121–130 of 304 posts
But how many survive?
I think this misses a big mentality difference between the US and most other developed countries. In the US, people like to exaggerate and boast. Everything is the best, biggest, etc. In the US, "new is always better". Doesn't matter if the new is just the old with an app (coworking, food delivery, taxi, hotels), or just a worse iteration of an already existing thing (all the crappy companies trying to reinvent worse…
I wish this was more widely understood. And I agree with your whole post and wish for it to be higher.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The UK has an age-based advantage in this metric. Oxford & Cambridge are nearly 1,000 years old. Once you take that into account, the stat becomes "of the top 8 universities (ex. Oxbridge), 2 are in the UK and 4 are in the USA". Imperial is very high quality institution, definitely the peer of Berkley/Yale. UCL normally isn't thrown into the top 10 though - it'd usually appear in the top 25.
The oldest university in the world isn't from the UK, so that clearly can't be such a huge factor.
Northern Italy went through an awful lot of tumultuous history between 1450 and now that England didn't experience: it was cut up into lots of little fiefdoms, dominated by several external powers, and generally kept under constantly changing iron thumbs.
Our instinct is to regulate and tax the technologies that are being pioneered in California, in the misguided belief that it will give us some kind of competitive advantage. I don’t think that that’s the reason for regulation: it seems to me that US companies traditionally don’t care about externalities (environment, privacy, accessibility, etc.), and regulation is required to bring them into line. That doesn’t alway…
I think the "one thing that's not like the others" in the article are the crazy-high rankings of Britain's top schools. Universities are a bit of a self-perpetuating reputation scheme, and the UK has been punching well above its weight in that department. Having worked with all Europeans, I can't say that I found the British to be skill or preparation outliers. Maybe just a little above the mean? Speaking English nat…
>> are the crazy-high rankings of Britain's top schools The problem(in general) with University rankings is that the ranking is done almost entirely on the number of publications.....in English. So it's no wonder that British universities take a lot of the top spots. I've had these conversations many many many times with people - it's not like the Universities of Warsaw or Milan or Prague are not as good as Oxford -…
It's likely heading for another cliff dive, as the UK government is constricting the supply of student visas (because immigration), and application numbers are nosediving.
I got a great education in the UK and think back on it very fondly, but these days I'd advise people to apply to the US instead. It might even be cheaper.
Not the UK, but I'm a Californian who lived in Ireland for ten years. The risk aversion is _intense_. Me: "I want to build a house" My Irish friends: "That's a bad idea, you will fail, it could fall down, you don't know anything about houses". They were extra horrified that I didn't want to build it out of concrete blocks because "you can't build a house out of wood" My Californian friends (but one in particular): "F…
While Ireland has some cash these days, it was a poor place until joining the EU. If you wanted to do well, you emigrated. This is still the case pretty much.
Not the UK, but I'm a Californian who lived in Ireland for ten years. The risk aversion is _intense_. Me: "I want to build a house" My Irish friends: "That's a bad idea, you will fail, it could fall down, you don't know anything about houses". They were extra horrified that I didn't want to build it out of concrete blocks because "you can't build a house out of wood" My Californian friends (but one in particular): "F…
I also live in Europe (Germany & Austria) and what you're saying is 100% true. I like Europe, but I really miss the positive everything is worth a shot attitude in America. Everything here is no, no, no, why would you do that? It's so demotivating, and G-d forbid you make a tiny mistake! Long term I also don't see how this place won't just keep getting poorer... unless there is a major attitude adjustment in the near…
Our instinct is to regulate and tax the technologies that are being pioneered in California, in the misguided belief that it will give us some kind of competitive advantage. I don’t think that that’s the reason for regulation: it seems to me that US companies traditionally don’t care about externalities (environment, privacy, accessibility, etc.), and regulation is required to bring them into line. That doesn’t alway…
The difference is that the US is a force multiplier for businesses and innovation, so you get the most extreme stuff there. But you also get the most everything there. And even when it's not there, it's often funded or part-funded by the US. E.g. the NIH funds $45b of research a year, which is partly sent overseas, even though it's paid for by US taxpayers and businesses.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
>> are the crazy-high rankings of Britain's top schools The problem(in general) with University rankings is that the ranking is done almost entirely on the number of publications.....in English. So it's no wonder that British universities take a lot of the top spots. I've had these conversations many many many times with people - it's not like the Universities of Warsaw or Milan or Prague are not as good as Oxford -…
> British universities got absolutely decimated by Brexit It's likely heading for another cliff dive, as the UK government is constricting the supply of student visas (because immigration), and application numbers are nosediving. I got a great education in the UK and think back on it very fondly, but these days I'd advise people to apply to the US instead. It might even be cheaper.
>>as they UK government is constricting the supply of student visas (because immigration)
Can't stop myself thinking that it's probably at least partially because of scaremongering you see in newspapers about those lazy immigrants who pretend to be students but are actually coming to work here. Which ok, I'm sure is happening in places, but it can't be even remotely significant on any kind of scale, but the reaction now is to even further constraint our own supply of well educated people, it's madness.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> British universities got absolutely decimated by Brexit It's likely heading for another cliff dive, as the UK government is constricting the supply of student visas (because immigration), and application numbers are nosediving. I got a great education in the UK and think back on it very fondly, but these days I'd advise people to apply to the US instead. It might even be cheaper.
And also don't forget the student fees for international students have absolutely exploded. 10 years ago the fees for international students were £6k/year, now it's £30k/year. Like honestly, who can afford this, when you can study at most other EU universities completely free(or even get a stipend in fact). >>as they UK government is constricting the supply of student visas (because immigration) Can't stop myself thi…