Annalisse Mayer mouths off

Sunday, May 10, 2020

to a young woman who wants to come to the USA to get away from her parents

I got into an interchange with a young woman on Quora who wanted to come to the USA to get away from her parents, whose opinions she rejected. These were some comments that I wrote in response

This comment is better written than your original question. That’s encouraging from the perspective of your studying in the USA. [I had written that English errors in her question would preclude her from entry into an Ivy League School.]

Unfortunately, though, if you want to get into setting policy at a governmental level, you’re going to have to get along with other people. It sounds like you’re having issues with that.

I relate. I personally have a mild autism spectrum disorder. I tend to like to do things alone. It sounds like you also do.

It is very common for people with autism, or a lot of autistic features, to think that if they went to another country their problems would go away. It doesn’t work that way, though. You’ll still have to deal with people in other countries and you’ll likely have similar problems with them as you have at home.

In describing your parents, you seem to reject them based on their opinions. But people are more than their opinions.

After my mom died, I wrote an obituary for her. I wrote a shorter one for the newspaper and a longer one for myself and the family. I wrote a couple of things that I still believe are true. My mom was not able to work in the family business, because she was a female. My grandfather gave the business to her brother [who incidentally ran it into the ground]. My mom ended up marrying my dad after her father died prematurely from a smoking related heart attack. My grandfather was very anti-semitic and my father’s ancestry was Jewish, though he had been raised Lutheran. So my grandfather was very sexist AND bigoted.

My uncle was infuriated when I mentioned my grandfather’s unsavory opinions in my mother’s obituary. Later, though, he had to admit that what I wrote was true — but the point was that, even though my uncle rejected those opinions, he still loved his father very much.

You mention that you’re 31. My mid-thirties was when I had the biggest conflicts with my mom (also when I was about 13). I hope that over time you will learn to love your parents even if they disagree with you about some things.

My parents are now dead. I’m probably better off that way, but, fortunately, I think they died with us on fairly good terms.

Friday, May 8, 2020

#masks4all -- a twitter interchange

Here is the YouTube video cited above:

link to WSJ article cited above

This blog is to memorialize a twitter exchange that I had. I created screen images on my phone and dumped them into a blog. At first they were out of order, but I have fixed that now, from my desktop. I couldn't fix it from the phone. I still can't insert anything before the first picture. I don't know why.

Here’s a link to my first response to this interlocutor
https://twitter.com/annalissemayer/status/1258758090578591749?s=21

Here's an embedded tweet of my first response.

I’m not a sheeple. I’m a fanatic proponent of masks. I’ve been pushing #masks4all long before it was popular. I agree that hand hygiene is useless. as the virus is airborne.

However, I understand this article to be saying that a mask will not protect you. This I agree with...
— Annalisse Mayer (@AnnalisseMayer) May 8, 2020

Thursday, April 23, 2020

extra-curricular activities during COVID-19

I'm getting this question a lot, so I want to memorialize my answer

https://www.quora.com/What-activities-can-students-do-that-will-look-good-on-their-college-applications-during-COVID-19/answer/Annalisse-Mayer?prompt_topic_bio=1

Question answered: What activities can students do that will look good on their college applications during COVID-19?

People seem to discount the idea of solitary creative activity: art, creative writing, music, or even solo dance. Maybe you can even submit such things to contests on line or for publication. It would be really cool to get a poem or short story published. People are so focused on “leadership.” Well, everyone can’t be a leader.

Can you perhaps do something for elderly or sick neighbors, while maintaining proper social distance, e.g. shopping or yard work? I have this fantasy that people will organize delivery of care packages for sick people who are quarantined. I’ve been trying to think of what they would need: non-perishable food, gatorade powder, thermometer, blood oxygen testing device, vitamins?

Can you organize a club online, e.g. book club, acting club or debate club? Can you make some creative videos online, possibly with the help of friends? If you could develop some audio or video manipulation skills and make really creative videos, that might be interesting.

How about designing a creative app for smartphone? Or some interesting lenses for Snapchat? My cousin created a lens that ended up being used by over 20 million people!!! If you could get something to go viral, that would look good.

Can you perhaps think of a science project that could be done while maintaining social distance? Or work on a knotty math problem? Maybe you could learn some non-standard math skill like spherical trigonometry or how to manipulate quaternions or octonions. I’ve always thought it would be super cool if someone could create an animation of a Klein bottle or a hyper cube that would really help the viewer to understand it. Or maybe you could create some fractal art. That’s both mathematical and beautiful.

Another thing that a lot of students need to work on is basic writing e.g.: spelling, grammar, proper word usage, and punctuation. I’m seeing a lot of Quora questions on here from HS students that are deficient in these respects.

