Live data from Hacker News

Sal Khan is pioneering innovation in education again

gatesnotes.com

371–380 of 418 posts

Re: Sal Khan is pioneering innovation in education again

#371
With AI is like with ring of power. There is only one master.

Google chatbot only serves google. Microsoft serves microsoft.

It will always cater to some agenda, it will have some biases. It will be nice, but it will play neatly their part in perpetuating corporatocracy.

As a unit you will have to play a long, or live in the woods without AI.

Re: Sal Khan is pioneering innovation in education again

#372

I am a high school dropout and who learned math using Khan Academy after never having completed more than pre-algebra in middle school. Sal Khan’s work changed my life and allowed me to build a foundation in not only math, but also finance and economics, that allowed me to feel confident enough to go to college. I did not have a support system or people in my life who could teach me these things, but I had the intern…

I think we can be damn proud that Software Engineering is still open to anyone who can do the job, whether they have a formal degree or not!

Almost all other high paying professions are locked away.

Re: Sal Khan is pioneering innovation in education again

#373
post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have significant concern about this—that it is a story. I don’t doubt that it’s true in OC’s case. But I don’t think it’s representative of the impact of technology. It’s the example that will get Bill Gates’ attention and end up on the stage at TED, but it might not be representative of 90% of how people are affected by technology. It might, and the story of how videos will change how people relate to each other (…

> I have significant concern about this—that it is a story. Your concerns are very correct but while you are willing to give him/her the benefit of the doubt, I am very very skeptical of their story; it sounds "too pat" and made up. If you look at their other replies there are too many incongruities and "movie plot tropes". I have a better chance of winning the lottery than "learning mathematics starting from long di…

In my perspective it is more believable to get into AI as a young guy without higher education than someone like me: a middle-aged person with higher education with a family and a reasonable corporate software engineering job. For me to get into AI research, I guess I would have to work for less money for a while than my current boring Software Engineering job, so the golden handcuff prevents me from doing it. While for a young guy there is nothing to lose, they can shoot for the most interesting thing right away. When I was young, I graduated from university with an AI specialization, but no one cared, especially not in Eastern Europe where I live. So I got into reasonably-paying slightly boring software engineering.

Re: Sal Khan is pioneering innovation in education again

#374

I am a high school dropout and who learned math using Khan Academy after never having completed more than pre-algebra in middle school. Sal Khan’s work changed my life and allowed me to build a foundation in not only math, but also finance and economics, that allowed me to feel confident enough to go to college. I did not have a support system or people in my life who could teach me these things, but I had the intern…

I think we can be damn proud that Software Engineering is still open to anyone who can do the job, whether they have a formal degree or not! Almost all other high paying professions are locked away.

I think this is mostly true. IT/Software in general are a lot less focused on proxies for success than other fields, I think that is largely because it is much easier for individuals to learn skills outside of a professional setting, it is also much easier to validate knowledge and competency than in other fields; and, of course, there are many other factors such as a more progressive workforce, etc.

I was very lucky to have a professor who pulled me aside and steered toward IS. Once I got my first post-degree job, the company I worked for was happy to help me develop technical competency.

Re: Sal Khan is pioneering innovation in education again

#375

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do not think people understand or appreciate what a truly fundamental shift that access to zero marginal cost instruction has been (including YouTube, etc.). It is a tool that humanity still has not figured out how to take advantage of at scale, we’re in the early days and it will take time.

> It is a tool that humanity still has not figured out how to take advantage of at scale I blame shitty recommendation system of Youtube for not making it easily available. They have high engagement sections like Gaming etc but not Education. Just goes on to show their priorities.

They could reccomend calculus videos all day long, people will ignore them and watch the stuff they find entertaining. Its not YouTube's job to rush behaviours down users throats. If they want to learn calculus, its there.

