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vgr's profile
Venkatesh Rao
Venkatesh Rao
Venkatesh Rao
@vgr

Tweets

Venkatesh Rao

@vgr

This is my conversational account. For my work follow @ribbonfarm, @breaking_smart, @artofgig. Tweets are 90% vacuous views, apathetically held. Mediocritopian.

Los Angeles, CA
venkateshrao.com
Joined August 2007

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    1. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 7 Sep 2019
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      Genuine question: what exactly are the major contributions of MIT media lab? I will admit my priors might be unfair,y hostile and my reaction to current travails a little too schadenfreude-ish.

      21 replies 13 retweets 73 likes
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    2. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 7 Sep 2019
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      Back in ~2001-2 one of my own mentors at U. Michigan went on a rant against Media Lab in one of our sessions. Among other things calling Negroponte “a fool” (not the full insult... the source would be too guessable if I quoted exactly).

      2 replies 1 retweet 14 likes
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    3. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 7 Sep 2019
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      Another mentor went on a (IMO less well-founded) rant against the robotics lab, calling Rod Brooks a “charlatan” (this was before Taleb copyrighted that particular insult).

      1 reply 0 retweets 14 likes
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    4. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 7 Sep 2019
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      Something you may not know if you haven’t been in academia. Many highly reputed non-MIT academics at other top univs hate MIT for a very specific reason: their tendency to hire their own PhD alumni, often right after they finish. This inbreeding explicitly flouts a strong norm.

      1 reply 2 retweets 24 likes
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    5. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 7 Sep 2019
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      Most univs have a policy of not hiring their own grads until they’ve worked elsewhere first. There’s a bias in favor of cross-pollination. Though there’s lots of mutual respect between star academics at MIT and other univs, as an institution, it’s in the doghouse for this.

      1 reply 0 retweets 13 likes
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    6. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 7 Sep 2019
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      Mentioning this for context. With other univs in trouble, there will at least be gestures at wagon-circling by all peer univs, even as they move to poach stars. With MIT, the knives may be out more openly. I do think the inbreeding culture helped create the Epstein shitshow.

      2 replies 1 retweet 17 likes
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      Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 7 Sep 2019
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      Also doesn’t help that MIT has had a history of dismissing external criticism of its culture as mere envy 🤔 Well, I hope there’s no lasting damage from this or genuine talented innocents with no complicity having careers ruined because the Media Lab brand is tarnished

      1:13 PM - 7 Sep 2019
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      • _ 🏴 ArrieroTosco🏳️‍🌈💰⚡ Thomas Womack stupid twitt account ketan_rathod Rahul Ramchandani Pavel Velkovsky Conrad Wai Billy Smith
      2 replies 1 retweet 11 likes
        1. Turil Cronburg‏ @thewiseturtle 7 Sep 2019
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          Replying to @vgr

          For a glimpse at what @joi brought to the Media Lab, watch this deeply important discussion he and some other techies had about the future and how we want to use technology to improve life for all. (wherein I get +1 from @tegmark :-)https://www.media.mit.edu/videos/ml-talks-2017-12-19/ …

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        1. Turil Cronburg‏ @thewiseturtle 7 Sep 2019
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          Replying to @vgr

          I've been periodically involved (unofficially) with the Media Lab for a couple of years and honestly have been blown away at what @Joi has brought to it. His ideals of focusing on making technology that improves humanity as a whole has been so crucial to tech/MIT growing well.

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