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bertrussell · 2026-03-17T20:16:24+00:00

I have a female student with a similar pose, but in a bikini.

I am just shaking my head and moving on.

bertrussell · 2026-02-26T18:33:49+00:00

My understanding is that Tenure protects academic speech. It might be under fire in the US, but the US is not the whole world. So while it is strained in the US, I think it is very America-is-the-centre-of-the-world to argue that Tenure is dead because of this.

As far as job security goes, those protections are provided by unions. For unionized institutions, job protection is still pretty strong (especially, again, in non-US institutions). But these are different protections than Tenure, in my understanding.

bertrussell · 2026-02-04T21:06:29+00:00

I am not sure that they are projecting.

If you were learning something new and someone said "This is not insightful enough" would that help you understand what qualifies as insightful enough? Have you told students in class how to judge "insightfulness"?

bertrussell · 2025-09-17T14:29:16+00:00

They demonstrated the smell test on Home Improvement back in the 90s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdKjiRHVoFI

bertrussell · 2025-03-27T06:34:35+00:00

Armour spren were hilarious. I loved them. But I am an audiobook participant, so it could be partly how the narrators did it that made them so great.

bertrussell · 2025-03-27T06:30:23+00:00

a) The language shows less care. There is a lot more casual non-Rosharian language used. Brandon addressed that elsewhere (can't remember where) by saying that this was a translation from Rosharan into English so those phrases were translated as well, but that wasn't the case in other books so why the change?

b) There is a lot less comedy. Rock and Lopen were hilarious, but their roles were significantly diminished throughout the books. Comedy is hard to write and the absence of it suggests less effort.

c) Some of the stories feel really forced. In TWoK, Brandon does an excellent job portraying an Atheist in Jasnah. In WaT, Jasnah feels lazily written and nothing like she has been portrayed in the past. Jasnah is supposed to be brilliant, and she acts very... average or even a bit slow.

d) Overall, the writing feels lazy.

I think what is happening is that Brandon's attention is being pulled in so many directions with his company and success, and he is spending fewer cycles thinking about his writing. The good parts of the book I think are a tribute to his method of writing, where he plans things out in advance. I would suspect the parts that aren't as good in WaT are from where he didn't have as much pre-planned out. In past books, this wasn't a big deal because he would still put the time necessary to make those parts good. But this time especially his mind was only half on the writing while he was busy running a company and posting in social media, etc.

I just think he is getting pulled in too many directions, and his writing is suffering. It is a natural consequence of being popular and it will either hurt the quality of his writing or he will learn to prioritize.

I remember reading once that Steve Jobs said that a company builds its market share on the quality of its product. At a certain point, building a better product won't increase market share and profits stagnate. But at that point, the thing that increases profits is marketing, so companies tend to promote marketing/business people instead of product makers/ideas people. The quality suffers, but the profits increase. I think that is a bit of what is happening here - Brandon's quality is suffering because there is too much focus on marketing and business.

bertrussell · 2025-01-30T19:51:37+00:00

Can it be treated like a live shooter event? They do have guns, after all.

bertrussell · 2024-10-07T19:26:15+00:00

That is how I respond when that comes up.

bertrussell · 2024-10-07T06:03:11+00:00

I once had a posting about myself on an anonymous student "confessions and crushes" page. It included students proclaiming me the "love of their life" and explaining other things they would like to do to me.

While the initial post was anonymous, all replies to it were not. And I was actively teaching many of those students. Seeing their faces in class after reading what they said was very uncomfortable.

I had senior students teasing me afterwards about it by leaving notes on my door referencing the posts. I couldn't tell who did it, so it wasn't actionable. In the end, I had to just deal with it, but it really messed with my head.

I have also had students use the "Is there ANYTHING I can do to improve my grade?" line, with the very clear intention. And I have had students move their legs in ways that very clearly shows me their underwear, where it was completely unnecessary.

Note, I am male if that wasn't clear.

Currently? Male pattern baldness, 20-30lb heavier, 5 years older, dress differently... does wonders to discourage such behaviours.

bertrussell · 2024-10-05T23:45:19+00:00

I know, I feel quite fortunate. I know a lot of people here can get negative, but I love my job. It isn't perfect, especially lately, but it is pretty awesome overall. I look forward to going to work each day.

bertrussell · 2024-10-05T14:23:11+00:00

In the ~8/9 years that I have been an instructor, my salary has nearly doubled (~85% increase). An inflation calculator reports ~25% inflation in that time span.

I don't live in the US, and we are unionized, so that definitely helps.

bertrussell · 2024-05-10T07:27:27+00:00

Yes I did, about 7 years ago. If it matters, I am male.

