Top all-time · #8568
Harry Lewis
Personal blog · harry-lewis.blogspot.compoliticsculture
Harry Lewis writes Bits and Pieces, a personal blog at harry-lewis.blogspot.com about politics and culture. Since 2011, 9 different Hacker News readers have linked it 42 times, most often “Can We Find a Better Way to Rank Students?”. The last post was in 2024, but the archive is still widely read.
Too few sampled comments (2) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link this blog for commentary on higher education, including Harvard, college grades and what elite schools are for. One commenter calls it an excellent blog worth reading for anyone into higher ed.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 2 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Most-linked posts?
- Can We Find a Better Way to Rank Students?2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2014-11-14
What Hacker News says?
That's why you have to evaluate the grade in the context of the course! GPA is meaningless; individual grades are much more informative. See Harry Lewis, recently appointed dean of Harvard's engineering school, on the subject. [0] The savvy employers do this—though probably not enough. There's a finance firm that hires exclusively Math 55 [1] alumni—I forget the name; a number of tech firms screen for CS161 [2]. Bot…
Comment linking /2014/11/can-we-find-better-way-to-rank-students.html
on “Private colleges are a waste of money for white, middle class kids”Submitted Is the MOOC Bubble Bursting? as a story · 51 points
HN discussionHe assumes that you should go to Harvard because you want to get a good job and leave with the best qualifications. This is not why you should go to Harvard. Harry Lewis (who has an excellent blog that's well worth reading if you're into higher ed[0]) has said in the past that students should really be going to Harvard to become better people . Delivering education at scale is not in itself hard. Coursera, Udacity,…
Comment linking /
on “Disruptive Innovation vs. Harvard: Who Will Win?”Submitted “Pregnant Women” as a story · 43 points
HN discussionProf. Harry Lewis has long been an attentive critic of Summers, paying particular attention to his roles in hushing up Harvard's corruption in Russia: http://harry-lewis.blogspot.com/2013/09/larry-summers-and-et... and in some really terrible investments: http://harry-lewis.blogspot.com/2013/08/end-of-summers-updat... Both his apparent tolerance of corrupt self-dealing and his reckless investment philosophy should h…
Comment linking /2013/08/end-of-summers-updates.html
on “Larry Summers Withdraws from Fed Consideration [pdf]”Submitted Voter Suppression, Harvard-Style (2022) as a story · 39 points
HN discussionHarry Lewis is that rare academic who is usually honest: http://harry-lewis.blogspot.com/2014/06/clayton-christensen-...
Comment linking /2014/06/clayton-christensen-is-mad.html
on “Clayton Christensen Responds to New Yorker Takedown of 'Disruptive Innovation'”Submitted Aaron Swartz: A Lesson as a story · 16 points
HN discussionSubmitted Former CS professor of both Gates and Zuckerberg on dropping out of college as a story · 13 points
HN discussionSubmitted Aaron Swartz Developments as a story · 10 points
HN discussionSubmitted Classics of Computer Science: A List – Harry Lewis, Harvard as a story · 8 points
HN discussionSubmitted Against Concentrations as a story · 8 points
HN discussionSubmitted America's dreadful Internet as a story · 5 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Phony Law Enforcement Panic Over Apple's Encryption as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted Crypto Wars, Déja Vu All Over Again as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Can We Find a Better Way to Rank Students? as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted MIT Does It Right [appointing Abelson to investigate] as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Good Guess About Recording Phone Calls as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Saving Your Children from a Harvard Education as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Senator Blumenthal and FISA as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted MOOCs, and MOODs? as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Facebook's Prehistory at Harvard as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted A bit of nuance on Steve Jobs as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Harry Lewis: An odd fact about my teaching career as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Bits and Pieces: The Lifecycle of a Moral Panic as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Great Day for Harvard as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Surveillance Works as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Clayton Christensen is Mad as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Unsurprising NSA story of the week as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Information Control: Yale's Power Grab as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
