In his book, David and Goliath1, journalist Malcolm Gladwell discusses the downside of attending an elite university. Citing the case of Caroline Sacks, he asserts that she suffered from “little fish in a big pond syndrome.” Caroline had excellent grades in science and had to choose between enrolling in science at the University of Maryland …
What are the pros and cons of attending an elite university? Read More »
This is an important question that gets to the essence of the differences in intelligence among humans. For this reason, it requires more than a superficial answer, and I ask the reader to bear with me during a longer than usual post, while I share what we know from research. Let’s first look at what …
Daniel, it all depends upon how we define “smarter.” Certainly AI is more capable than humans in certain functions that we regard as cognitive. For example, the rate at which signals can be transmitted along myelinated axons connecting neurons in the brain can be about 100 m/s. However, the propagation velocity of electric current in …
Is AI more intelligent than the people who created it? Read More »
A few years ago, when I was a graduate student, I received an urgent call for help from a Dean in charge of the Food Sciences program. Her students were struggling with the calculus course and they needed extra classes. When I looked at the notes they were receiving from the professor, it was evident …
Why do Universities still teach “useless” theoretical math in undergraduate engineering? Read More »
Blog / July 4, 2023 Today, the United States of America celebrates its 247th birthday. Arguably, the greatest nation in the history of human civilization, America has led the world in almost all technological advances in the past 100 years, ranging from the development of electronic devices like the phonograph, the incandescent bulb, and the television, to …
In 1950, half of the world’s population was employed in agriculture. Most societies were agrarian and lived off the land, farming with limited tools. A large proportion of the populations in industrial nations were employed in factories and performing manual labor. A much smaller proportion of the population was employed in professions requiring sophisticated intellectual …
In What Ways has the Value of Intelligence Changed in our Work and our Lives? Read More »
Bill Gates co-founder of Microsoft is reputed to have said, “I choose a lazy person to do a hard job, because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.” What Gates was attempting to communicate is the natural tendency of bright people to seek the shortest route to the solution to a …
Is a tendency toward laziness and Daydreaming an impediment to accomplishment? Read More »
Probably, because they are neither smart nor intelligent. Those who are highly intelligent are usually intelligent enough to stay quiet about their cognitive strengths. (There are, of course, exceptions, but they are the exceptions that prove the rule.) From the time they are young, highly intelligent people receive praise for their prowess in school and …
July 1 is Canada Day. We celebrate the fact that, relative to most of the world, we are an oasis in the desert. We enjoy a level of civility that is not only unprecedented in the world today, but also throughout history. We are multicultural, embrace education, and have a system of laws that most …
Mathematician, Paul Halmos has provided a rough rubric for ranking mathematicians in order of their achievements. In his book, “I want to be a Mathematician,” he states (p. 305): “Mathematicians of the first ranker the obvious immortals, the unarguable greats, the ones like Archimedes and Gauss. The second rank consists of people who have a …
What is the Difference between a Genius and a Super-Genius? Read More »
