The World's Most Selective University 2: Secret Societies, Pedagogy and Philosophy of Education

I encourage you to read the first part of the post if you wish to learn more about the university I’m going to discuss, but this post can also be read in independently as I try to make everything self-contained.

In this post, I’m going to talk about my thoughts and ideas related to education and my philosophy of education, including what an ideal curriculum would look like to me. And as always, nothing is absolute and I'm open to changing my mind; it's just my worldview and opinion, and I'd be more than happy to get to know your thoughts on this topic and comments on my ideas or even honest feedback or constructive criticism on how I could improve my writing. It's just ideas so some of them might be realistic, some not, but I believe all the ideas I've presented in this post are, so if anyone thinks differently, I'd like to know.

After that, I'm going to move to the 'secret society' part, and to get it out of the way, I'm not a part of some secret society that secretly runs the world from the shadows and manipulates political leaders of large companies and chief executives of multinational corporations and unicorns, and we definitely don't convene for a biannual meeting at midnight in one of the more secluded places and perform various rituals and sacrifices to the non-existent god called the Flying Spaghetti Monster, Majestic Macaroni, Supreme Sushi Spirit, Almighty Burrito Being, Cosmic Cappuccino, and the legendary Divine Dumpling Doughnut Deity, definitely not, that's ridiculous (D.id that get too oddly specific? Oops.)

Anyway, I'm not. Probably, because even if I were I'd like you to think I'm not; not that you'd believe in such stuff anyway. And I'm not so stupid to talk about it on a public post if I was. Do I look like someone that stupid? Well, yes, I do, but appearances deceive, don't judge a book by its cover, and you don't rely on your intuitions without testing them. I'm not that stupid. But then I could be acting stupid but talking about it because no one would expect a member of the order of th- I mean, the secret society to talk about such stuff, or again I could be bluffing, or- anyway, I won't do such stuff because that would get me assassinated if I were a member of such a society. Haha. Oh, someone just rang the doorbell.

I wonder who's out there at midnight; parents are asleep so I might have to check out. So annoying. Just gimme a second so I can check out- (muffled screaming sounds, disappears, never returns, replaced by a realistic human-like automaton who is a robotic version of he who must (not) be forgotten, the boy who lived (before he died), you (don't) know who, he will (not) be missed by several people..) Wow, I should try creative writing sometime. And no, I'm not the robotic version. I'm the real-me. Probably. Oh no, what if I'm a robot and my whole life is a lie, reality is an illusion, oh no freak it it all makes sense-

Anyway, forget that. I know it's a very lengthy preface now, and I swear it wasn't intended to be; just my brain's habit of giving me ideas while I write, I just came up with it and decided to write it as I go. (don't) apologize if anyone is bothered, but to be honest I don't really care because all my life no one has tried to listen and understand, even my parents fail to do so, and this is my personal blog, my safe little world where I write whatever the flying flamingo I want to, and if anyone has a problem with it, they are free to not read or send me a message. But yes before the main content, an important thing that I'm a bit annoyed about so please allow me to write about it-

There was an interesting wall of text I'd written once in a discord community- related to physics but I brought in my huge giant interdisciplinary sword of education, neuroscience, AI, mathematics and much more and for reasons it's now forever lost to time and you have no idea- maybe you do but it's one of the worst kinds of suffering, losing my ideas, it's even worse than all the physical and a few of the mental illnesses I've faced in the past, it's like losing a part of you, because my ideas come the closest to being something unique to me that I can associate with my 'self' otherwise the 'self' is like the ship of Theseus and we can only try to capture what we feel is beautiful- be it some artwork or trait or idea or object- and realize it's short-lived and transient so we try to capture it and spread it and cherish it while it lasts, something I think I might have written about in another post.

Anyway, my post is that it's lost, but I'll soon release another- not post, probably a video, on the channel, and I might be able to recall and retrieve from somewhere in the deep recesses of my memory- it's weak but sometimes it surprises me in unexpected ways, and from an IQ test I gave two days ago I realized that my working memory is much better than I used to think- I can close my eyes and repeat backwards more than 8 digits anyone speaks out slowly. It was about how using my hypothesis that everything is connected at some level of abstraction, we could find a-priori axioms that are only dependent on sensory stimuli or data we receive from the external observable objective events in the universe, and use logic to come up with the rest of all knowledge- like what is done in mathematics, but for all disciplines, and then use this to eradicate rote memorization and allow students to work on internalizing those few axioms or fundamental general abstract principles that hold universally true and could be applied to solve problems in any disciplines- using maybe analogies between disciplines and finding hidden connections and solving hard problems using axioms derived from multiple disciplines, allowing them to work on real-world problems, make them see why they are studying what they are studying, if this is the best way, the history and philosophy of the subject and why it is relevant to the real world, how it is relevant to their past personal experiences and how learning this could help them live better lives or solve problems to contribute to society to help others live better lives, by discovering not only their personal best learning methods tailored to their individual brains but also their genes and early environment to discover their true inclinations and abilities and desires and what could allow them to achieve maximum satisfaction, the activities where they would be most likely to experience the mental state of flow and the belief and core values and morals- their own, just allowing them to discover by questioning and experimentation, not forcing any specific ideology onto them- how to do everything they were never taught in school, achieve their goals and cultivate in them a genuine sense of curiosity and desire for learning and knowledge and worldviews that are healthy and allow them to cope with necessary suffering until we can eradicate such suffering altogether and not harm others and help those who are less fortunate than them, live rationally as in after their values and goals and preferences are determined either directly or through exploration and experimentation, they could try to live and act in ways that maximizes the probability of them achieving their desired goals, and create a better, peaceful, safer society and achieve peak mental and physical state by cultivating habits such as meditation and other more advanced forms of neurofeedback training and other safe and scientific methods- that we determine using rigorous experimentation- to be able to live as rationally that is to maximize the probability of them achieving their goals, whatever makes it easier, such as being more calm and detaching themselves from the outcome, or other traits or abilities.

