My point about coding - which I have been doing for fun since the 1980s (I am on /. after all) - is that it was taken as obvious that it was the future-proof skill. Not many people would argue this now.

As for tools - a tool is task specific. A carpenter without a hammer or saw is clearly at a disadvantage. And carpenters have always had these tools. But Homer, for instance, did not even have a pen or ink. He composed orally. The tools of thinking are experience, memory, and logic. My point is that thinking per se requires no external tools. It is the ultimate in freedom.

In the last tech bubble, companies were spending more on gaining and keeping employees. Employees earning more money spend more money, generally speaking. That consumption drives the economy. (It turns out, the real job creators were the average person.)

In the AI bubble, companies are holding off hiring and are not interested in retaining employees. That hurts consumption, and thus the economy isn't booming.

The rich are getting richer, but that doesn't help as much to drive the economy - they don't need the extra money, thus they are less likely to spend it. Give a person making $30k a year a $1k raise, and they'll likely find something to quickly spend it on. Maybe they'll finally fix their car. Maybe they'll buy something they need but couldn't afford before. Maybe they'll actually go out to eat for a change. That all drives the economy. But give a person making $3 million a year a $1k raise, and they don't have the same need to spend it.

Which is likely why we see the stock market booming even though the economy is mediocre. Money that's not needed is often invested.

I do have them type them up at home so that they are legible, but I have them work from pictures of their essays that they take before they leave class, and I keep the hand-written originals. So I guess I am not completely tech free, but that is a tiny compromise.

You would need to add at least a couple of 0s for it to even begin to seem reasonable.

I now do all hand-written assignments, and one of my students asked me the other day if I could read cursive.

The great men in question have all worked through the thoughts of those upon whose shoulders they stood. Even if you could make a case that LLMs understand the words they use (they don't: we all know they simply predict the likelihood that certain words will appear in a certain order in a certain context based on massive training), you certainly could not argue that those depending on LLMs (and in this case, we're talking about university students) have exercised the same care as, say, Newton did in in working through Kepler.

I banned all tech from my classroom before the pandemic, but had to bring it back for obvious reasons. Now it's banned again. This is the only answer to the issue. Don't give me that shit that I am not preparing my students for the future. First, none of us know the future. Second, coding was to prepare students for the future. If I can get my students to think autonomously, and learn how to articulate their thoughts persuasively, and not simply copy the educated guesses of LLMs, my students come out ahead.

That's a much worse answer as it helps feed the algorithm. Kill the expectation of ever finding the fake book.

Life is a fatal illness. I know the facts as reported so far. I've prioritized my survival strategy. I prefer the versatility of the gas flame.

You're correct. Most home stoves, even gas, are useless for true wok cooking. Buy a wok stand for a propane tank and cook outside.

I do it in that or less on my gas stove, and I need to use a smaller flame to match the pot size.

On my my list of worries, death by gas stove emissions is pretty low.

The basis of what is licit in law and ethics has never been personal will, although your will does make you culpable or praiseworthy for any normative act, whatever the case may be.

I'd mod this down if I could as it is completely off-topic. A discussion forum is not social media. And discussion forums far pre-date the socials.

I am so stealing that.

Don't see too many cars on walking paths and sidewalks. The number of e-bikes on walking paths and sidewalks has skyrocketed. It's almost as if someone decided being a pedestrian is a sinful activity, and that every walkway must now be infested with morons on wheels.

Then let me get started on mobility scooters.