This is an ongoing series of links and things I enjoy each month.
EQ video by Posy
Posy produces exclusively high-quality videos. This video explains the equalizers of different sound systems through real world examples. It begins by explaining pink noise and how both speakers and the room they are in cause deviations from the flat line of pink noise. It looks at different analog and digital methods of equalizing sound to a norm. Then it goes beyond this, with different implementations of “boosts”.
What’s so impressive about this video is the live graphs that overlay all of the changes he makes. It’s such a simple and clear representation that I know took hours of work to make so elegant. Though I’m a bit younger than Posy, I related to his journey of exploring equalizers on stereo sets. They used to be these massive contraptions, adorned with cryptic buttons and displays. While modern sound systems with digital equalizers are better, I miss the tactility of these older systems.
If you watch this out loud, be warned that some of the high tones might bother dogs like they did mine.
AI in Higher Education with Michael Littman
Ah AI, is there any piece of tech media not dedicating at least some time to discussing AI? Lately, I’ve been exhausted following the progress in LLMs and their applications. They are so powerful and I do use them every day for my development work, but their saturation of the discourse is tiring. This is partially because the amount of content produced about artificial intelligence dwarfs the scale of insightful content about artificial intelligence.
But every now and then, there is a gem like this episode of Oxide and Friends with Michael Littman.
Littman has been working in the field of artificial intelligence for several decades as a researcher. For much of his career, AI was a far-off idea and very abstract. He’s now found, with the influx of LLMs into our everyday lives, people are turning to him for answers on how to move forward in education now that the LLMs are here.
One of the things I’ve been thinking a lot about — and admittedly fretting over — is what will happen to education with the advent of AI and LLMs. Littman acknowledges the sea change that LLMs bring about, but frames these changes as an opportunity.
What scares me about LLMs in education is the risk of people not learning. Since the end of World War II, the emphasis on higher education as a stepping stone to a career has only grown. The degree is seen as a gateway to a higher income for many. With that focus of education as a means to an end, if the means become trivially achieved, how should we then value higher education? This episode almost cheekily proposes that the answer to this problem is to make the goal of higher education to be higher education.
LLMs can become an amazing tool for deliberate learning. They can create practice problems. They don’t get annoyed by “stupid questions”. If I were to redo my education today, I would definitely use them to explicate concepts or provide more resources for learning. But many students might not take this approach.
This era presents an opportunity to be empathetic to students who have been able to use LLMs in their education for both good and ill for about 3-4 years now. Helping them learn requires trusting them to make good decisions. When I was teaching students in grad school, I had a similar approach. I didn’t demand attendance or attention. Instead, I made sure that my teaching was extremely valuable and provided the best path to student learning and success. If a student didn’t want to engage with the material or cheat their way around the system, they would ultimately suffer by cheating themselves. Instead of being disciplinary, I sought to imbue a love of learning for learning’s sake. I believe with LLMs in the classroom, this will be the only way forward in enriching minds.
I listened to this live in the Oxide Discord, which is a great community of nerds.
Stoner by John Williams
I just finished this last night as the Trick-or-Treaters came to our door. I was feeling sick, so I put out the candy in a bowl while I read in my office. I’ve been splitting my reading between a copy I bought from my wife’s bookstore and an audiobook that I borrowed on Libby from the city library.
Stoner is a campus novel in the style of a fictional biography. I’m a sucker for a good campus novel. It reminded me of my favorite book, “Fifth Business” by Robertson Davies. It explores the life of Prof. William Stoner as he teaches at the University of Missouri. It’s an unremarkable life, closely examined. The result is an existential novel about passions and failures. The book came well recommended. I found that it started strong, but then became a little predictable. It’s really saved by its ending though. It beautifully captures the twilight of life. This ending struck me deeply as I approach the first anniversary of my grandfather’s death.