Gary Ackerman @garyackerman@qoto.org

"This technology will change everything" is hyperbole.

Are we at the point where we should include astrology in astronomy courses? I mean, lots of folks think its real and we should be fair to them right?

No man should escape our universities without knowing how little he knows.
- Robert Oppenheimer

The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.
-Richard Feynman

“The dogmatist within is always worse than the enemy without.”
― Stephen Jay Gould

That link that did not expect in your inbox… don’t follow it! 🤦‍♂️

So many accommodations we make are simply good teaching.

We’ve been asked to identity our “super powers” in a meeting. I’m finding it hard to resist the urge to say “recognizing self delusion.”

Forget teaching how to do taxes, if we teach the paradox of knowledge (“If you think you understand it, you are wrong”), we might be able to make better collective decisions.

Folks who come in to lead small organizations who have never worked in them have no idea how “departments of one” function. And it shows.

“Meetings to update us on the progress of x” usually occur during the time they scheduled for making progress on x.

Data collection should be carefully planned.

So many data-driven folks don’t understand this

Reading papers I submitted in college. One comment said, “You are something of a cynic, huh?”

Yes. Yes, I was… and still am 40 years later.

Remembering. Understanding. Discovering.

School should promote all three.

“What do you think?”

It’s ok to answer, “I don’t know enough to have formed an opinion.”

When you insist the meetings you lead be in-person only, you demonstrate you are not dedicated to inclusion, not matter what you claim about yourself.

There continues to be so many educators who conflate quiet with attentive.

If you are talking about “ascertaining truths” you are not doing science or any other version of research.

Rationalizing isn’t substantiating.

Well... at least rational folks see the difference.

In my experience, lectures can be made more interesting and interactive, yet they rarely are.