April 14, 2003

Heller's Dilemma

Catch-22's are generally based around the idea that you can't do one thing for the sake of another and vice versa. Joseph Heller's pop culture slash lit masterpiece phenom started the ideology:

There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to.

And now, I find myself in a modern version of the same game: I need to pay for school, but I need to register for school to pay for school, but I can't register if I can't pay for school because of how student loans work. This corporate red tape bullshit at my beautiful academic institution is killing me.

You see, I attend a conglomerate of sorts. New York University is, in effect, the Microsoft of the educational system. They have a monopoly on the NYC lifestyle, so much so that NYU is consistently top 3 in "most popular" destinations for high school graduates. That, of course, means that there is a false sense of brand equity present, one that derives itself more from the actual location of the school than its academic substance. This is not to say that this is not a good school. But it is sufficient to say that the bureaucracy present outweighs the possibility of this becoming a great school.

I am saddened by this. This is not efficient.

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what do you mean "this is not to say that this is not a good school"?

it isn't.

that is the end of that.

schools as entities aren't good. neither are individual colleges. it's hard to find a good professor that makes you feel that dropping a few thousand a year is actually worth it.

the top-ranked, world-reknowned engineering department here is hardly good (for undergrad, anyway).

how they come up with rankings is a matter of financial viability, i think. that's how departments get funded, after all. it's not about learning.

Sorry for being late, but, yay! the comments are back! I heard a funny statement tonight from the practice: "We have good news for you. The court have found you insane. You must be pleased." That's the tragedy nowadays; you can't execute insane people, so you have to make them well and then execute.

From the FT, kimchi can prevent SARS because of its high garlic contents. So far nobody from Korea has it. Pretty nice.

Rahat -- happy tax day! Celebrate the idiocy that is bureaucracy by contributing to its perpetuation!

^_^

So nice to see your comments back.