Some People Feel the Rain; Others Just Get Wet

Qu'ils mangent de la brioche

Since ChatGPT launched, you’ve probably witnessed people lose their minds over its use in one form or another.

Such is the life of a college professor.

In story after story after story, tales have emerged of professors buying expensive (and utterly useless) pieces of software to try to detect if a submitted work was written by an AI. The students who were caught (or falsely accused) would face expulsion from their very, very, very overpriced education.

It’s not terribly surprising. The integrity of higher education is foundational to the perceived value of a degree, diploma, or other credential.

It’s like getting certified in the technology of the week – as soon as you find out that there is an entire industry (Bootcamps) built around subtly giving students the answers to the tests, the value of being certified goes to 0.

But why does it matter?

In a recent article, it’s been discussed that educators are increasingly using AI to write syllabi, exams, and other preparatory materials.

In other words – those who would condemn others from using the tools available to improve their output are doing so themselves, convinced that somehow it’s acceptable when the viewfinder is shifted far enough.

In an era where the value of a college degree has been frequently called into question, the line that is being held strong by institutions and traditionalists is that…it is. But on what grounds? Most often cited – “more than half of white collar jobs require it.” Even some sources abstract this justification by another layer, stating “you will earn more over a lifetime,” which is simply code for “most white collar jobs require it.”

This is a self-fulfilling prophecy of the most fundamental order. It’s valuable because we say it is.

So if a college professor doesn’t need to be an expert on the subject he or she teaches to effectively teach it, then is that not academic dishonesty dressed up in authority? After all, students are paying to be educated by a school that gained its accreditation status by being highly qualified to actually provide these services.

“But TDP, just because they use AI doesn’t mean they aren’t experts on the subjects they teach.”

Ok sure, but what if at least some of the time – they aren’t?

In the late 90s, when I was an undergrad student at a small university, I was approached by a tenured professor who was tasked with teaching a subject in which he had no experience. As someone who had knowledge of the subject, I became their ersatz teaching assistant, helping them to get strong enough to “fake their way through.” They had no business presenting themselves as an expert, but they did. Students paid hundreds in tuition to hear a man with a doctorate be Christian de Neuvillette to my Cyrano de Bergerac.

I thought this was an anomaly, but many years later, I took a job teaching at a large university as an adjunct professor. I was given a book and literally 2 weeks to create a strong enough facade to present the materials as a professor.

At first, I diligently worked to learn the information and create stories that I thought would resonate with the class of paying participants. I poured an incredible amount of time into preparation, but still felt the weight of being an imposter. After confiding this in another professor, it was revealed to me that there were “professor tools” that actually generated all of the tests, content, and cross-references necessary to meet the criteria of the course.

All of my efforts were that of someone uninitiated with the way things often work.

Now, I’ve had a lot of great, intelligent, and even life-changing experiences in education. But many people with expensive degrees simply have not.

I believe that there are many questions to be asked of our education system over the next decade.

• If academic integrity is a phrase that only applies to the student, then what does that say about the institution as a whole?

• If I can use a calculator and formula sheet in real life, but not on a math test – what is the class truly measuring other than ephemeral memorization?

• and maybe most importantly – how to we calibrate education in a world where we have the entire universe of knowledge at our very fingertips?

While I may have professed a time or two, I don’t profess to know the answers to the above questions. However, I do believe they are worth answering. The art of education must quickly evolve to meet the times.

Closed Captions Destroyed My Childhood

A recent survey of 13-39-year-olds shows that most people are using closed captioning these days to watch their favorite shows – specifically Gen Z and Millenials. While this is certainly tech-adjacent, I find it to be an interesting trend.

I started using closed captioning as soon as I had kids. That’s when I discovered that I have Auditory Processing Disorder (APD), which makes it impossible for me to hear words when there is any ambient noise. I always thought I’d destroyed my hearing through years of loud music, but none of my friends seemed to struggle with it the way I did. I digress…

One thing I’ve noticed is that closed captioning absolutely destroys any enjoyment that I had of many sitcoms from the earlier eras.

The comedy of most of these shows relies heavily on timing or emphasis + a few of the basic comedy structures (e.g., subversion/reversal, compare/contrast, simple truths). Even then, traditionally, many of the laughs are of the “chuckle” variety, punctuated by a live audience or the thankfully-out-of-fashion laugh track. Some of the most celebrated comedies in history lose almost all oomph without the additional cues of laugh tracks.

Movies and current television shows (without the laugh tracks) do much better in this regard, instead relying on either performance cues (e.g., 4th wall breaks, emphasized delivery/reactions) or taking the comedy structures to the extreme. Modern Family is practically a master class on this style of writing, which always felt like an homage – albeit far more accessible – to The Office.

If it’s not obvious where I’m heading with this, let me paint you a little picture.

One time I was at work with a group of colleagues and the perfect opportunity arose to share a joke I’d recently heard. I’m not much of a canned joke guy if I’m being honest. I rarely remember them and I prefer a more conversational style of humor, but in this instance, it felt right.

As I approached the punchline – building up for a well-timed execution – a guy in the group shamelessly and plainly delivered it on my behalf. No showmanship, no artistry, and absolutely no decorum.

I stood there utterly incensed. While he may have robbed the group a brief moment of enjoyment – he robbed me of all of the energy I had put into making it possible.

This man was the closed captioning of colleagues. A dry, lifeless delivery of something that could have been a wonderful distraction.

Just like the end of laugh tracks will end the era of non-jokes, the CC trend will eventually have an effect on the sitcom formula.

Jokes that need to avoid pre-emption either have to rely entirely on the performer (i.e., no words) or entirely on how the joke itself is structured (maybe like some poorly-written newsletters you’ve read).

In the latter case, the content has to stand on its own while being read in the audience’s own inner voice. This is why memes work so well – they’re largely self-contained and include the context without additional setup required.

And while I’ve been advised not to quit my day job, I’ll be watching from the sidelines as the whole thing evolves.

Links and whatnot

• Want To Buy A Typical Home? Better Have A Six-Figure Income

• FTX Bankruptcy Burning Through $1.5M in Legal Costs Every Day

• FTX Taps Galaxy to Sell, Stake and Hedge Its Crypto Billions

• Microsoft is bringing Python to Excel

• Why Google’s co-founder left retirement to work on AI

Sponsor

This issue (…ok every issue) is brought to you by Rainwell Consulting.

A lot of founders struggle with the same questions.

• How do I de-risk executive hires?

• How do we get from MVP to a scalable, effective product?

• Is our current technology holding us back?

• How do we leverage AI to create the best solution for our customers?

• What type of technical organization is best for us?

At Rainwell Consulting, we help companies gain the confidence to know their tech is heading in the right direction, so they can focus on solving the big problems.

• Follow us on LinkedIn

• Email [email protected] to discuss why these questions might not be so scary

If you’d like to sponsor future issues: [email protected]