Home
Weiye Loh's Library tagged → View Popular, Search in Google
Coding is as hot as it’s ever been and yet we graduated more students with CSci degrees in The Year of Our Orwell as we do today? What’s going on here exactly? A little more from the same blog post:
In 2009 the U.S. graduated 89,140 students in the visual and performing arts, more than in computer science, math and chemical engineering combined and more than double the number of visual and performing arts graduates in 1985.
We are raising a generation of American Idols and So You Think You Can Dancers when what we really need is a generation of Gateses and Zuckerbergs. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (PDF download) computer and mathematical occupations are expected to add 785,700 new jobs from 2008 to 2018. It doesn’t take a math major to see that we’re graduating students at a far lower rate than required to meet demand.
But what’s important is not just what is happening but also why it’s happening. If there’s both security on the downside (computer science majors experience rock-bottom unemployment rates) and untold riches on the upside, it seems the rational economic choice for people to flock to majoring in computer science and engineering. And yet, that’s not what’s taking place.
-
People don’t get excited by technology. The glamour and glitz of Hollywood that attracts thousands of Midwestern prom queens every year is undeniable. And the stereotype of the lone coder sitting alone in a cube somewhere can’t quite match up to the thrill, however unlikely, of one day performing in front of Steven, Randy and Jennifer.
-
Technology is hard. OK, now perhaps we’re getting a little closer to the truth. It’s not that learning how to program has gotten noticeably more difficult over the years. If anything, frameworks like Rails for Ruby make it easier. But there is a basic level of understanding that, if you don’t have it, drastically reduces the likelihood that you’ll become an engineer.
Indeed, at each level of our education there’s a chance to miss out on fundamental knowledge that, if not acquired at that point, becomes progressively more difficult to pick up later in life. Salman Khan said it best in his TED talk that should be mandatory viewing:
“…you fast forward and good students start failing algebra all of a sudden and start failing calculus all of a sudden, despite being smart, despite having good teachers, and it’s usually because they have these Swiss cheese gaps that kept building throughout their foundation.”
- 3 more annotation(s)...
Among executive-board members, women earn 17% less than their male counterparts. There are plenty of plausible explanations for this disparity, from interruptions to women’s careers to old-fashioned discrimination. But the authors find that this pay gap can be fully explained by the effect of executives’ networks. Men can leverage a large network into more senior positions or a seat on a more lucrative board; women don’t seem to be able to.
-
, there is only a marginal pay difference between men and women when it comes to non-executive directors, and no difference in the effectiveness of their networks. It is possible that this reflects pressure for “gender quotas” on corporate boards. Women are able to find their way onto shortlists for lower-paid, non-executive positions. But that’s not where the real power lies.
Technology tends to make people optimistic. But are the scientists being realistic about people without the mathematical, scientific and engineering skills, that are highly valued and compensated in today’s economy? What happens to people without those skills?
If I were a worker in Amazon’s warehouses and could eventually be given a pink slip and replaced by an orange robot, I don’t think I would be so cheerful about this new work force.
-
those who are paving the way to a world with robots don’t see it that way. “Those who lose jobs to robots will have an incentive to acquire skills that are currently beyond the skills of robots — and there are many human skills that will not be surpassed soon by robots,” explained Colin Allen, co-author of the book “Moral Machines” and a professor of cognitive science at Indiana University.
These experts believe that jobs in creative fields, including musicians, writers and artists, will never be replaced by robots. No matter how smart robots are, they will also never be better than humans at physics or psychology.
-
Lawrence H. Summers, the economist, former Treasury secretary and former Harvard president, explained that society has been down this road many times before. The rise of the industrial revolution gave way to fears of extensive job loss, as did the automation of agriculture. But, he said, although these “adjustments were in some cases painful,” people always find new work.
In a survey taken of over 4,000 scientists across the globe, 70% of whom were men, researchers found that people consider science a "family unfriendly" career. Over half of survey respondents said that work clashed with family responsibilities several days per week. While women in the sciences have long complained of problems with work/family life balance, this is one of the first studies to reflect widespread male dissatisfaction with the same issue.
Why is it that between 25% and 50% of people report feeling overwhelmed or burned out at work?
It's not just the number of hours we're working, but also the fact that we spend too many continuous hours juggling too many things at the same time.
What we've lost, above all, are stopping points, finish lines and boundaries. Technology has blurred them beyond recognition. Wherever we go, our work follows us, on our digital devices, ever insistent and intrusive. It's like an itch we can't resist scratching, even though scratching invariably makes it worse.
-
1. Maintain meeting discipline
-
2. Stop demanding or expecting instant responsiveness at every moment of the day.
- 4 more annotation(s)...
In the past 30 years, US women have become more educated, outperforming men in university graduation rates. During that time, the disparity between the percentages of women and men working full-time has shrunk considerably too – and yet the pay gap persists, a topic this blog has tackled in the past.
-
According to a new study by sociologists from Indiana University and Cornell University, one of the biggest contributing factors to the wage gap is the phenomenon of “overworking” – which means working 50 hours a week or more.
The study, using data collected by the US Census Bureau, found the relative hourly wage of overworkers compared with that of full-time workers had increased substantially over the past three decades, but because a greater percentage of male workers were overworking, this change benefited men much more than women. Today, women earn an estimated 81 per cent of what men are paid.
