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$30B for laptops yielded a generation less cognitively capable than parents

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Re: $30B for laptops yielded a generation less cognitively capable than parents

#251

Post by maerF0x0 »

npunt wrote: post #241
maerF0x0 wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't dug into the gritty details of the article and the testing, but it's easily conceivable that "read" means Shakespeare, "Write" means fiction, and math means ... well actually pretty much all math is important :lol: As a marginal choice I'd rather every kid know how to write a good opinion piece on current events, or a technical document closer to RFCs, than writing some fiction. Of course, even better if we…

I think you vastly underestimate the importance of fiction. Fiction may be the best canvas for creative and abstract thought, the place where possibility is explored and the 'what' and 'why' is established, without being mired in details. Before we invented things, we thought of things to invent, and in those moments we were writing fiction. Technical writing is 'how', and that's being absolutely consumed by AI. When…

Fair about fiction... I just don't feel the same way about outdated fiction..

Re: $30B for laptops yielded a generation less cognitively capable than parents

#252

Post by freeopinion »

maerF0x0 wrote: post #211
freeopinion wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you are looking for reform, consider rethinking how much "education" the public should fund. Should we keep paying to have every student sit through Algebra and Geometry if less than 15% of them can pass the proficiency test afterward? Can we require people to pass proficiency tests before we fund their education past the 6th grade? 8th grade? Can we require a student to be able to read at a 3rd grade level before…

> Public should fund ... Algebra and Geometry Yes. But, the point of my post is that funding should not go to the underperforming public school systems and their unions. Instead parents should be free to purchase the education that delivers the most value for their dollar in a freemarket. But, because I do believe we should educate the kids of poor / low income parents, IMO we should still have public funding (a form…

I don't have a problem with vouchers. I mostly agree with you about not penalizing a child for the failures of the adults.

But whether the failure be the child's or the adults', a child who hasn't learned multiplication and division should not be thrown into an Algebra class. That is just more failure on the part of the adults. The child should first be given another chance to learn multiplication and division.

None of my post was aimed at defunding the student. I just think that any money spent buying third-grade reading level books for somebody who doesn't know the alphabet should not be wasted in that way. Instead, the money should be spent teaching (and re-teaching) the alphabet. The same goes for Algebra, etc. I'm all for teaching as many people as possible Algebra and Geometry and Physics and Chemistry... after they have gained the foundation they need to learn those subjects. This may require more funding, not less.

Re: $30B for laptops yielded a generation less cognitively capable than parents

#254

Post by npunt »

maerF0x0 wrote: post #251
npunt wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you vastly underestimate the importance of fiction. Fiction may be the best canvas for creative and abstract thought, the place where possibility is explored and the 'what' and 'why' is established, without being mired in details. Before we invented things, we thought of things to invent, and in those moments we were writing fiction. Technical writing is 'how', and that's being absolutely consumed by AI. When…

Fair about fiction... I just don't feel the same way about outdated fiction..

Yeah there’s balances to be struck. Tho I would push back a bit on the notion of great works being outdated. Think of them more as having survived the gauntlet of time, crushing generation after generation of newer writing with their undeniable superiority, emerging as the strongest and most adaptable ideas & stories that couldn’t be stopped even by the churn of centuries of change in language, culture, ideologies, wars and more.

Eg Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein will eat alive nearly anything written today, it accurately critiques a future it never saw like a laser beam cutting across time. Few if any works today possess such original and enduring foresight.

This is especially true as a generation of people are now getting deskilled by AI. Even if we have the writers capable of such feats, we likely lack the audience for those works because that requires a societal sophistication we may have lost. And so those works may never be adequately appreciated to let them ever break out of this little moment in time.

Re: $30B for laptops yielded a generation less cognitively capable than parents

#256

Post by selectively »

snayan wrote: post #8
selectively wrote: post #2

Unrelated to the laptops. Also, please don't link low quality sources (Yahoo) on HN.

laptops are to cognitive capabilities as syringes are to heroin overdoses. It's just one of the many delivery mechanisms for brainrot in the 21st century.

Something very wrong with you.

Re: $30B for laptops yielded a generation less cognitively capable than parents

#257

Post by selectively »

magicalhippo wrote: post #4
selectively wrote: post #2

Unrelated to the laptops. Also, please don't link low quality sources (Yahoo) on HN.

Original source is https://fortune.com/2026/02/21/laptops-tablets-schools-gen-z...

Also a low quality source.
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