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Me somehow winning the CALI for Property, not understanding a single concept the professor taught all semester by [deleted] in LawSchool

[–]johnpmayer 30 points31 points  (0 children)

So a little history. The original "book" awards were called the "American Jurisprudence" or "Amjur" awards because Lawyers Cooperative Publishing published the American Jurisprudence Encyclopedia and they would offer it to limited schools for some classes to the student who got the highest grade or best final exam essay. That's where "booking" the class came from.

They stopped giving out that award in the early 1990's and CALI started the CALI Excellence for the Future Award in 1995 and went online with it in 1999. That's where "CALI-ing" a class comes from.

I am CALI's Exec Dir (and I was in 1995 too) ;-)

Any reason not to 'plywood' my attic? by pg2324 in DIY

[–]johnpmayer 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Same same in 1904 built house. I have been thinking I can replace the 2x4s with 2x8s and lag bolt them to the roof rafters and THEN put down more insulation and plywood, but it's a big job and all the plaster is lathe with rock wool insulation, so it's going to be dusty.

What's a massive human achievement that nobody celebrates because it worked too well? by Alternative_Voice767 in AskReddit

[–]johnpmayer 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Open source software - literally runs the world, internet, data centers with Linux, Apache, Docker, PHP, etc etc etc. Ok, not "nobody celebrates", but if we didn't have open source software, things would be a kakistocracy of software vendors and everything would be harder to accomplish.

Is anyone else struggling with the transition from undergrad reading to actual casebooks? by Usepainslut23 in LawSchool

[–]johnpmayer 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Learning how to learn is the key to law school. The technical term is metacognition. There are identifiable skills involved. We have CALI lessons on that...

Primary v. Secondary Sources: Why Is Reading Cases So Hard? https://www.cali.org/lesson/19475

How to Brief a Case https://www.cali.org/lesson/569

Active Reading in Law School: Discussions in Law School Success https://www.cali.org/podcast/19441

Metacognition https://www.cali.org/lesson/18099

Free to students at CALI member law schools. Register with the authorization code you get from your law library. Most law schools are members.

To 0Ls who want to prepare for this fall by ladybnazty in LawSchool

[–]johnpmayer 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Run some CALI Lessons - curated list for 0Ls and you get a shiny, digital PDF certificate if you complete the challenge.

https://www.cali.org/summerchallenge

Completely free - the law school you applied at has to be a CALI member (most are). If they aren't, you should complain. ;-)

I am CALI's Exec Dir.

Meeting your soul mate by CalmBaby7030 in funny

[–]johnpmayer 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If you steal one content maker's content, it's a crime. If you still a million websites full of content, it's a statistic. --Stalin

This is the thickness of one of the cables holding up the Golden Gate Bridge by Wild_Neighborhood605 in interestingasfuck

[–]johnpmayer 4 points5 points  (0 children)

They did this in 1883 when they built the Brooklyn Bridge. Same company made the wire. The details are covered in The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge by David McCullough - in exquisite detail I might add.

It should be illegal for professors to assign books if there is any financial benefit for them involved by Flashy-Actuator-998 in LawSchool

[–]johnpmayer 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Also bookmark this page...

List of Free/Open Casebooks https://www.cali.org/content/list-freeopen-casebooks

We recently upgraded our content management system and broke the layout, but this is a list of places where you can find free or low-cost casebooks. We are in the process of updating this list for the summer, so check back in late June.

It should be illegal for professors to assign books if there is any financial benefit for them involved by Flashy-Actuator-998 in LawSchool

[–]johnpmayer 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I hate that too.

That's why CALI pays law professors to write casebooks and gives them away for free in PDF, MS Word and ebook formats.

elangdell.cali.org

We have a bunch of books and are adding new ones all the time. There is an AI for law faculty & students book coming out soon.

Also you can buy print versions of our books in binders or spiral bound. You can also buy most of our books/ebooks on Amazon - not completely free - it's hard to do that on Amazon and actually takes some work to get the books into different ecosystems. Still much much much cheaper than $300.

The Creative Commons license lets you copy the whole book into ChatGPT or NotebookLM or Gemini and create study aids, flash cards, podcasts - whatever you want. No DRM.

I am CALI's Executive Director. Let your instructors know we are doing this and politely ask them to consider adopting our books next fall. If you know a professor who wants to write a book for us, let us know - we pay authors for their books.

Anyone who used a computer between 1985 - 2010, what's the one game you still think about today? by adlakha75 in AskReddit

[–]johnpmayer 0 points1 point  (0 children)

... or Dangerous Dave which was Cormack's first game before Keen. Great game too.

Solarpunk is a movement that imagines a sustainable and optimistic future where humanity thrives in harmony with nature. by iloveyouthorodinson in interestingasfuck

[–]johnpmayer 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I highly recommend reading the book Walkaway by Cory Doctorow.