I care about what you think about my ideas and writing, yes, but I don't care about what you think if it's about personal preferences or anything bigoted, closed-minded, discriminatory or unconstructive, I don't care, otherwise I'd love to hear what you think, and that's one of the primary reasons I started this post, to get to know more people and discover like-minded people. Coming back to where I went off a tangent from, here's a brief overview of the structure of this post series: expanding on points I mentioned in 'Absurdism', my philosophy of education, a community of people who value common virtues (such as lifelong learning and a love for knowledge, and my thoughts on Dark Academia, though I might create a second post if this one gets too lengthy; I'll let you know.) and finally, as you might have guessed from the title, the world's most selective university.

Here's a brief overview of the structure of this post series: expanding on points I mentioned in 'Absurdism', the world's most selective university, copyrights and patents, my philosophy of education, a community of people who value common virtues (such as lifelong learning and a love for knowledge, and my thoughts on Dark Academia, the last two topics are covered in the next part.)

This is the structure of this post: The curriculum and pedagogy at the university, it’s similarities with my ideal vision and philosophy of education, constructive criticism and how it’s model could be improved, and finally building a community of like-minded individuals who share some common core values one of them- as you might have guessed- is a genuine sense of curiosity and desire to learn, what the community would involve and why anyone should care. Plus a little bonus at the very end of this post.

(it’s already far better than many pre-existing models, yet I see scope of improvement to make it better; I don’t criticize any university for it’s curriculum or pedagogy because I know it’ll come off as complaining and there’s too much to criticize- most universities in India, for instance- but this one is special, and I can see how it could improve, or even if it doesn’t want to improve, how I could take inspiration from it and learn from it’s good parts to improve my own ideal vision of an education system and philosophy of education, because these are fields that I wish to get involved in in the very near future even though they aren’t exactly my primary research interests, they’re higher up on the list of my research questions than most, in terms of importance.)

This might be one of my longest prefaces to a post, though I think I did something similar with another one.. anyway, without further ado, here's the main content, and please let me know if you have any comments after reading it all:

I won't talk about everything, I mean, not all of my philosophy of education, because then this would actually turn into a book, much longer than my longest posts. So I'll try to keep it concise and just restricted to Minerva for now, plus some tangentially related stuff.

I'll start by something I sent to some people there, then proceed:

"I have been reading a bit about the philosophy and pedagogy at Minerva, and I'm delighted to notice that many of the practices that the site mentions are things that I myself have wished I'd have from a university. There are also some aspects- such as the habits of mind as cultivation of as well as critical thinking skills- that are related to my current research interests and that I'd love to know more about; the specifics as well as how it's implemented at Minerva. I don't just want to understand the approach towards education at Minerva in a better way, I also want to check if they have any similarities to my ideas about the ideal education system and solve some very perplexing problems I have come up with for the same.

I have wished to talk about such an education system with many people, but unfortunately, the system here has quite a few flaws of its own that I spend more time addressing than moving on to what an ideal system should look like. I think that the people at Minerva, with their bold and innovative new approach towards education, would be more perceptive to my ideas and questions than others in my current environment who don't appreciate such questions. I was delighted to see that some aspects of the philosophy and teaching methods at Minerva address some problems that I'd been thinking about myself for quite some time, and the techniques seem similar to my ideas, so I'm interested in getting to know more about them, their rationale and how they are implemented.

My first question revolves around the critical thinking skills that Minerva aims to develop in its students. Rationality and Critical Thinking are some of my most prized values and principles I try to apply in every area of my life, and I've been noticing the lack of emphasis on developing such skills in today's youth, and in fact I'm currently working on a new initiative, a project of mine that aims to solve this problem, and I won't get into that here but would be more than happy to elaborate on it if you're interested.

Another thing that struck a chord with me was the point about not focusing on memorizing and rote-learning (something that is encouraged in the Indian education system which teaches with the aim of preparing students to regurgitate information to get a passing grade) in today's golden age of information, and trying to develop skills and ways of thinking that would actually help you in your life and academic pursuits and also be more relevant when you join the workforce.

As you put it, Minerva focuses on critical thinking, creative thinking, effective communication, and effective interaction. I think that the actual distinction isn't that clear and there's a lot of overlap, but such as how critical thinking can help you come up with creative approaches to solve problems in novel situations, or how effective communication is impossible without effective interaction, but I think that I get the gist of it. I'm also curious to know more about the habits of mind and foundational concepts.

I have a few more ideas about how a curriculum could be designed in a way that actually teaches students how to think, and also how to learn and why, with habits that would help them for life and help them discover their true values, abilities, interests and come up with their own guiding principles that would enable them to grow into educated, socially-conscious and responsible adults.

I noticed that schools are good at killing the motivation of the few students who manage have it in such an environment in the first place, but I was thinking more along the lines of how we could teach such that every student feels the sense of satisfaction and genuine curiosity to learn more and try to understand the fundamental processes governing the universe, as well as have a significant positive impact on society through their projects.

I don't get to see that around me, but I believe that if education is done right, it could achieve this seemingly ambitious goal, and much more, because any subject taught in the right way along with its why and how can be made interesting for anyone, and there is a lot of hidden potential that could be enabled to flourish only if they're provided with the adequate opportunities and resources, and later go on to make major contributions to science, arts and society.

I have a few more ideas about how this process could be speeded up with psychological and other similar interventions, but this message is already getting too long and I would keep that for later if you're interested in learning more. In fact I also reached out to the admissions to enquire if it'd be possible to schedule a meeting with anyone who is well-acquainted with the teaching philosophy and pedagogy at Minerva, because it struck me as very unique and similar to many ideas of mine regarding what an ideal undergraduate system should consist of, and because everyone I share this with is not too encouraging and enthusiastic about challenging the established (and outdated) system and status-quo, but I figured that people are Minerva would be more receptive to my ideas and might be interested in learning more about them. I am still waiting for a reply.

It's easier to learn general concepts than specific instances, so I have been practicing trying to generalize different specific instances or events from my everyday experiences, and applying those general principles to other domains of my life to discover connections I had previously not noticed. But the essential component that's left out in the education system here is the experience part. It's too theory-oriented, and students take longer to grasp a concept intuitively unless they experience it themselves, and are allowed to observe it using all their senses and be allowed to play around with it, imagine counterfactuals and what ifs. I noticed that most of the classes are online and my question is whether or not the students get enough time to explore the new settings that students get the golden opportunity to explore.