According to Youngjoo Cha, a sociologist at Indiana University who contributed to the study, even women who are employed full-time typically have more family obligations than men, which limit their capacity for putting in gruelling hours at the office.
-
In the so-called greedy occupations – doctors, lawyers and upper-level managers, for instance – workers are evaluated based on their face time at the office, according to Cha, who specialises in gender and labour markets. It is no coincidence that these jobs tend to come with the fattest pay cheques, too.
“In our culture, ideal workers are those who put in long hours and completely devote their time and emotions to their jobs,” she says. “In these top-end occupations, this phenomenon is most pronounced. Workers are bound by stronger norms, and if they don’t live up to those norms, they are penalised. Lawyers who don’t bill enough hours, for example, don’t progress and don’t make partner.”
- 1 more annotation(s)...
If you want to run a successful café — and enjoy it — you need to love a lot more than coffee. You’ve also gotta get some kind of pleasure, even grim satisfaction, out of the daily grind.
A spokeswoman for Target said early Saturday morning that 137 workers had voted against joining the union, the United Food and Commercial Workers, while 85 workers voted for it.
In a statement, the union’s president, Bruce W. Both, said that the workers at the Valley Stream store endured a “campaign of threats, intimidation and illegal acts by Target management,” and that the union would contest the results.
Jason Fried: Why work doesn't happen at work
-
Here are 10 proactive guidelines to strengthen confident composure and keep solidly grounded in competent actions.
-
1. Express your talents through a personal mission. You know where you are going and where you stand. That simplifies life. A sample mission is to advance your work skills to contribute, improve, and prosper. Your actions become more directed when you do something (specific actions) for achieving your long-range mission.
- 12 more annotation(s)...
fewer Singaporeans are taking advantage of the H1-B1 visa, a work visa reserved for 5,400 Singaporeans a year under a free trade agreement with the US that took effect in 2004. Singaporeans who have successfully applied for the visa say they have greatly benefited from the scheme, but acknowledge a lack of awareness and the 2008 recession as reasons for the dip in numbers.
-
fewer Singaporeans are taking advantage of the H1-B1 visa, a work visa reserved for 5,400 Singaporeans a year under a free trade agreement with the US that took effect in 2004. Singaporeans who have successfully applied for the visa say they have greatly benefited from the scheme, but acknowledge a lack of awareness and the 2008 recession as reasons for the dip in numbers.
-
- Issued to Singaporeans under a free trade agreement with the United States that took effect in 2004.
- Allows up to 5,400 a year to live and work in the US, accompanied by their spouses and dependent children.
- Valid for up to 18 months, but extensions and renewals are allowed.
- Applicants must have a speciality occupation, such as jobs in the fields of engineering and computer science, or business specialities like management and human resources.
- Applicants must have at least a bachelor's degree involving a four-year study in their field of specialisation.
- Holders cannot apply for a green card.
ABOUT THE VISA
- Issued to Singaporeans under a free trade agreement with the United States that took effect in 2004.
Surfing the net at work for pleasure actually increases our concentration levels and helps make a more productive workforce, according to a new University of Melbourne study.
-
For knowledge workers, it’s easy to get into a mode where you wait until conditions are perfect before you do anything. The word “conditions” could mean anything from your schedule, work environment, co-workers, the tools you use, etc. I have fallen into this trap many times.
-
many great scientists believe that an “ideal situation” is detrimental.
- 5 more annotation(s)...
, explains why he would never work with Einstein and co. at Princeton, even though the schedule and environment was designed to incubate great thinking.-
What to wear? Female office workers may not suffer the confines of ties and wingtips, but they too have a narrow strait to cope with: that intangible line between looking too manly and seeming too cute. Unfair though these perceptions may be, their impact is all too real.
-
We are less judgmental of women who wear provocative clothing if they're doing low-status jobs, finds Peter Glick of Lawrence University. However, when people are shown a photo of a woman in sexy clothes and told she is a business manager, they say she seems less intelligent and less competent than suit-wearing execs.
- 5 more annotation(s)...
-
women should be protected from discrimination on grounds of their potential, or actual motherhood. This story has a ‘glass half full’ side. It is true there are now many more women in business, management, parliament and the professions than in the 1970s.
However, another side of this story shows a ‘glass half empty’. The number of women holding positions of power within UK society remains very limited. It is still, often, men who hold the senior and most highly paid posts.
-
Things are no better in well paid skills-based occupations such as plumbing and firefighting. In 2006 the Women’s Work Commission showed a high level of occupational segregation, with men in the best paid jobs and women clustered in lower paid roles such as care work.
- 1 more annotation(s)...
Part of me is angry with myself, because I know that I am responsible for maintaining my own work/life balance.
Today's generation of high-earning professionals maintain that their personal fulfilment comes from their jobs and the hours they work. They should grow up, says Thomas Barlow.
-
The notion that one can do anything is clearly liberating. But life without constraints has also proved a recipe for endless searching, endless questioning of aspirations. It has made this generation obsessed with self-development and determined, for as long as possible, to minimise personal commitments in order to maximise the options open to them. One might see this as a sign of extended adolescence.
Eventually, they will be forced to realise that living is as much about closing possibilities as it is about creating them.
Selected Tags
Related Tags
Top Contributors
Groups interested in Work
Highlighter, Sticky notes, Tagging, Groups and Network: integrated suite dramatically boosting research productivity. Learn more »
Join Diigo