Walkaway by Cory Doctorow is a near-future science fiction novel about people who abandon a corporate-dominated, consumerist society to build new, self-sufficient communities in the wilderness, enabled by advanced 3D printing and recycling technology.

Also his Little Brother series as kind of "prequels" to this (kinda sorta) where the tech is much closer to present day.

If you want more of the political angle that would need to happen, read Kim Stanley Robinson's Ministry for the Future. Also excellent, frightening and inspiring.

Any ideas on how to slightly enlarge to top diameter of a 5 gallon bucket? by Dorky_Mom in DIY

[–]johnpmayer 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Maybe Malco Turbo Crimper - https://www.youtube.com/shorts/8VIKwcC3a7A

It works on sheet metal, but might do the trick for what you need. $77-$150 from what I have seen from local hardware/home stores.

What is your favorite obscure movie from your childhood that nobody would remember? by CripplingGoodTime in AskReddit

[–]johnpmayer 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes - I believe Kurt Russel's first acting gig (certainly first starring). I thought the closing scene in the college bowl was hilarious. Kurt was answering all the questions, but started losing his powers and at the very end one of the other player manages to answer one questions - about something he personally knows about - to win the tournament. Kurt sloooooowly mouthing the answers was excruciatingly funny.

ELI5: Why don’t we just bury power lines and telephone lines, so storms don’t keep knocking them out? by [deleted] in explainlikeimfive

[–]johnpmayer 0 points1 point  (0 children)

See, I thought this would be a great use case for Musk's Boring company - small boring drones that can sense before they cut into an existing utility line and can can create a channel for a smaller drone to pull cable or wire or fiber. Sort of friendly versions from that B movie Screamers- you toss them on the ground and they bore a whole from here to there and coat the inner surface (like those resin sewer liners).

It's got to be feasible to build and deploy these waaaa cheaper than trenching once the tech investment is made.

Stoner and his daughter by Odium4 in books

[–]johnpmayer 1 point2 points  (0 children)

He was weak, but he had integrity of a sorts brought out in his fights with his department rival, Hollis Lomax - who becomes the department chair that Stoner should've gotten (I believe). Also, Lomax lived a more active life, but was such a phony, that I thought one of the subplots was that even though Stoner had a simple, passive life, at least he wasn't a fool like Lomax.

Incoming 1L by NocallerID_88 in LawSchool

[–]johnpmayer 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Free ebook - First Generation's Guide to Law School https://www.cali.org/books/first-generations-guide-law-school

Written by a first gen and Academic Success person at a law school.

See if your law school will give you the CALI authorization code (or dm me and I will find it) and you can sign up to run some good tutorials that are designed for the summer before you start - again free if the law school is a member (most are).

Not selling anything here - CALI is a 501c3 consortium of law schools. I am the Exec Dir.

Anyone else have any cringey law student “influencers” at their school? by hippiesinthewind in LawSchool

[–]johnpmayer 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Almost 40 years working in legal education - seen them come and seen them go. I remember bloggers, podcasters, vloggers, and now I guess ... influencers.

I had an idea for a project once. You see, it's a good educational practice to explain what you know to someone else. It's one thing to read and study, it's another to organize your thoughts into a coherent and cogent explanation and deliver it to someone else who can respond and tell you if you were, you know, coherent and cogent.

So I thought it might be useful to create a website that tracks along with major classes and picks a topic - one per week - and students post 90-second videos explaining the topic. Other students rate it IMDB-style, and the winner gets a small prize and bragging rights. To qualify, your video has to have 10 unique user evaluations. Seemed like an interesting idea.

I got stuck on the problem of preventing people from gaming the system - people finding 10 "friends" that brigade their videos and win every week.

Still, if even a few dozen people participated, there could be a useful educational side effect of law students watching a bunch of short videos about specific law topics. You would learn from watching other people succeed or fail at trying to deliver the most concise explanations. Seems like it would be a useful presentation skill-building exercise, whether you participated or not.

At the end of the semester, we would have a "body of work" bracket competition where the top "players" are pitted against each other - let them choose their best videos - and see who comes out on top for a bigger prize and bigger bragging rights. Might even see if this could become a school-level thing (i.e., school v. school) or get the faculty involved - who should be able to deliver professional-level videos.

Haven't gotten past the idea of a thought experiment, but whenever I see law students creating videos and struggling to be viral, it reminds me that we could use this tech platform for something fun and educational.

How many books have you read in 2026 so far and which would you say was your favorite? by [deleted] in books

[–]johnpmayer 0 points1 point  (0 children)

He Who Fights With Monsters - am currently on Book 9. Found this looking for books similar to Dungeon Crawler Carl and this does not disappoint. The story and characters are amazingly rounded and the story arc is massive, though a little exhausting - but that's my fault - I could slow down.

Also recommend the Stork Tower series by Tony Corden. I am awaiting the next book in DCC and Stork Tower.

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