Blogs

I’ve been struggling with writing this post. I’m “burying” it here rather than sharing it on my regular blog post. I’m publishing it in the early summer hoping for fewer readers and that if anyone I know on campus reads it, they’ll have forgotten it by August when school starts again. I am going to be going to conferences and other activities soon where I will be meeting a lot of people face-to-face for the first time, and I hope that this isn’t the only thing they remember, being perhaps the last thing they read by me, about me.

A few thoughts on the genre of graduation speeches, how our appreciation changes when we listen live, when we watch online, when we're 22 (or older or younger).

An important topic from Algebra is that of intersecting lines. Equations can be written representing lines on graph paper, and Algebra, especially Linear Algebra, helps find points that are contained on more than one line, where two or more lines intersect. I thought of this last weekend as I watched former students walk across a stage to receive their diplomas, and realized that their lives had intersected with mine. I know that my life is richer for having known them.

Dear Guidance Counselors, This is the time of year when panicked seniors who either didn’t get into the colleges they wanted, or can’t afford the colleges they wanted, are looking for options.

Over the next 5 years Netflix plans to spend about $185 million on the creation of original programming. The first show, Lilyhammer, has been launched - and 4 more are in the pipeline for this year. They are: House of Cards, Hemlock Grove, Orange Is the New Black, and a reboot of Arrested Development. Subscribers will be able to stream the whole season at anytime, bypassing the traditional episode-by-episode release schedule. Will for-profit higher ed follow the Netflix path?

Magazines are rarely something that I purchase when I'm at home in Boston. However, my tune changes when I'm in an airport. Maybe it's because I'm tired of working while in-flight or perhaps my brain needs something to chew on at elevation. Lately, there are a select few titles that have made their way into my indestructible backpack.

Over the years I have blogged about my son Nick and his dilemmas in school, which began when he was “kicked out” of a Montessori program at age three for behavior that the director described as “autistic.” We rushed to a doctor for an assessment, but Nick's autism tests were largely negative. We removed Nick from Montessori and enrolled him in a more structured public school program.

Since last week’s post, I’ve been thinking a lot about business models.