would laugh and say "you know in America we just say 'good'!"

> came to the US from the USSR during WW2

Must be some interesting story there...

Re: The Disneyfication of a University

#249

Post by barry-cotter »

ihumanable wrote: post #162
jkaptur wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'd love the work of Barbara Ehrenreich, who has erudite, anthropological, book-length rants about this sort of thing (e.g. https://www.amazon.com/Bright-sided-Relentless-Promotion-Pos... )

Speaking of Barbara Ehrenreich, her book Nickel and Dimed is a fascinating study on poverty in America. https://www.amazon.com/Nickel-Dimed-Not-Getting-America/dp/0...

If you're going to read the story of someone determined to prove you can't get ahead in the US you should also read that of someone determined to show you can.

Scratch Beginnings

http://www.amazon.com/Scratch-Beginnings-Search-American-Dre...

> I am going to start almost literally from scratch with one 8′ by 10′ tarp, a sleeping bag, an empty gym bag, $25, and the clothes on my back. Via train, I will be dropped at a random place somewhere in the southeastern United States that is not in my home state of North Carolina. I have 365 days to become free of the realities of homelessness and become a “regular” member of society. After one year, for my project to be considered successful, I have to possess an operable automobile, live in a furnished apartment…, have $2500 in cash, and, most importantly, I have to be in a position in which I can continue to improve my circumstances by either going to school or starting my own business.

Re: The Disneyfication of a University

#250

Post by masonic »

JackFr wrote: post #150
riyadparvez wrote: post #48

As someone who is not from North America, this positive/good vibe culture really baffles me. You are a human being. Negative emotions are part of life. World is full of pain and sufferings. You are supposed to feel empathy for other people and feel bad for their misfortune even if you have the good luck of not going through suffering. I just don't understand this obsession of feeling good all the time. I don't know h…

A saying I learned from a Russian coworker: "The only people who smile all the time are idiots and Americans." As an American, I find that quite amusing. I'd say it brings a smile to my face, but there's likely one there already.

As an American, I appreciate that they distinguish Americans as a population distinct from idiots.
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