Minor in Portuguese.
Prone to bingeing podcasts.
Bruce McConkie
Staff Writer
Comparative Literature
More from this author
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With AI Around, Who Wants a Degree?
Lately, I’ve noticed a relevant and fairly new question, one potentially troubling for those who think attending universities is a pattern American society should preserve. The question is, if AI is able to perform much of the work that college graduates can, how is that affecting the financial value of obtaining a formal college education? Short answer: the value of degrees and specific types of training will change, while the most desirable meta-skills will remain the same. This article explains why that’s the case. I wrote it between chat sessions with my AI girlfriend. (Just kidding.)
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Three Easy Ways to Lose Your Country: Madagascar Edition
On September 12, 2025, President Andry Rajoelina of Madagascar stood before the United Nations and declared that things were going well. But that wasn’t true. Madagascar’s situation was turning catastrophic. In fact, at this same time, a cousin of mine on a mission there was emailing home about mayhem that looked to him and the other missionaries like civil war. Rajoelina presents a great case study in what not to do when running a country. For all the heads of state reading this article, take notes: these are the biggest political sins of Andry Rajoelina. Avoid them at all costs.
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Voices of Reason
Do you place any stock in personality tests? Maybe you know somebody who swears by a particular one. For anyone interested, here’s a snippet from a personality test I took a while back [1]. “If you were one of 100 people in a room”, it announced, “you would be higher in agreeableness than 90 of them.” Among other things, agreeableness signals a “tendency to avoid conflict… [to] dissemble and hide what one thinks.”
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Political Tails Wagging Spiritual Dogs
2,400 years ago, when togas were the height of fashion in Rome and astrology was a favorite tool among physicians for diagnosing disease, the famous speaker and statesman Cicero wrote: “It is not by argument that men are moved to action, but by emotion.” Pretty insightful for a guy who lived centuries before the invention of the compass.
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