Tag: learn

To be a great innovator, learn to embrace and thrive in uncertainty
SELF

To be a great innovator, learn to embrace and thrive in uncertainty

Madam C.J. Walker, born Sarah Breedlove, was America’s first female self-made millionaire. She pioneered a line of hair care and beauty products for people of color early in the 20th century, and the recent Netflix series “Self Made” details the story of this talented innovator and the challenges she overcame on the way to her success. To accomplish her goals, she had to face overwhelming uncertainties. How would she finance her business? Would her partnerships fail? Would her products sell? Would ruthless competition and racism get in her way? Madame Walker’s future was far from certain when she began her journey, but that did not dissuade her. Madam Walker was willing and able to face uncertain situations as she grew her business. The Smithsonian via Wikimedia Commons It is tempting to ...
What we can learn from MLK for a Better Post-Coronavirus Economy
SOCIAL JUSTICE

What we can learn from MLK for a Better Post-Coronavirus Economy

The civil rights icon fiercely advocated for redistributive wealth and social democracy. Fifty-two years after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was gunned down in Memphis, April 4, 1968, his radical economic agenda reverberates through a pandemic-ridden nation at a prophetic tilt. “If the society changes its concepts by placing the responsibility on its system, not on the individual, and guarantees secure employment or a minimum income, dignity will come within reach of all,” King wrote in his book Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community. As the economy grinds to a halt to flatten the COVID-19 curve, the triage of policies designed to fill the yawning holes in the nation’s social safety net looks a lot like what Dr. King ordered. The $2 trillion congressional emergency relief bill, CARES...
6 ways to build motivation to do your schoolwork now that you’re forced to learn online at home
SELF

6 ways to build motivation to do your schoolwork now that you’re forced to learn online at home

Even in normal circumstances, it can be hard to get motivated to do your schoolwork. But these are not normal circumstances. The switch to remote instruction caused by COVID-19 has been unsettling. Patterns have changed. Habits have been disrupted. Remote classes are simply different from classes that involve face-to-face instruction. As a researcher who looks at what it takes to get through college, I have a few tips that could maximize your motivation and productivity when you’re at home going to school online. 1. Guard your time You do not need large amounts of time to be productive. Instead, be intentional and focused in short blocks where you can work without interruption. Protect these open times by setting up your workspace to minimize distraction – including silencing notificatio...
We are entering a recession – but what did we learn from the last one?
IN OTHER NEWS

We are entering a recession – but what did we learn from the last one?

As the coronavirus continues to spread around the world, it is abundantly clear that the global economy is entering a recession – the first we’ve seen since 2008. Some officials have compared the last period of economic decline – also know as the Great Recession – to the Depression, which began in 1929. Yet it is clear that these two downturns differed not only in severity but also in the consequences they had for inequality in the United States. Though the Depression was bigger and longer than the Great Recession, the decades following the Great Depression substantially reduced the wealth of the rich and improved the economic security of many workers. In contrast, the Great Recession exacerbated both income and wealth inequality. Some scholars have attributed this phenomenon to a weak...
The tricky ethics of Google’s Project Nightingale, an effort to learn from millions of health records
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

The tricky ethics of Google’s Project Nightingale, an effort to learn from millions of health records

The nation’s second-largest health system, Ascension, has agreed to allow the software behemoth Google access to tens of millions of patient records. The partnership, called Project Nightingale, aims to improve how information is used for patient care. Specifically, Ascension and Google are trying to build tools, including artificial intelligence and machine learning, “to make health records more useful, more accessible and more searchable” for doctors. Ascension did not announce the partnership: The Wall Street Journal first reported it. Patients and doctors have raised privacy concerns about the plan. Lack of notice to doctors and consent from patients are the primary concerns. As a public health lawyer, I study the legal and ethical basis for using data to promote public health. Info...