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Noah Smith 🐇 Profile picture
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9 Jun, 4 tweets, 2 min read
I do feel that the movement to end advanced math classes conflicts with the Biden administration's stated goal of preserving and extending U.S. dominance in key high-tech industries in the face of international competition.

nypost.com/2021/06/08/par…
Killing advanced classes does nothing to improve broad-based math education, or to foster the skills necessary to have a broad, highly competent technical workforce -- which is what we need if we're going to keep our high-tech industries.

noahpinion.substack.com/p/someone-has-…
Simply refusing to teach well-prepared kids advanced math will NOT result in less-well-prepared kids learning math more effectively. Math learning is not some kind of resource in fixed supply. Giving one person less doesn't mean others get more!
In fact, this feels like one more example of America's scarcity mindset.

We're trying to turn *math* into a scarce resource. How insane is that!

noahpinion.substack.com/p/americas-sca…

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More from @Noahpinion

Noah Smith 🐇 Profile picture
11 Jun
We saw accelerating inflation in May. But like I wrote before, wait a couple more months to see if it's a temporary thing, and watch the Fed very carefully.
If we see persistent or accelerating inflation over the summer, and the Fed basically doesn't do anything, *then* it will be time to worry.
And if the Fed does nothing AND all the politicians start to talk about price controls by the end of summer, then it will be time to run in tight circles screeching and flapping your arms...
Read 4 tweets
Noah Smith 🐇 Profile picture
8 Jun
People who think science is slowing down should take a look at these charts of AI-related publications.

Science slows down *in specific fields* as easy discoveries get mined out. But we're always inventing new fields!!

noahpinion.substack.com/p/why-do-peopl…
The field of neuroscience basically didn't exist before 1960.
The field of computer science did exist before 1960, but it was pretty esoteric and small.
Read 8 tweets
Noah Smith 🐇 Profile picture
7 Jun
Don't really agree with this assessment. Solar panels are a commoditized product; it's not like China has a technological edge here. Meanwhile electric cars are a super high-tech high-margin product, and Tesla has managed to stay even with its Chinese competitors, which is great.
In other words, Tesla is an industrial policy success, and as for "lining Musk's pockets", welcome to industrial policy! Wait til I tell you how many Chinese billionaires got rich off of their industrial policy...
Tesla is a huge success for America (and for the environment), we learned from our mistakes in the 70s and 80s (support new companies instead of old ones).

Read 4 tweets
Noah Smith 🐇 Profile picture
6 Jun
1/Here's a post about a difficult and sensitive topic: How to criticize China without exacerbating anti-Asian racism.

noahpinion.substack.com/p/how-to-criti…
2/Some of the people who say that criticism of China = racism are just trolls...Cold Warriors who are on the anti-American side and want an excuse to defend a rival of America.

But for many, the worry is real and legitimate.
3/There is no denying that there's a wave of racist hate against Asian Americans right now. And there's no denying that attitudes toward China (esp. about coronavirus) have something to do with it.

This is really, really bad.

noahpinion.substack.com/p/is-conflict-…
Read 20 tweets
Noah Smith 🐇 Profile picture
6 Jun
Though I think voting rights are very important, I also think that "Democrats win every election forever" is not a viable strategy for dealing with the insanity of the GOP. That simply will not happen, voting rights bill or no voting rights bill.
It's bad for Manchin to oppose the voting rights bill.

But let's not trick ourselves into thinking that if that bill would only pass, Democrats would win every election forever and the Republic would be saved.

Republicans are going to win some, no matter what.
In particular, Republicans are highly lilely to win the 2022 congressional elections, with their current ideology, no matter what bills we pass now.
Read 4 tweets
Noah Smith 🐇 Profile picture
5 Jun
This! I feel like queerness has been standardized and regulated by youth movements, to a degree that it wasn't when I was young. I feel like a curmudgeon, missing the old ways. They've plowed and fenced my cattle range, etc. etc.
It's more than just pure curmudgeonly-old-guy-ness, though.

That "old queerness" felt like the harbinger of a world where everyone was free to be unique, make up a whole culture just for themselves, and be accepted anyway.

Instead, we got new, nicer rules and regulations.
I don't just miss old subcultures or slang.

I miss the idea of freedom, individualism, personal uniqueness.

Today's culture feels like it was invented by a bunch of kids who spent their youth studying way too hard for their NAEP tests.
Read 5 tweets

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