Comments on: Playing Some Partisan Politics

By: people

people — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 15:07:31 +0000

put him on a pedestal because he has a developmental disorder and still managed to create the most successful operating system to date and become one of the richest men in the world, all while not finishing college. Let’s see you do that.

By: Uhhh no?

Uhhh no? — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 15:05:40 +0000

People were referencing Bill Gates and Einstein and I was merely clarifying that Bill Gates has an Autism Spectrum Disorder, just as Einstein was dyslexic, and I believe the first instance of those references was to make a point that grades aren’t everything.

By: OMG

OMG — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 14:04:40 +0000

I GOT GOOD GRADES DOES THAT MAKE ME SMART?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?

By: politico

politico — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 11:19:24 +0000

I think Obama doesn’t want to release his excellent grades (don’t forget, the man did get into Harvard Law) because that would actually make him seem more out-of-touch. Ironically, in this country, people value a president who got shitty grades in school.

By: hmm

hmm — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 04:55:18 +0000

a collection of pretty much everything that’s been written on obama’s columbia years:

http://www.wikicu.com/Barack_Obama

By: good job

good job — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 04:17:26 +0000

googling “GPA and IQ.” Now, you should Google Columbia’s course bulletin, and find yourself a nice course in statistics, or better yet in the applications of statistical methods to scientific studies. Maybe I’m just an elitist engineer, but correlations of 0.5 and lower don’t make a particularly convincing case in my eyes. When an author cites a positive correlation of 0.12 as a “reliable” indicator of ANYTHING, it speaks a lot more to their ignorance than to whatever they are writing about. To give you a little perspective on the matter, my predictions about coin flips would be more “reliable.”

By: okay

okay — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 04:09:11 +0000

so I went on bwog to get away from my work for a minute thinking “oh, this’ll be fun and there’s always a decent chance that somebody will mention some events that have free food tomorrow.” but I had forgotten about how many people’s egos at this school need validating w/ a bit of online chest pounding because they can’t manage to get laid… and arguing ceaselessly with other anonymous internet lurkers is obviously the next-best form of satisfaction

seriously, just go lock your door, turn off your lights, have some ‘practice sex’ (don’t worry, you’ll be ready when your big day finally comes after kicking back a few too many appletinis at that med-school grad party)… and please stop filling the bwog comments w/ things that aren’t locations of free food. Thanks

By: sorry

sorry — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 03:55:45 +0000

Here’s the better link

This is adolescents but it’s the only thing I could find quickly and I need to spend my time studying to get good grades.

http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:WhACRH2WKaAJ:www.sas.upenn.edu/~duckwort/images/PsychologicalScienceDec2005.pdf+correlation+iq+gpa&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=us

By: study

study — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 03:53:26 +0000

I don’t know, what does this say?

http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~duckwort/images/PsychologicalScienceDec2005.pdf

By: true

true — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 03:44:53 +0000

Also some people are trying to get good grades and other people are just not trying as hard.

This is why the SAT is a better indicator of intelligence, not because the material is more relevant, but because there’s no reason not to try for a three hour span when you can’t go off and do anything else. For courses, there’s plenty of reasons that intelligent or unintelligent people might or might not do the work. Or might or mgiht not game the system. You can only juke the SAT so much.

By: you

you — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 03:42:21 +0000

don’t want to compare vocab lists with me, trust me buddy.
If grades don’t matter, why are they listed on resumes? Why do employers request transcripts? Yes, grades reflect a combination of traits, but no matter how you go about it, a stupid person will not have high grades in a sufficiently challenging academic program.
Instead of crying about ad hominems, why don’t you put your ahem vast knowledge of English to good use, and pick up a science book? I know the words are confusing, but at least you might learn that a few sparse examples do not an argument make. So far we have: Einstein, Gates, and Carroll. I’m sorry to tell you, but even if you take them as a group, that’s still not quite a sufficient sample size. Also, telling me that I accepted your point, while no doubt a nice stroke to your ego, doesn’t change reality. Please come back when you’ve educated yourself beyond your SAT vocabulary, and we can have an interesting debate.

By: uhh...

uhh... — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 03:21:56 +0000

The CC average GPA is much higher than the SEAS average which has more to do with CC classes in general being bullshit.

Now compare grades in courses that fall midway between SEAS and CC subjects and which people in both people take (or just compare SAT scores).

By: if you've

if you've — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 03:10:36 +0000

read bwog for a little while you know that bwog and kulawik have a love-hate relationship…with the exception that its more often a hate-hate relationship

By: ad hominems

ad hominems — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 03:09:24 +0000

are great, but merely claiming that i used a couple words that you struggled with from a dictionary doesn’t indispose you from actually addressing the point. In fact you’ve now came around and admitted that one can be intelligent and still do badly if you don’t possess other characteristics. Saying that Obama probably got good grades because he was intelligent and for other reasons doesn’t refute the point I was making–if you’re now going to claim that good grades are a definite mark of high intelligence i won’t argue that..but those that have high grades are clearly a subset of all people who have high intelligence. They just happened to combine it with other traits that helped them succeed in a particular format.

I mean the argument can also be extended to different subjects. A person can clearly be a brilliant scientist or engineer and yet fail miserably at grammar/english. The converse is also true–I’d bet on average that the most heralded authors don’t have the mathematical background or ability of a Lewis Carroll.

In any event, you’ve clearly already accepted the point I made and feel like you can disguise it in ad homs. If you want to actually contest it though on its merits I’ll be glad to reply.

By: Well

Well — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 03:08:00 +0000

Why it insulting to call someone “a new Chris Kulawik”? I don’t feel that it implies anything more than that someone is well known as a conservative. The only reason it’s such a big deal is that Columbia is, as you said, fairly liberal, so the conservatives that are generally more notable.