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Indeed! Per Kay: perhaps we should instead be optimizing “number of Sistine Chapel ceilings per generation.” vpri.org/pdf/hc_pers_co

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Carlos De la Guardia

@dela3499

· Oct 23, 2018

Replying to @dela3499 and @andy_matuschak

I get the impression that self-directed learning is tested by the perverse question: “When students are free to be different and learn what they like how they like, do they nevertheless turn out the same, and learn precisely and only what I want them to know - efficiently?”

4:15 PM · Oct 23, 2018Twitter for iPhone

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Are you implying that the Sistine Chapel ceiling is an exemplar of self-directed work? If so, I’m not sure that’s right. Pope Julius II coerced Michelangelo to do the painting. The artist himself would have much rather kept to his sculpture.

Carlos De la Guardia

@dela3499

Oct 23, 2018

True. But here, it’s an example of something beautiful and good in itself, rather than an exam, which isn’t. Really, though, there is no single measure of progress - not in education, technology, or anything else. No single metric to optimize. People choose their own rewards.

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