Well, there's an element of "avoids any strategic critical thinking" in the whole "visionary" concept. We tend to celebrate it due to survivor bias, remainly blissfully unaware how many "visionaries" were utter failures, burning through cash and perhaps even ruining their family's lives in the process.

@WonderbeardShow Armpit? That must have led to some awkward moments...

Bit of irony here. Nazis are literal losers, but these states tossing jail sentences for douchebaggery makes me more nervous.

@kennardmatt I mean...I think this is actually a good argument for USAID.

in many #dungeonsanddragons campaigns, if PCs make it up to level 20 (in the current edition), there's kind of an assumption that marks an ending point for the campaign. I'm curious...has anybody had a campaign where their characters continued adventuring for some significant amount of time, staying at level 20 (i.e., no getting epic levels, etc.)

@ZaidJilani I still mainly panic about those $20k repair bills when the battery goes.

@TrueSlazac Is adults changing their name central to the debate?

@DelanoSquires There definitely was a crew of “intersectional” feminists who pretended to care about black people and railed against the nuclear family cuz it was supposedly colonialist or whatever.

Is it odd when social scientists talk about conducting a research study but seem to know exactly what it’s going to show before the study is done?

@ZaidJilani @lhfang Low hanging fruit/myside bias/ human nature I’d assume.

@HamesRaymond Ptah...a "lesser" ape. (kidding). Do you know if this is true for both males and females?

What's the range of scores on the NAEP. My impression is that most US standardized testing has been fairly stagnant for 50 years, with a lot of hand wringing over mostly minor year-to-year fluctuations. always beware that Y-axis! Granted, that still doesn't suggest much return on investment.

@roropsych @Stoke0Newington Ah, I forgot Orangutangs had facial hair.

I imagine there's some survivor bias in this, wherein most "idea guys" crash and burn or cause significant damage. But we mainly pay attention to those who succeed spectacularly, and think doing *that* (whatever they did) will invariably result in similar extraordinary successes, rather than accept some chaos agents just get very lucky.

My certainly not-insider view of the Department of Education debates is, given US standardized testing scores have barely budged in 50 years, there's probably some argument the DoE hasn't produced a lot of bang-for-buck. At the same time, I think there's a fair argument that, even if the DoE hasn't helped the average kid, their funding for special education is really helpful, and doesn't reflect in standardized testing scores. I wonder if the compromise is the recreate the DoE as the Department of Special Education, paring down both their mission and budget accordingly. That would get the feds out of most education, but keep federal funding where perhaps it has the most value. What do people think?

@Ike_Saul Mostly good stuff although I have to roll my eyes at the "off their phones" stuff. Moral panic.