Nonameuser678

To network and make side deals.

Late stage capitalism on steroids

Pretty good for me on a personal and professional level, but pretty shitty in the general world sense. We had a referendum in my country about including Indigenous Australians into our constitution. It failed to pass and was just a shitty few months overall, especially for our first nations people. The level of income and wealth inequality feels like it nosedived in the wrong direction. The 'K shaped recovery' from covid is now very apparent. And the climate crises is getting worse, one of the scariest images I saw this year was the Antarctic sea ice graph.

What's the opposite sentiment to R.I.P?

I'm not a legal expert but it feels like these sorts of laws shouldn't be rushed. That right there is an immediate red flag that this is bad legislation. Also, not to get all V for Vendetta and shit but what's the limitations on who gets classified as a terrorist.

Consultants don't advise, they find 'evidence' to justify policy positions. They're also not subject to FOI requests and don't have to follow the same codes that public servants do. Governments love consultants because they usually don't actually want good evidence-based advice, they just want to tick the box that says they did 'research'.

I say this as a phd student who wants to go into academia but will probably end up working for one of these consultants because the government would rather give them money than fund actual research.

Psychotherapy is about building a working relationship. Transference is a big part of this relationship. I don't feel like I'd be able to build the same kind of therapeutic relationship with an AI that I would with another human. That doesn't mean AI can't be a therapeutic tool. I can see how it could be beneficial with things like positive affirmations and disrupting negative thinking patterns. But this wouldn't be a substitute for psychotherapy, just a tool for enhancing it.

One of these things is not like the others though...

I love that generational inequality can be measured in this way. It would be great to see how different policy changes in the last 50 - 60 years correlate across generation groups.

Lol I'm a phd candidate at that university. I think they're doing this to look woke. This is a thing universities do to try and hide the fact that they are super conservative institutions.

It's a bit more complex than this. Most lecturers are qualified, they're just on insecure casual contracts. Try delivering high equality education knowing you're on a contract that may or may not be extended. There's also a gtowing pressure to pass students. This comes from both management and the students themselves. A lot of students feel like they've purchased the right to a passing grade. I no longer give students positive feedback because if I do they'll think it means I should have given them a higher grade.

The merit required for most academic roles is almost inhumanely high. You generally need a phd, publications, conference presentations, extensive teaching experience, and evidence of professional service (peer reviewing, committee memberships etc - often unpaid). In the more practical based degrees (which is where I teach) the hiring criteria may be more focused on industry experience. So these fields may have some non-phd qualified lecturers. Many unit coordinators also do get their phd students to do tutoring (some even lecturing) but this has always been the case and you've got to learn to teach somehow.

This pretty much tracks with my experience over the last few years. People just seem to be more tense and inconsiderate on average. And it feels like this started to get worse just after the first round of lockdowns.

No matter what they say capitalists do not actually like, or benefit, from competition.