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Quantum mechanics is infinitely easier to understand than to discover.

Charlatans also tend to do this.

Often, a charlatan would dedicate her life to selling boats. When questioned if she really believes in the floods, obviously she does! Why else would she be wasting her life as a boatwright?

But if you're middle class the price has gone up and may be unaffordable.

My basic point was just the fact that the numbers we compare have nothing to do with each other. (The really don't.)

And the ratio of administrators to professors has also exploded.

The number of administrators, as traditionally defined, has changed little, though the number of professional staff has increased a lot. The biggest increase has been the growth of IT, though it goes beyond that. The part of this which is IT-related is somewhat mirrored by most other labor-intensive stuff.

College tuition inflation is often talked about but rarely dealt with sensibly. To understand the nature and extent of college tuition inflation, it's important to understand

  1. Looking at the sticker price isn't comparing apples to apples. Aid has gone up drastically. It's never been cheaper for a kid from a poor family to get an education. Although a lot of the increases at state schools relate to decreasing funding, a huge amount of them at private schools (and a lesser extent at state schools) is their financial aid programs. Tuition has become more progressive and we're comparing the top prices.

  2. Running a college is about as labor-intensive as it ever has been, which is to say, very. Prices in all labor-intensive stuff have gone up faster than CPI.

There has been a real increase, but it's not all real and it's not all for the reasons a lot of people assume.

The quote is a good one, and not because it's true.

"The enemy of my enemy has their own relationship with me."

See also: the distinction between verification and validation, or between quality control and quality assurance.

Let's get one thing straight: ignorance killed the cat.

Curiosity was framed.

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