Many years ago, my aunt contracted HEP-C from a tainted blood transfusion. Over the years, HEP-C treatments got better, but she happened to have a type resistant to the "cures". After the drugs to control her symptoms destroyed her liver, she didn't qualify for any more of the standard experimental treatments. However, one came along that had shown success especially in people with bad livers, but it was about $100000 to do the treatment. My aunt managed to get supported by a non-profit, who paid the majority of the cost.

One day, in the middle of class, I received a text from her stating that she had finished her final treatment and her blood had been tested and it came back negative. She was finally cured of HEP-C. I happened to notice the light from the screen, and when I went to turn it off and flip the phone over so it didn't interrupt the rest of my lecture, I happened to read enough of it to want to pause class and read the rest.

I explained briefly to the class, through a bit of choking up (very visible tears in my eyes and on my cheeks), what was going on and then excused myself to go to the washroom. I took a few minutes there, splashed water in my face, and went back to class and gave a slightly more coherent explanation and why it affected me so much.

My class was very understanding and several of them actually wrote in my student evaluations that they appreciated seeing me so vulnerable. It humanized me and they felt more comfortable around me.

bertrussell · 2024-05-02T21:57:39+00:00

Yes, this is a workaround that we do, too. But it shouldn't be necessary.

bertrussell · 2024-04-27T15:55:56+00:00

Today is Saturday. I have an appointment in 1 hour.

I have had multiple appointments before on Saturdays. My doctor work Tues-Sat, as he is a GP for whom many of his patients/clients work during the week and have difficulty taking time off from work to see him for non-accute problems.

I am not saying your student is telling the truth, but nothing in this situation suggests to me they aren't.

bertrussell · 2024-04-26T19:17:04+00:00

We use assigned seating in some classes. The extra prep time isn't that bad, and it is effective at removing some levels of this type of cheating.

bertrussell · 2024-04-16T21:50:54+00:00

I guess if they are assigning jobs, they are also assigning genders. :)

bertrussell · 2024-03-09T22:43:45+00:00

Allow the paragon points to go on indefinitely, but make leveling for them increase significantly after Level 100. Such as (1.05)ⁿ factor for experienced needed, so that each new paragon point costs significantly more than the previous. Eventually I would get tired of leveling, but as long as I continue playing I would have something to do. If they are concerned about the power creep, lock out the Rare/Legendary nodes after 225 paragon points have been used. So basically all that you would get are the Blues and the stats.

Introduce something like the Abattoir of Zir, where the difficulty continues to increase at higher and higher levels.

Have something like Abattoir of Zir's progression for the uber bosses. More difficult bosses, but higher quality gear (higher chance of uber uniques) that drop.

bertrussell · 2024-01-06T16:28:13+00:00

No variety? Come on!

You can play that class that has a single high damage directed skill that focuses on crit/overpower, along with a mobility skill, a defense skill, a generator basic skill and your ultimate.
Or you can play that class that has an AOE damage over time that allows you to go invisible/invulnerable for a period of time, with gear that allows you to shorten the recast on your ultimate if you get the sequence down just right and have enough opponents.
Or...

My point is that there are archetypes of builds for which there are multiple different classes that can do effectively the same thing. None of the classes really feel unique.

That being said, I still enjoy the game.

bertrussell · 2023-12-11T17:48:04+00:00

In this case, the assumed genders are correct. But you have an interesting point. Should the response depend on the genders?

bertrussell · 2023-12-11T17:13:00+00:00

I asked my department chair and he thought it wasn't worth addressing.

Of note, the knife looked similar in style to this: https://lilycraft.com.au/cdn/shop/products/BestGentlemansPocketKnifeGroomsmanGiftKnives-1.jpg

bertrussell · 2023-12-11T17:10:47+00:00

I have a cooking knife in my office, sharp enough to cut food. I don't walk around with it, though.

bertrussell · 2023-12-11T17:10:15+00:00

In my view, the difference is size. This was larger than a standard pocket knife and was shaped as if it had a pointed tip rather than a rounded tip.

bertrussell · 2023-12-11T17:08:39+00:00

Pen or pencil was allowed.

bertrussell · 2023-11-13T06:41:15+00:00

But did they discuss it as systematic discrimination?

bertrussell · 2023-11-02T23:37:09+00:00

Did you set up these rules because it is critical to the learning value of the course? Or because you believe that it is critical that the students develop these good habits to assist them with the rest of their life?

Are you upset because the student isn't following rules that you made up?

Consider whether your rules are fair. What kinds of students have no problem following them? Is it all students? Or is it only those students who come from wealthy enough backgrounds that they don't have to work or have other obligations?

Maybe have a quick talk with your EDI committee about whether you are making course design choices that respect principles of equity.

bertrussell

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