Re: Sal Khan is pioneering innovation in education again

#376
post #373

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I have significant concern about this—that it is a story. Your concerns are very correct but while you are willing to give him/her the benefit of the doubt, I am very very skeptical of their story; it sounds "too pat" and made up. If you look at their other replies there are too many incongruities and "movie plot tropes". I have a better chance of winning the lottery than "learning mathematics starting from long di…

In my perspective it is more believable to get into AI as a young guy without higher education than someone like me: a middle-aged person with higher education with a family and a reasonable corporate software engineering job. For me to get into AI research, I guess I would have to work for less money for a while than my current boring Software Engineering job, so the golden handcuff prevents me from doing it. While…

To be fair, I am not in AI research either. Sorry if I implied that. I am on the applied side building products using GenAI, we also do some more traditional ML development but I do not spend much time there.

100% what you said about being young with nothing to lose. I had been part of a "start up" so I had equity on paper, but debt in real life. That equity ended up being worth exactly what I had paid for it ($0). I worked at Home Depot (which was a great company) and basically anything was better than making $15/hr and treading water.

For what it is worth, at the time I (24) felt really old because I saw so many 21 year olds who would come in to the store and had houses and everything that I didn't. I felt like I had missed the boat. It's been over 10 years and I realize how young I was, and frankly still am.

My point is that it's never too late to try something different, especially if you are starting from a position of strength (a good career in a field that requires strong problem solving skills, like software engineering).

Re: Sal Khan is pioneering innovation in education again

#377

Background: I taught high school science for half a decade and now I am in tech. This will never take off. One, there is no money in Ed.Tech. There is no money in Ed.Tech. There is no money in Ed.Tech. What little money there is goes to the obvious stuff like student records databases. Anything that requires an ongoing subscription fee is dead in the water. The only reason those stupid smartboards took off is because…

Maybe my reading of the post is incorrect but I did not interpret it as solving the parenting problem. In the US there is a massive growing problem where parents are simply not parenting their kids and relying on institutions (schools) to do it. I honestly do not know what will solve that problem.

To me this post shares a future where kids coming from good households will have the ability to learn more efficiently than before. It is not to replace the teacher but perhaps it will replace the tutor.

Lastly, I am not sure why but I genuinely believe that folks focus too much on "hallucinations" and "fabrications" by LLM. Does it happen, yes but I think its one of those things you can actually tune for and it get down to low to no errors in a walled environment. It is definitely something to consider but not a blocker.

Re: Sal Khan is pioneering innovation in education again

#378
post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you edited within ten minutes then something isn't working, because your comment changed multiple times after I replied to it. The delay is supposed to prevent me from seeing it at all until the period is up.

I’m not OP.

Ah, my bad.

Re: Sal Khan is pioneering innovation in education again

#379

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It is a tool that humanity still has not figured out how to take advantage of at scale I blame shitty recommendation system of Youtube for not making it easily available. They have high engagement sections like Gaming etc but not Education. Just goes on to show their priorities.

They could reccomend calculus videos all day long, people will ignore them and watch the stuff they find entertaining. Its not YouTube's job to rush behaviours down users throats. If they want to learn calculus, its there.

Well if there can be a dedicated google scholar, why not the same for education. In the mobile, when one clicks on the compass icon, I get suggestions for gaming but not the same education. This is hypocrisy.

Re: Sal Khan is pioneering innovation in education again

#380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We live in a world where wealth is increasingly being concentrated at the top, social mobility for the average person is trending downwards, suicide rates in the US are at all-time highs, drug abuse rising, general deaths of despair rising, mental illness rising, climate and ecological catastrophes mounting by unchecked greed and all of this AI crap is mostly in the hands of the powerful who will use it to solidify t…

“Wealth” is becoming a tricky term. Bill Gates is approximately a million times richer than I am, but for many things he can’t get anything like a million times the value I can. He can spend 1000x what I do on clothes, but I won’t be appreciably colder or less comfortable than he is. His house might cost 100x what my apartment would go for, but again, it isn’t 100x nicer. He can eat steak and lobster for every meal,…

You are talking about point of diminishing return . Personally I think beyond an income of 1 million dollars a year , one's quality of life does not change significantly.
Post reply on HN