Tricky one to weigh up there. It might not be that you’re lazy, you may well just be burned out, not working effectively (i.e. overworking yourself), or it could even be imposter syndrome. On the other hand, yes you could just be lazy, or you might just really hate your job. Hell, there have been times where I’ve felt unmotivated because our leadership team were just arseholes - sometimes a lack of motivation goes beyond just your own choices.

There just isn’t enough data in a short post.

Take some leave, go get checked out by a doctor, talk to a friend/partner, take a look at job ads to see if anything sounds better than where you are.

That is not how you wake a sleeping student.

You do it by putting a sheet of complex questions in front of them, and then loudly saying “you may now turn your papers over, you have 1 hour to complete the exam”.

Jokes aside, if a student is sleeping in class, you probably want to have a word with the DSL to check up on them after class. Students only sleep if they’re exhausted or you’re really crap at teaching - get one of their mates to wake them quietly without drawing too much attention.

I’ll pause you right there - I am a mathematical researcher by trade. We don’t get paid, or glory, pride or much attention XD

Trust me when I say, unlike in art, the folks who put in the legwork in mathematics tend to toil in obscurity. We don’t much mind it, the pay isn’t great but it does pay the bills.

I’ll leave this thread with a thought - since I think we’re a little too far apart on opinion to bridge the gap. All fields require creativity, not all forms of creativity are equally rewarded, and therein lies the true root of the AI crisis.

Oh dear…

Yes, copyright owners, but not the rights of the creator. Mathematical research is part of the publishing industry, and that strips the rights from creators of such works. Their work is mislabelled discovery, and no protection offered.

That lovely tool you use to make a website? Yeah, £10 says there is open source code misappropriated there (much as AI generated code is pirated from GitHub, a lot of programs “borrow” code).

Surely the mathematician and coder have equal claims to anger? It is their works being stolen too?

So, from a mathematician’s perspective, mathematical operations are careful constructs. Their validity and creation being an effort in creativity and, indeed, final catharsis.

To separate the two, one need only dictate the medium of expression.

In much the same way a person can evaluate an art style and say “this is what I want”.

Often, when people without knowledge attempt to create web pages, they’re not the best, they look good but aren’t well made. Much as AI art isn’t superior to a skilled artist.

I’d somewhat disagree there.

This isn’t about the intrinsic value of the skill, or a deep understanding, it is a utilitarian application to solve a problem.

In this respect, tool using is seen as valuable. Mathematical tools (because of their ease of coding) have been popular for decades. Similarly, web page creation tools have existed for a long time - a complete novice can create professional looking pages with them.

The results from these tools may lack substance and nuance, these being given only by deep understanding, but the same can be said of AI generated images.

Ooh, links please! Might be worth throwing a few cogs into the university’s strategic goals.

“I have no math talent, but that’s ok I’ll use a tool to help” - absolutely no issues, math is hard and you don’t need most of it in “real life” (nonsense of course)

“I can’t code so I’ll use a web page maker to help” - all good, learning to code is optional, it’s what you create that matters right?

“Hey AI, break this concept down for me to help me learn it” - surprisingly, still good (though very ill advised, also built on plagiarism and putting private tutors out of work…).

“I have no art talent, but that’s ok I’ll use a tool to help” - society melts down because…?

I suppose it could just be a case of being happy to see talents we don’t have replaced by a tool? Then again, it might be artists are better at generating attractive looking arguments for their case.

Weellll…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9AT3jjAP0Y

One does look at some regimes and that song does pop into one’s mind…

Oh god, is our timeline a southpark special?!?!

It’s a sad world. I keep meaning to run a code club for my students (thinking we just work through lazy devs’ shmup tutorial together), but I keep getting sidetracked by trying to deal with department politics -_-

Antinatalism is a mistake - I think I agree there, mostly because it’s a path to a narrow gene pool and increases the probability of extinction.

Highest aspiration being parenthood - hard pass there, the highest aspiration in life is the seeking and sharing of knowledge.

The purpose of an education is to learn how to think, not how to work.

A lot of universities are being treated as training centers for the world of work - and this is not ok.

The key concept they’re missing a lot of the time is that software sits within the file system and not the other way around.

This is largely because apps hide this and data is generally stored in one place on your phone (the downloads folder).

Best way to fix it - have 1–2 lessons entirely devoted to finding shit on their computer. My favourite activity is “ok, save your word file, close word, you now have 10 mins to find that file without opening word”.

This is the main barrier for me (other one is migrating a janky access database). I really don’t want to spend my 2 hours free time an evening troubleshooting Nvidia driver issues (4800S series).

Anyone with this card have an experience to share?

*pay increase above actual inflation/bill increases.

My pay has gone up every year, but each year I end up poorer as my bills eat the extra, plus some more!

I was thinking the UK because ours is ancient

Methods of updating energy infrastructure to accelerate the switch to renewable energy?

Ah the eternal war of the dawnies and the duskies…

I think a lot of the issue is that it’s possible to shift to a 24 hour economy with morning and night shifts, but (like remote working pre-covid) we hear a lot of “it’s not possible”.

It’s the “come to me through fire and war” that worries me more.