This is also one of my academic goals, to uncover hidden connections and analogies between seemingly unrelated fields and apply tools from one discipline to problems of another. It also complements my desire to not restrict myself to a single discipline, and read widely to learn a broad range of topics. It's great to see that Minerva offers a wide variety of unique programs, but I wanted to ask if it's possible to get involved in lab research, considering that they are required to change locations multiple times during their studies. Has the university set up or collaborated with labs in all of these locations, and has anyone done any such thing in the past?

A related question I wanted to ask is whether international students have enough employment opportunities after graduation, considering that many countries have strict visa rules regarding such topics. Are they able to find internship and employment opportunities at any of the locations that they have studied in? I'm asking this question because some locations have strict visa rules and requirements including a minimum amount of time a person is required to stay to be eligible for employment. Has any international student been able to do that in the past?

Another great thing that I noticed is that Minerva focuses more on the motivation and drive of students than their scores, which is something that is currently lacking in the Indian education system, and that I've also talked about to senior members of the academic and curriculum designing committee at my university, and that my new project aims to address. A number can't determine what you are capable of, and there are several external factors out of a student's control that could influence their score on a theory exam taken on a single day. It's ridiculous to sort students into programs and universities based on that number, with no consideration for their motivation, future plans or extracurriculars.

Moreover, I find that the vast majority of students are not too driven here, and I think that system is to blame in part, but I think that the students should make an effort too, or at least the students who are motivated must have some like-minded companions. I have been complimented by several researchers in my field of interest I reached out to that I seem to be very motivated and that I must not lose it, and even though I consider myself to be immune to external influence in that regard and not let myself be affected by such things, I can see how a motivated person could be suppressed in a similar environment elsewhere, and how we could be losing on bright students with a potential to achieve great things.

I am working on a project to solve exactly this issue, and I'd be more than happy to share it with you and how it connects with the goals of Minerva Project, but I'd only elaborate on it later if you're interested because I've already asked you quite a few questions. I realize that it's a lot of questions, but I'm curious to know what you think about them, and we could even schedule a virtual meeting if you feel like it'd be more convenient for you than text. Thank you, looking forward to your reply.

I was also curious about the training that would allow a student to develop transferable skills. This is a question I'm myself very interested in investigating- can playing chess improve real life strategic ability? (Some recent studies suggest the same brain areas light up in both situations, so maybe.) Is it possible to improve short-term working memory by playing dual-n-back? (Conflicting evidence, but most of it suggests that it does not.) Does playing video games improve motor skills and reaction time? Does studying advanced mathematics increase abstract logical and thinking skills? What cognitive skills could be trained by activities that allow skill transfer?

Lifelong learning is one of my strongest values and guiding principles in life, and it's always a pleasure to find like-minded people and organizations like Minerva that are trying to encourage such an attitude among students. I also like the part about learning through experience because I have also realized that it's only by doing a project related to abstract concepts you learn in classroom to the real-life and connect it with your everyday experiences, and it is exactly for this reason that I think students think some subject is boring, like say biology or physics or sociology, because, at least in the current education system in my country, is relevant to their lives and would benefit them going forward, and really is so miraculous and ought to ignite in them a geuine sense of curiosity for it and desire to learn more about how they affect real-world problems if taught in the right way.

I am also excited about the interdisciplinary approach, the it was described in one of the sessions how we are supposed to not choose courses but topics to investigate from multiple perspectives, because I'm an aspiring polymath and interested in investigating my research interests with the lens of multiple disciplines, use tools of one to solve problems of another and uncover hidden connections between seemingly unrelated fields. That's how we make new breakthroughs in science and cause paradigm shifts, and create innovative solutions to some of the problems of society.

Not using test scores as admission criteria is a brilliant idea because I'm also not too enthusiastic about the idea of a single rank or number determining your future choices or being used as a reliable measure of your ability. I've been talking to the academic head and vice chancellor of my university about the same topic, and I was also able to change their mind about age being a barrier for trying to accomplish great things. I also have a new plan to design a curriculum so as to make more students interested in the topics they are taught, and how it relates to their lives.

I also believe that the current criteria of evaluation and the testing system as a whole is flawed; it causes unnecessary stress that affects the performance of students and gives an unreliable measure of true knowledge and ability. It’s counterproductive to the goals of education.

So when I learned that Minerva doesn’t use such a system, I was really glad and also curious if they had developed a better system of evaluation, and if so, what it could be. I have an idea involving AI and tools from behavioural science and I was wondering if Minerva had something similar in place.

I also think that there is way too much focus on banning latest AI technology like GPT-3 to assist students with their homework. I believe that a better approach would be to teach them to utilize such exciting and powerful technologies in augmenting their own skills and being more efficient and productive with their tasks.

Such tech could actually enable them to develop the more crucial critical thinking skills that are going to be more useful in the near future, because solely memorization of knowledge that is now available at our fingertips and even skills like basic essay writing for simple ideas is almost developed to the point of automation by AI. I was wondering whether Minerva also employs such methods to augment student learning and prepare them for the upcoming needs of the society.

Please let me know if discussing these questions over a meeting would be more convenient. Looking forward to your reply.

Additional comments: I was also wondering whether Minerva teaches students not just critical thinking but ways of thinking; general frameworks to make the most rational decision in any given circumstance, for example, or thinking techniques I have developed and apply from time to time to analyze events and extract general lessons from them that I can apply to novel contexts, or to evaluate alternatives while making a decision. Biomonitoring rationality

As an aspiring polymath I like uncovering hidden connections between seemingly unrelated disciplines, and apply tools and techniques of one to problems of another. In fact I have this extensive list of all the problems I’m excited to solve and phenomena I’m excited to investigate. I believe that taught in the right way, any subject can be made interesting, if every student is taught it’s origin, philosophical significance, relevance to the modern world and contemporary issues affecting the society, and most importantly connecting it with their daily lives and events they observe more frequently than they would initially believe when they first encounter the abstract concepts.

