Al Hoang

“Wired” is running an article on people using MIT’s Open Courseware which they opened up in 2001. The gist of the idea is that MIT is making the content of their courses available but not awarding any degrees. To all those knowledge seekers this is really great. If I had more time I’d spend more time looking through some of the course offerings on some engineering topics I’ve always wanted to explore but never had the time/resources/inclination to enroll in a course just to learn it. At least now it’s more of a matter of time and inclination rather than resources.

Interestingly enough, the person highlighted in the article is from Vietnam one of the poorest countries around. I find that really neat. (Disclaimer: I originally hail from there too).

The New York Times has an article on a disorder that seems tied with a subset of underachievers:

“You can be truly smart and still struggle in life if you lack theability to plan, organize time and space, initiate projects and seethem through to completion, and you cannot resist immediate temptationsin favor of later better rewards.”

It’s an interesting read but I can envision more children beingdiagnosed with this order and parents demanding that the schoolsystems pick up the tab for teaching their children how to cope.Ouch.  I’m sure there’ll be some parents who will help theirchildren in coping with this.  However, there will probably bemany more that don’t.

Or maybe these people that are being diagnosed as such just needto learn how to concentrate even if it takes more effort for themthan others.   It’s a proven fact some people need more effortto do certain things than others.   Why not concentration?