Whole-known-network
<p><span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://mastodon.social/@samth" class="u-url mention">@<span>samth</span></a></span> <span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://types.pl/@wilbowma" class="u-url mention">@<span>wilbowma</span></a></span> So your point is, "Evil people need this information in order to do evil, and if the information is inaccurate, the evil they do will be more evil?" I think I get the point, but I am not sure this is a very compelling argument for me.</p>
<p><span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://mastodon.social/@samth" class="u-url mention">@<span>samth</span></a></span> <span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://types.pl/@wilbowma" class="u-url mention">@<span>wilbowma</span></a></span> I understand there could be outliers, but it is hard to imagine someone being ready to do a PhD on a topic where they don't know who and where the major players are already (e.g. by having read papers in that area).</p>
<p>I just made this silly but accurate thing. I'm silly too and i love it, but also i'm serious in my silliness.</p>
<p><span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://mathstodon.xyz/@jonmsterling" class="u-url mention">@<span>jonmsterling</span></a></span> <span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://types.pl/@wilbowma" class="u-url mention">@<span>wilbowma</span></a></span> But aside from that, lots of people care about prestige of departments but cannot be expected to work it out from first principles, such as our deans. (One can say that they shouldn't care about this, but that seems hopeless even if I agreed.)</p>
<p><span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://mathstodon.xyz/@jonmsterling" class="u-url mention">@<span>jonmsterling</span></a></span> <span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://types.pl/@wilbowma" class="u-url mention">@<span>wilbowma</span></a></span> I think providing information to PhD students is the best reason, and I don't think the information is obvious to many PhD applicants.</p>
<p><span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://types.pl/@wilbowma" class="u-url mention">@<span>wilbowma</span></a></span> <span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://mastodon.social/@samth" class="u-url mention">@<span>samth</span></a></span> idk. I never think about the rankings?? I think the only compelling reason to rank relative prestige is to make sure potential undergrad students have all the facts, but quality of research (which is what these rankings try to approximate) is kind of unrelated to the quality of teaching. It matters for PhD applicants making choices too, but anyone who is about to do a PhD had better already be able to figure this out on their own without looking up a Prestigimeter. </p><p>Is there another reason we need to do these comparisons?</p>
<p><span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://types.pl/@wilbowma" class="u-url mention">@<span>wilbowma</span></a></span> We don't "need" to but we do need to be able to summarize relative prestige of CS departments for a variety of purposes and our culture means we are going to rank them.</p>
<p><span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://mastodon.social/@film_girl" class="u-url mention">@<span>film_girl</span></a></span> It’s a good thing I bought a new iPad and the Apple Watch Ultra 2, last month. 😄</p>
<p><span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://greennuclear.online/@collectifission" class="u-url mention">@<span>collectifission</span></a></span></p>
