The hottest Graduate studies Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
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Top Education Topics

Education Links, 3/9/2026

In My Tribe • 273 implied HN points • 09 Mar 26
🚌 Education Graduate studies
  1. Sustained success comes from focused fascination rather than vague "follow your passion" advice — true curiosity is what you can stick with longer than your competitors without burning out.
  2. Graduate students who identify as more "woke" report much higher interest in politics and engage in political discussion with peers far more often than less "woke" students.
  3. The academic publishing system is rent-seeking because taxpayers fund research but then pay to access it; putting papers in the public domain and making peer review transparent would eliminate that double payment.

Convex Optimization at the Midpoint

arg min • 198 implied HN points • 17 Oct 24
🚌 Education Graduate studies
  1. Modeling is really important in optimization classes. It's better to teach students how to set up real problems instead of just focusing on abstract theories.
  2. Introducing programming assignments earlier can help students understand optimization better. Using tools like cvxpy can make solving problems easier without needing to know all the underlying algorithms.
  3. Convex optimization is heavily used in statistics, but there's not much focus on control systems. Adding a section on control applications could help connect optimization with current interests in machine learning.

The Kollel and the Quad

What Is Called Thinking? • 146 implied HN points • 17 Feb 26
🚌 Education Graduate studies
  1. Both the Haredi kollel system and many humanities departments claim intrinsic value to block accountability while still drawing public subsidies.
  2. What began as narrow exemptions for elite practitioners has expanded into mass entitlement, protected by self-certification, ideological gatekeeping, and the romanticizing of poverty to excuse low standards and avoided obligations.
  3. A better model pairs deep study with civic duty; examples like hesder yeshivot and veterans-turned-scholars show that service and learning can reinforce each other, so intrinsic value should come with reciprocal public responsibility.

Thinking About Teaching Economic History to the First-Year Economic History Graduate Students This Forthcoming Semester

Brad DeLong's Grasping Reality • 199 implied HN points • 02 Jan 25
🚌 Education Graduate studies
  1. Economic history helps us understand how preferences and market structures formed over time. Looking back can show us why things are the way they are today.
  2. It's important for economics students to learn about the historical context of economic principles. This context can enrich their understanding and practical applications in the real world.
  3. Questions about past economies can shed light on current issues, like inequality and technology progress. Exploring these questions can lead to valuable insights for today's economists.
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