There are also principles like Rationality, Scientific Skepticism, Effective Altruism and Stoicism that I think should be a part of the high school and university curriculum, that teach not just concepts that are relevant directly to solving problems but to enable them to live a better life, that in turn would improve their problem-solving skills. I believe this must include skills like mindfulness meditation and emotional management along with transferable cognitive and physical training, with measurable progress using biomonitoring and neurofeedback tools, as well as behavioural tools to exercise cognitive processes such as convergent and divergent thinking that are essential components of creativity.

(I actually have a lot to say about how we could try to build intuitive understanding of concepts by practical training and teaching the how and why and philosophy and history of stuff, using personalized education and actually making it fun and more productive, but I'll leave that for another post for reasons described in the meta-post and keep this on very short and limited, just superficial level nothing too deep; same got for the secret society part- I'm soon going to create some videos for YouTube too so maybe check out my channel, if I have released it at the time you're reading this. It would be on the blog contact page, and if not, then within this week probably, this month for sure.)

I have some more ideas regarding better methods of evaluation and developing teaching techniques tailored to individual students using tools from AI and Neurotechnology that I’d be happy to talk about if you’re interested and know if something similar is used at Minerva.

I have been reading a bit about the philosophy and pedagogy at Minerva, and I'm delighted to notice that many of the practices that the site mentions are things that I myself have wished I'd have from a university. There are also some aspects- such as the habits of mind as cultivation of as well as critical thinking skills- that are related to my current research interests and that I'd love to know more about; the specifics as well as how it's implemented at Minerva. I don't just want to understand the approach towards education at Minerva in a better way, I also want to check if they have any similarities to my ideas about the ideal education system and solve some very perplexing problems I have come up with for the same.

I have wished to talk about such an education system with many people, but unfortunately, the system here has quite a few flaws of its own that I spend more time addressing than moving on to what an ideal system should look like. I think that the people at Minerva, with their bold and innovative new approach towards education, would be more perceptive to my ideas and questions than others in my current environment who don't appreciate such questions. I was delighted to see that some aspects of the philosophy and teaching methods at Minerva address some problems that I'd been thinking about myself for quite some time, and the techniques seem similar to my ideas, so I'm interested in getting to know more about them, their rationale and how they are implemented.

My first question revolves around the critical thinking skills that Minerva aims to develop in its students. Rationality and Critical Thinking are some of my most prized values and principles I try to apply in every area of my life, and I've been noticing the lack of emphasis on developing such skills in today's youth, and in fact I'm currently working on a new initiative, a project of mine that aims to solve this problem, and I won't get into that here but would be more than happy to elaborate on it if you're interested.

Another thing that struck a chord with me was the point about not focusing on memorizing and rote-learning (something that is encouraged in the Indian education system which teaches with the aim of preparing students to regurgitate information to get a passing grade) in today's golden age of information, and trying to develop skills and ways of thinking that would actually help you in your life and academic pursuits and also be more relevant when you join the workforce.

As you put it, Minerva focuses on critical thinking, creative thinking, effective communication, and effective interaction. I think that the actual distinction isn't that clear and there's a lot of overlap, but such as how critical thinking can help you come up with creative approaches to solve problems in novel situations, or how effective communication is impossible without effective interaction, but I think that I get the gist of it. I'm also curious to know more about the habits of mind and foundational concepts.

I have a few more ideas about how a curriculum could be designed in a way that actually teaches students how to think, and also how to learn and why, with habits that would help them for life and help them discover their true values, abilities, interests and come up with their own guiding principles that would enable them to grow into educated, socially-conscious and responsible adults.

I noticed that schools are good at killing the motivation of the few students who manage have it in such an environment in the first place, but I was thinking more along the lines of how we could teach such that every student feels the sense of satisfaction and genuine curiosity to learn more and try to understand the fundamental processes governing the universe, as well as have a significant positive impact on society through their projects.

I don't get to see that around me, but I believe that if education is done right, it could achieve this seemingly ambitious goal, and much more, because any subject taught in the right way along with it's why and how can be made interesting for anyone, and there is a lot of hidden potential that could be enabled to flourish only if they're provided with the adequate opportunities and resources, and later go on to make major contributions to science, arts and society.

I have a few more ideas about how this process could be speeded up with psychological and other similar interventions, but this message is already getting too long and I would keep that for later if you're interested in learning more. In fact I also reached out to the admissions to enquire if it'd be possible to schedule a meeting with anyone who is well-acquainted with the teaching philosophy and pedagogy at Minerva, because it struck me as very unique and similar to many ideas of mine regarding what an ideal undergraduate system should consist of, and because everyone I share this with is not too encouraging and enthusiastic about challenging the established (and outdated) system and status-quo, but I figured that people are Minerva would be more receptive to my ideas and might be interested in learning more about them. I am still waiting for a reply.

It's easier to learn general concepts than specific instances, so I have been practicing trying to generalize different specific instances or events from my everyday experiences, and applying those general principles to other domains of my life to discover connections I had previously not noticed. But the essential component that's left out in the education system here is the experience part. It's too theory-oriented, and students take longer to grasp a concept intuitively unless they experience it themselves, and are allowed to observe it using all their senses and be allowed to play around with it, imagine counterfactuals and what ifs. I noticed that most of the classes are online and my question is whether or not the students get enough time to explore the new settings that students get the golden opportunity to explore.

This is also one of my academic goals, to uncover hidden connections and analogies between seemingly unrelated fields and apply tools from one discipline to problems of another. It also complements my desire to not restrict myself to a single discipline, and read widely to learn a broad range of topics. It's great to see that Minerva offers a wide variety of unique programs, but I wanted to ask if it's possible to get involved in lab research, considering that they are required to change locations multiple times during their studies. Has the university set up or collaborated with labs in all of these locations, and has anyone done any such thing in the past?

A related question I wanted to ask is whether international students have enough employment opportunities after graduation, considering that many countries have strict visa rules regarding such topics. Are they able to find internship and employment opportunities at any of the locations that they have studied in? I'm asking this question because some locations have strict visa rules and requirements including a minimum amount of time a person is required to stay to be eligible for employment. Has any international student been able to do that in the past?

