Navigating MIT's Outdated Course Catalog: A Call for Modern Tools
By
low_tech_punk
Slow-proofed and worth the wait. Worth its weight in flour.
Summary
The article discusses the challenges of navigating MIT's outdated course catalog system, which lacks modern search functionality and efficiency. The author, a former Microsoft employee now at MIT, highlights the difficulty of discovering courses that could fundamentally change one's perspective, beyond the obvious choices. The piece critiques the catalog's archaic technology and calls for better tools to uncover 'unknown unknowns' in education.
Key quotes
· 3 pulledYou can easily find courses you already know you want to learn, i.e. 'known unknowns'. But discovering courses you never knew existed, courses that might reshape your thinking entirely, requires different tools altogether.
MIT's official course catalog runs on what appears to be a CGI script. The technology dates back to the 1990s. You cannot search as you type. Everything feels slow.
The transition brought an immediate problem: how do you navigate course selection when faced with the 'unknown unknowns'?
You might also wanna read
note.md: A Local-First Markdown Workspace for Academic Research and Writing on macOS
note.md is a local-first, markdown-based workspace for macOS designed by a master's student to streamline academic research and writing. It
Product Hunt·10d ago
Bibby AI: AI Co-author Tool for Academic Research Paper Writing
Bibby AI is an AI-powered co-author tool designed to help researchers with the writing process of academic papers. It assists with literatur
Product Hunt·2mo ago
Review: Refine AI Tool for Academic Article Refinement Shows Impressive Results
The author shares a highly positive review of Refine, an AI tool for refining academic articles developed by Yann Calvó López and Ben Golub.
grumpy-economist.com·3mo ago
ekoAcademic: Audio Summaries of Academic Papers for Commuters
ekoAcademic is a tool created by Aidan McConnel, Shaan Amin, and the author to generate short, accessible audio summaries of recent academic
wadamczyk.io·7mo ago
Assemblage Mapping as a Tool for Accountability in AI-Supported Legal Advice
This article examines how AI is reshaping legal advice at the infrastructure level, arguing that legally consequential guidance is increasin
slsa.ac.uk·48m ago
Why Jet Aircraft Use Generators Instead of Alternators for Electrical Power
This article explains why modern jet aircraft use generators instead of alternators for their electrical systems. It covers the fundamental
slashgear.com·53m ago