------------

Here's an article about a music teacher and his students who made face shields for health care providers, which is just exactly the sort of thing colleges would love to see

https://www.npr.org/2020/06/11/869948638/music-teachers-weekend-project-turns-into-almost-40-000-face-shields?fbclid=IwAR1fb-ieqYpmdDb7uz7QCi-xMLJxk5lNACc6dmZQ1uQGiHMdMi30i5Jj-qs

Saturday, April 11, 2020

building up resume and preparing for LSAT for law school

Here's another question whose answer I want to remember

https://www.quora.com/Is-2-years-enough-time-to-prepare-for-the-LSAT-and-build-up-my-resume-for-law-school/answer/Annalisse-Mayer

Some people go to law school right out of college. I’m not sure why you feel you need to build up a resume.

I personally did take 2 years off between college and law school. I worked as a computer programmer. During that job, I became interested in being a patent attorney — and in computer related law. That was something I wrote about in my essay for admissions. I have no idea what effect that may or may not have had on my admission.

As to preparation for the LSAT, I got a book of practice tests. I worked through one test and identified where I had problems. Then, on the next tests, I focused on those areas — always comparing my answer with the model answer. I didn’t spend more than few weeks on this — but, then, I happen to be good at standardized tests.

Once I got to law school, I found 3 categories of people who seemed best prepared to deal with the subject matter:

former paralegals and legal secretaries
CPA’s
Talmudic scholars

These people all seemed to hit the ground running, because they had substantial exposure to legal procedures, legal thinking, legal research, and legal arguments.

I found that STEM people, like me, were at a disadvantage, because the way were were taught to think was true/false — with concise proofs of what was true or false. Basically, I had to redecorate my brain once I was there. I had to think about things in terms of every side of a question and being willing to argue all sides. I had to learn to be more verbose in my arguments, showing more of my thinking process.

Still, we need STEM people in law.

how to raise GPA

I'm getting this question a lot on Quora, so I want to remember what I said, by memorializing it here.

Here's the link to the post

https://www.quora.com/My-GPA-for-this-high-school-semester-so-far-is-a-2-6-How-can-I-raise-it-by-the-end-of-the-semester/answer/Annalisse-Mayer

It may be tough, depending on how soon your semester ends.

Are you turning in all assignments promptly? It is much preferable to turn in an assignment on time and get 50%, as opposed to turning in nothing and getting zero. It brings down your average much less.

If you don’t understand something, are you asking your teacher for help? Are you being proactive about starting your homework early so you have time to ask for help if you don’t understand something?

If you get a bad grade on an assignment or a test, are you making sure you understand why you got that grade and what you should have done differently? Please ask your teacher — politely and deferentially — to explain it to you, so you won’t do the same thing again.

As the others have said, communication with your teacher is critical. Be polite. Set up appointments to meet in advance. Keep those appointments. Be willing to accept criticism — and even thank the teacher for it. Avoid getting defensive. How your teacher perceives you is going to make a big difference in how she treats you.

Asking for an extra credit assignment to make up lost points is definitely sometimes an option.
Do you have a quiet place to study? Are you getting enough sleep? Are you getting a healthy balanced diet? Are you getting enough exercise? These are all critical to good thinking and problem solving.

Is something going on at home that’s making it impossible for you to do work? If so, communication with your school and your teacher is critical. It’s tough now, with the quarantine, but there might be places where you could study undisturbed. I was just suggesting to my son that he might want to sit in the car and study, so that no one would bug him.

Monday, March 23, 2020

opinions about the effects of free tuition

I keep getting asked on Quora about my opinion about free tuition. I figured I had better remember where I put my answer, so that I can link to it more easily and not have to repeat myself.

Here's the link to my answer https://www.quora.com/Does-having-free-college-lessen-the-value-of-a-degree-If-college-is-free-what-would-be-the-difference-between-going-to-the-library-and-learning-the-same-material/answer/Annalisse-Mayer

Here's a transcript of what I said

Does having free college lessen the value of a degree? If college is free, what would be the difference between going to the library and learning the same material?

Annalisse Mayer, Author Specializing in Autism Themed Novels at Novels (2001-present)

Answered just now

I spoke with a taxi driver in NYC who was originally from Egypt and who was an attorney in Egypt. He said that in Egypt there is no tuition, so many people have useless degrees. It does not guarantee employment there at all. He did not feel that he could make as good of a living as an attorney in Egypt as he could as a cab driver in the USA.

I studied in France, where tuition was also free. There, education was essentially rationed, by triage. They weeded out students based on competitive examinations and expelled large percentages of students based on lower scores.

The value of education in the USA has, in the past, come from scarcity. There are currently too many college graduates and not enough people with vocational education in the USA. As a result, there are shortages of people in skilled trades. Unfortunately, entry into many of these trades is governed by a corrupt old boy network.

Therefore, imho, free education will be worth less than education you have to pay for.

That is not to say that it is worth nothing. If you are trying to get a job, an employer is going to be much more impressed by a degree than by your statement that you self-studied in a library.

If you’re planning to start your own business, self-study might be adequate, though, again, if you’re trying to get a small business loan from a bank, they might like to see a degree as well.

Sunday, November 17, 2019

My Quora posts that have lots of views

https://qr.ae/pN2Tw6 (which Indian universities equivalent to Harvard, Stanford, MIT & CalTech)