Another great thing that I noticed is that Minerva focuses more on the motivation and drive of students than their scores, which is something that is currently lacking in the Indian education system, and that I've also talked about to senior members of the academic and curriculum designing committee at my university, and that my new project aims to address. A number can't determine what you are capable of, and there are several external factors out of a student's control that could influence their score on a theory exam taken on a single day. It's ridiculous to sort students into programs and universities based on that number, with no consideration for their motivation, future plans or extracurriculars.

Moreover, I find that the vast majority of students are not too driven here, and I think that system is to blame in part, but I think that the students should make an effort too, or at least the students who are motivated must have some like-minded companions. I have been complimented by several researchers in my field of interest I reached out to that I seem to be very motivated and that I must not lose it, and even though I consider myself to be immune to external influence in that regard and not let myself be affected by such things, I can see how a motivated person could be suppressed in a similar environment elsewhere, and how we could be losing on bright students with a potential to achieve great things.

I am working on a project to solve exactly this issue, and I'd be more than happy to share it with you and how it connects with the goals of Minerva Project, but I'd only elaborate on it later if you're interested because I've already asked you quite a few questions. I realize that it's a lot of questions, but I'm curious to know what you think about them, and we could even schedule a virtual meeting if you feel like it'd be more convenient for you than text. Thank you, looking forward to your reply.

I was also curious about the training that would allow a student to develop transferable skills. This is a question I'm myself very interested in investigating- can playing chess improve real life strategic ability? (Some recent studies suggest the same brain areas light up in both situations, so maybe.) Is it possible to improve short-term working memory by playing dual-n-back? (Conflicting evidence, but most of it suggests that it does not.) Does playing video games improve motor skills and reaction time? Does studying advanced mathematics increase abstract logical and thinking skills? What cognitive skills could be trained by activities that allow skill transfer?

Lifelong learning is one of my strongest values and guiding principles in life, and it's always a pleasure to find like-minded people and organizations like Minerva that are trying to encourage such an attitude among students. I also like the part about learning through experience because I have also realized that it's only by doing a project related to abstract concepts you learn in classroom to the real-life and connect it with your everyday experiences, and it is exactly for this reason that I think students think some subject is boring, like say biology or physics or sociology, because, at least in the current education system in my country, is relevant to their lives and would benefit them going forward, and really is so miraculous and ought to ignite in them a genuine sense of curiosity for it and desire to learn more about how they affect real-world problems if taught in the right way.

I find the interdisciplinary approach an interesting one, the way it was described in one of the sessions how we are supposed to not choose courses but topics to investigate from multiple perspectives, because I'm an aspiring polymath and interested in investigating my research interests with the lens of multiple disciplines, use tools of one to solve problems of another and uncover hidden connections between seemingly unrelated fields. That's how we make new breakthroughs in science and cause paradigm shifts, and create innovative solutions to some of the problems of society. I hope that students are allowed to use multiple methods in their own assignments and projects at Minerva too. Not using test scores as admission criteria is a brilliant idea because I'm also not too enthusiastic about the idea of a single rank or number determining your future choices or being used as a reliable measure of your ability. I've been talking to the academic head and vice chancellor of my university about the same topic, and I was also able to change their mind about age being a barrier for trying to accomplish great things. I also have a new plan to design a curriculum so as to make more students interested in the topics they are taught, and how it relates to their lives. I also believe that the current criteria of evaluation and the testing system as a whole is flawed; it causes unnecessary stress that affects the performance of students and gives an unreliable measure of true knowledge and ability. It’s counterproductive to the goals of education. So when I learned that Minerva doesn’t use such a system, I was really glad and also curious if they had developed a better system of evaluation, and if so, what it could be. I also think that there is way too much focus on banning latest AI technology like GPT-3 to assist students with their homework. I believe that a better approach would be to teach them to utilize such exciting and powerful technologies in augmenting their own skills and being more efficient and productive with their tasks. Such tech could actually enable them to develop the more crucial critical thinking skills that are going to be more useful in the near future, because solely memorization of knowledge that is now available at our fingertips and even skills like basic essay writing for simple ideas is almost developed to the point of automation by AI. This is why I'm curious to learn more about the habits of mind and ways of teaching transferable skills that would be so crucial and powerful in the coming time. Please let me know if discussing these questions over a meeting would be more convenient. Looking forward to your reply."

They mention on their site: Admission to Minerva is not a matter of chance; it is based entirely on your own merit.

But merit itself is based on chance? But even assuming you have come up with a perfect method to evaluate merit which is exceedingly unlikely, (update: I was right, their methods are flawed, see update for explanation) merit itself is based on chance, as all your abilities are determined by random chance and accident of birth, genes and upbringing?

Getting harder to not emotionally irrationally attach my self worth with decisions, for Minerva, because of the no cap policy, focus on motivation, great curriculum, and this big claim that if you are motivated you will get in..

Another similar document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hpS_N_clawXHSqEyF_ukQPDbSqwI07yY/edit?usp=share_link&ouid=114866335897896750328&rtpof=true&sd=true

Coming to my ideas related to education, I'll just post some messages I've sent to a community describing my ideas:

I seemed to know it but recently I have realized more intuitively and understood how science is actually a collaborative effort and it is impossible to do it any other way. Because once I started looking at the topics and disciplines I'd be required to master to solve my research questions, investigate topics I'm interested in and develop my projects, I realized it's very unrealistic and impossible to learn it all and also gain mastery over all the skills and topics all by myself. The more realistic plan seems to be to focus on what I'm interested in and good at, and later collaborate with people who spend their own limited time and resources on topics and skills they're interested in and good at, and this way I'd be more likely to achieve my goals than going solo, which seemed alluring at first because of my experiences with school team projects and the difficulty I still have finding people with the same levels of motivation and interests but now I understand that the lone scientist isn't just a myth, it's impossible to pull off in real life, and even though many great scientists have taken retreats from humanity and work solitarily closed off from everyone- Dr. Karl Friston, Dr. Stephen Wolfram, among several others, they are the only ones I can recall right now- they eventually have to explain their ideas to the scientific community to know if it's a good one and to further develop it and put it to use in the real world. So I'll try not to do everything by myself, hence my comment on just focusing on a few subjects I made while replying to Maria above, and try to gain a broad and general understanding of the basics of several subjects just enough to be able to hold a conversation with researchers in the areas that I'm not an expert in yet require to further my research project, and so I can know what topics or techniques I would require to solve the questions so that, even if they don't wish to collaborate, they could guide me towards the right topics and resources to learn it all myself and ask for help whenever I'm stuck, so I don't have to over-rely or depend too much on other's expertise or finding people with similar goals, interests or motivations who might not even exist or willing to collaborate.

I know that even if I work by myself, the tools and methods I use and the ideas I build on would be borrowed and those of others, so I could never say that my discoveries or projects would be just my own, because all the equipment, theories and other ideas would be other people's, but what I'm talking about is a type of collaboration that's more active, and that's hard to find, at least from my person experience, which admittedly isn't too much yet. So I'll try to keep in mind how science works as a collaborative project, but still try not to depend too much on others to the extent that trying to find collaborators is proving to be a waste of time and efforts that could instead be diverted towards my primary project. Does that sound right? I'd like to know what you think about it, or if there is a better way so somehow I don't have to go completely lone wolf and face the disadvantages of doing so without running into the problems I shall face while trying to find collaborators.

I sometimes myself wonder how these great researchers in the history of science sometimes seemed to easily find collaborators and with them made great discoveries and also said how it'd have been impossible to do without their collaborators. One example that immediately comes to mind is Kahneman and Tversky, then there's Ramanujan and Hardy, and there are several more. I wonder how they did that, finding like minded people interested in the same goals and levels of motivation and ambition, and complementing each other's skills and domains of expertise so perfectly. Is it just the environment, like the institutions? Or is it pure chance? If it's chance is there any way we could connect such people? Oh, I have a few projects related to that too. One is related to how high-IQ societies could be reformed and restructured in a way to also measure motivation and curiosity, and connect people with similar interests and goals. Another one involves using tech tools to detect the processes involved in a flow state and connecting people with similar values.

Can you give an example of a universal principle in maths or physics that holds true no matter what, and from which you could derive other laws and theorems?

You are making assumptions, that even if were to take the pure rationalist reductionist approach you subscribe to, we haven't even figure out yet; by the nature of science itself one could even question if we ever will. If you want to base a system of education on that, then you are building sand castles, I am afraid.

Taking our experience with Natural Sciences seriously we have to be inherently aware that every single one of our theories is "wrong" (i.e. not universally valid). Taking maths seriously we know that it is not reducible to a set of fundamental universal truths that hold true no matter what. Otherwise, there would be clear and defined foundations of maths, yet there aren't!

You have thus no foundation to build on.

I can not give any such example, but then again I'm not necessarily saying that there exist such principles or that I believe that they do, I'm just playing with some ideas and curious how we could find such axioms if they do exist. Moreover, it seems to me true , and I do realize it might not be the case or far from truth and my assumptions baseless, that every event is interconnected with each other, and I also encountered this idea while reading about Spinoza's god and Taleb's books, that everything is at it's core a deterministic and random physical system, and could be described logically and mathematically once we have made sufficient progress in the mathematical sciences and got closer to understanding the nature of reality, and that everything could have something in common and some abstract general principles that hold true universally, but I'm not saying this is the case or that I believe they even exist. Kind of like how we can predict biology from chemistry phenomena, chemistry from physics, physics from mathematics, mathematics by logic, and hence it seemed to me that maybe there are a few fundamental logical axioms..

I don't know enough to subscribe to any such belief, but I think it's an interesting idea to explore, and I definitely don't believe that I or anyone should build whole education systems based on such assumptions and ideas until they're empirically tested and we have evidence that it actually works, and even after that we would be required to tread cautiously because it's an important subject, almost every student's future depends on such systems, and the consequences of doing anything wrong are too high, even if we discover that they are any improvement upon the existing systems. I'm not sure if this is possible, that's why I'm curious to know what you think, and it seems like it's exceedingly unlikely and unrealistic at this point of time and with our current understanding. Thank you.

I see, so we can never be absolutely certain about anything and every apparently universal principle in the mathematical sciences and mathematics breaks down somewhere or at least doesn't allow us to be absolutely certain that it's the truth because of our current level of understanding and our current mathematical and computational tools and techniques. So as you say then it might not be possible to reduce everything to some fundamental axioms. Thank you, that's insightful and what I was trying to understand.

Again, you need to carefully reflect on the assumptions behind your believes. Say we neglect the complexity of the problems you are posing and that they are not computationally feasible, because we agree to believe that there will be always some new computational paradigm and technology that can overcome these limitations, you will still be faced with pure encoding problems. One such is the Goedel Incompleteness theorem, for example. In other words, you cannot guarantee that the laws you are seeking can be encoded with the formal language you have chosen for that problem. Of course, also here you could try to overcome this by coming up with completely novel approaches to encoding that surpass our current use and understanding of formal language. But these do not exist, so you cannot simply build on them. In other words, what you are trying to achieve is unachievable where we are currently at.

I see. After reading your reply to my LinkedIn post about Godel's theorem not being evidence against mathematical rigour I thought that maybe it would not present any difficulties when mathematics is applied to other domains, at least not before we gain some novel insights and make some breakthroughs, but now I think I misunderstood. So as you said it just might not be possible to encode say the biosciences in the sort of formal language we currently use for mathematics, and unless I invent my own formal language specifically made for the biosciences, it would be impossible to apply the language we use for mathematics to the biosciences. Hm.

Thank you, that's exactly the kind of information I was trying to get, to know if it's even possible, and if it is then how and if not then why, and now that I know it's probably impossible, I can focus on solving the problems that I'm interested in (making psychiatry and psychology more objective, rigorous and scientific, and defining precisely and accurately abstract concepts like values, intelligence and cognition, to enable humans to self actualize and to implement intelligence in machines at the right level of abstraction independent of brain structure and substrate) in some another way, using some another solution that I still haven't conceived, or using tools from another domain or topic, but at least I'm aware of what's impossible or what I'm unlikely to achieve, so I won't expend my limited time, efforts and resources towards working on this, now that I'm aware of it.

Our knowledge is a priori limited and contextualised. This means any system and principles that you propose will be contextualised as well, and therefore it is a stretch to claim them to be universal. They are relative. The struggle of pursuit of knowledge we have been facing as humans is to

1) Maximise knowledge within the given context with our established methods by trial and error

2) Transcend paradigms to create new bigger and more encompassing contexts.

However, this is only possible by

1) struggling within a given context

2) seeking inspiration

3) stroke of genius and insight to transcend a given context.

These are individual and I am not aware of a universal way of activating this. We can only seek and try out various methods to facilitate this. But we do so as individuals.

1) So as point one says, it's supposed to be trial and error, and we can't have some sort of general rules that we could just apply everywhere to get the desired solutions or outcome. That makes sense. I think the context also must be well-defined in this case, because if it's not then I could have a context as large and inclusive as I wish, and then we'd run into the problems you described.

2) Okay now that makes more sense and the problem I raised in the previous paragraph, thank you.

I see how struggling with a context might be important- to understand it's limitations that we could solve with the more encompassing and innovative contexts, if I'm understanding it correctly. Without inspiration too no one would be motivated to do this.

And the point about stroke of "genius" and "insight" is especially interesting and I put them in quotation marks because as I mentioned somewhere above, the neural processes involved in insight generation processes and traits and ways of thinking associated with "genius" are still very poorly understood, including the type of environment and social context that encourage such qualities that produce such genius humans, but we are starting to understand a little, and if we could pin down the exact genes, thinking processes as we all environmental aspects associated with insight generation and scientific innovation, we could greatly speed up scientific progress and enable humans to come up with breakthroughs more easily, and it's related to some of the topics I'm interested in researching so I'll look deeper into this problem.

I agree that critical thinking is very important skill not just for forecasting but for making decisions in everyday life. There are many other skills such as meditation and lucid dreaming, logic and reasoning, nonverbal communication and rhetoric, persuasion and influence, effective forecasting, scientific skepticism and rationality, debating skills, stoicism, martial arts, scientific method as applied to real life, empathy, morality and ethics, systems thinking, probabilistic thinking, decision science and game theory, political philosophy, cognitive biases and logical fallacies, formalizing ideas from language in mathematical and logic language using systems like Wolfram, correct use of mind altering substances and psychedelics, existentialism and absurdism, developing and maintaining healthy social connections and relationships, health monitoring techniques including optimal levels of vitamins, minerals, genetic testing, hormone levels, psychological well-being and brain monitoring, biohacking using natural substances, transhumanism and singularity, self-actualization and a framework to discover their true values, interests, desires and aptitude, question everything including why they're doing what they're doing, what's the best way to do it, what are the ethical dilemmas involved, and how to utilize their valuable time in the best way to maximize their life satisfaction and likelihood of achieving their goals and ambitions, and other life skills and abstract general thinking tools that I have never seen any school or education institution teach students. This also includes training them for skills that transfer from the training to real world situations, including general principles and ways of thinking, cognitive abilities, emotional intelligence as well as methods of rationality.

Edit: Rejected. I might add some Instagram stories I posted that night on a close friends story- something about how I am going to make them regret this and history is going to repeat itself like art school and Hitler- I mean, how Feynman was rejected from Columbia because of Quota for Jews but I’m no Feynman but then the institution also wasn’t Columbia.

(for context, I used to just write in my notepad and move on, but recently realized that lack of human interaction is taking a toll on my mental health and I need to talk to at least virtual humans if I can’t immediately fix my social isolation in real life. Close friends in single digits. I never even really talk to most of them much, but just the idea of another conscious human reading it is comforting enough for my current social needs.):

So, as you can see, I took it personally. I still think that they probably made the right decision because I’d not have been a good ‘fit’ anyway, and I can assure you- if it’s not already clear from my blog posts- I like to think I’m more emotionally mature and don’t have ego issues that make me hate such organizations for rejecting me (in my early school days I had so much empathy that I compromised on my own mental health by not talking to others because I used to think I’m a despicable person whom no one likes and who doesn’t deserve any love, after-effects of which I still feel to this day, and I was always too agreeable and forgiving for my own good, still am, though mentally stronger now, relative to my older self.)

So why have I decided to, um, make them regret it and.. you know, why this grudge? Even though I could still re-apply next year, with a stronger profile, but I have decided just now not- I hope I stick to the plan- and I’ll just make them regret it. I have good reasons. First, I didn’t just make it so very clear how their pedagogy and philosophy of education is so similar to my own, and how I could learn from them and even take it further, as it aligns with my future goals indirectly- education is an important social institution, another one which is now counterproductive to the goals it was initially established for- but no, that’s not even the primary reason.

They also said need-blind, but as everyone suspects, such institutions do care about your ability to pay to some extent, but even assuming that this one didn’t, that’s still not the primary reason. I’ll just come to the main reason now. They said that they only care about passion and motivation, and they seemed to be receptive to novel radical unconventional ideas because they themselves have this radical new model for an education system. They said they didn’t have any quota limits, they don’t take into account SATs or any of the flawed evaluation criteria, and that if a person has motivation and ability, they are almost certain to get in. Do you see now, why I am kind of down after getting rejected?

I really don’t care even if I was rejected from a university with a 90% acceptance rate but it makes it clear and explicit that they are need-aware and not open to novel ideas and that they care about SATs or whatever and that they don’t [ have any tools to measure motivation. And this is why I was suspicious of Minerva and wanted to check out what new miraculous innovative measure of something as vague abstract and ambiguous as ‘motivation’ they have even when contemporary researchers are unable to arrive at a consensus regarding the definition of that umbrella term.

All I know for sure is that- I don’t care if you call if overconfidence or whatever, because I have had to get through a lot of self-doubt and inferiority complex and so my standards were already high, yet I proved everyone wrong who tried to discourage me and after a few of my recent- relatively small, but significant- accomplishments, I have grown more confident and I can say for sure that if I don’t have the motivation, then no one does. You can’t not say this when every single researcher from all parts of the world and even vice chancellors and reputed accomplished academics are commending you on your motivation and ability.

I know that Minerva is either lying about the accuracy of their tests, or that they decided for whatever reason, that I don’t have the motivation and ability. And as I said, I would not have taken this as a personal challenge to make them regret their decision if they didn’t say nonsense like “if you have the motivation, you will almost certainly get it, regardless of everything else” and things like no quota, I already sort of called them out on their bluff and criticized their bad parts before I even got the decision, but now I’m going to do so more liberally.

I’m going to show them what true motivation and ability is, just like if anyone says Einstein is not intelligent, that person would almost certainly be an idiot, just like that, I’m going to be that person who is the embodiment of single minded devotion to a few topics I’m passionate about, for motivation and curiosity- I already do nothing except read and write, my projects, no distractions, television, games, socialization, all day in my room overworking myself and suffering from sleep deprivation. And curiosity and motivation are two of my strongest core values, that I prize very much and try to cultivate in myself and practice in every domain of my life.

I don’t give a flying flamingo that they somehow by their own arbitrary criteria decided that I don’t have the motivation or ability, as I have the very thing that such tests intend to measure, and if they say I don’t have it, it’s the tests that are flawed, not me, and I’m going to show it to everyone now, the whole world. I’m going to start some super exciting projects very soon. And I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I a, kind of disappointed to lost Minerva as an Ally as it unintentionally or not has not gotten on my list of things that I dislike.

I am still going to be true to my values empathy, compassion and kindness, but I am going to keep my interaction with that thing to a minimum- not the students, mind you, because the students didn’t- probably, hopefully- have a say in the admission decisions, but the university officials. It’s a pity because they had some ideas I could learn from as they were so similar to my own philosophy, but now I’m not even going to ask them my questions, I’ll just do it myself. They either accept that their methods are flawed, or that they were looking for something other than motivation and passion, or just come out and outright declare that I don't have the passion, and I'd like to prove them wrong if it's the last one, the most likely one, as I don't think they'd like to admit that their methods are flawed or that they actually considered my ability to pay or something. I'm assuming it's the third, hence everything I've written in this edit.

I might even apply next year to see if I can get in just to reject them. What it would feel like to reject the world's most selective university. If this time they decide that I am good enough, I'm going to demand an apology by making them admit that their methods were flawed last time, or at least give me an explanation why I was rejected, and if it was because I didn't have these accomplishments then, why they say that they can detect potential and motivation by their tests, and if they reject me again, well that's fine too, as I said, I don't want to be in a university where AOs decide I'm not a good fit.

I came forward with the intention of making peace, becoming one of their allies, include them and learn from them and take inspiration from their model in my future projects, but looks like it's war now. Alright then. They did a great job of turning down my proposal and now I'm going to be one of their worst and most dangerous enemies; as you'd know I don't get offended easily and don't have any enemies and have empathy and compassion, but this- has got personal- and I'm going to try my best to either destroy it and it's reputation or make them apologize- not even an acceptance letter, even though it'd be due and logically consistent if they are sincere, I do not wish to attend Minerva now, I truly do not, as I just realized I have several better options now that are more receptive and not make false claims about the reliability of their tests in predicting ability and motivation- I'll make them apologize for the self-doubt and drop in confidence I faced after all the discouragement from this society, even though they knew very well all this, and that I'm autistic and still my projects are successfully working out despite the initial discouragement, they falsely claimed that just by motivation anyone would be able to get in and they can accurately measure motivation, as ridiculous as it sounds, and now I wish to at least make them admit that it's flawed because I could make them talk to hundreds of accomplished academics and graduate students who have commended me on my motivation, so that no one else has to suffer due to this scam- at least say that your tests are not reliable and even if you're motivated due to high competition you might not be able to get in, yet they use ridiculous claims like no-cap and need-blind and whatnot. I'll make them see. Very soon.

My accomplishments draft, if anyone is interested: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mNoYEhuu5o0_6AAJc7vAjwR_KscD8Vj0/edit?usp=share_link&ouid=114866335897896750328&rtpof=true&sd=true

Quick recap of the Minerva storyline, drama, incident, experience, whatever you wish to call it, even though I am aware that tl;dr is supposed to be written in the beginning, I wanted those who can read it all to read it all, and knew that those who don't would either just close the page or scroll down to the end, and those who choose the latter should maybe get some advantage, so here's a short summary of my experience with the world's most selective university:

I read about it's educational philosophy and pedagogy and discovered it's very similar to my own idea of what my own ideal institution should look like, I even reached out to the people who designed the curriculum- Dr. Jason or something- and asked my questions but they weren't answered because apparently it's confidential.

They said that their tests are perfect and no cap and need blind and all, and all you need is motivation, and so I applied. In the meanwhile I created some posts describing not just how it's similar to my philosophy and why I like it and how other institutions can learn from it, but also providing constructive criticism, how it can improve, and for instance the part about training skills transferable to read life and tackling problems from a multidisciplinary perspective and a lot of similar stuff, and why it's important and how, my own thoughts. Talked to a few Minerva students too.

Received my rejection two days ago, and I have been told to try again next time, but to be honest, I am a bit- I mean, it said if you have the motivation, you'll definitely get in. And I know that no test is perfect and it's impossible to measure motivation or predict future potential. But it gave me false hope that even though I wasn't expecting to get in due to the acceptance rate anyway, I tried my best and so the drop from an infinitesimal probability to zero hope did hurt a bit.

I still believe if I am NOT motivated and passionate and curious, NO ONE is, and their tests are flawed and I'll make them regret it, admit that their evaluation criteria and methodology is flawed and imperfect and I believe that I have the ability to thrive in any environment, and I'm planning to apply to other institutions too, so it's okay. Did feel bad at first, but now I have recovered with even greater motivation to prove them wrong. Still undecided if I should apply next year, probably not. Yeah, I won't, as I have much better universities in mind now. That admit that they are need-aware and stuff and don't give applicants false hope.