I'm not super fond of the way that the video characterizes Chopin's goals in her work as "maybe a sort of perspective," while the text beneath the video just notes it as a perspective without the same warning. I think it leads to confusion for people who are reading the text.

yeouch

@Blurred_Lines I would agree that without weighing costs vs profits, it would be impossible to determine what best use for resources are. However, I don't think "profit" necessarily needs to be determined by capital gains. You could weigh the cost of developing something (time, resources) with the benefit it would bring to society, which would act as the "profit" in a system that analyzes best use on a cost vs profits model. I think that capitalism is a great concept on paper, but that the drive to maximize profits becomes incompatible with the public good over time.

this is kinda a necessary assumption question, in that the author's argument completely falls apart if "acting morally" does not mean "acting in the best interests of the public"

@LargeBrilliantType write it out when practicing like this until it becomes an automatic process in your head. kinda similar to writing out the lawgic until you can do it quickly in your head

did anyone else get the same question for q1 that was used in the unit lol

had the correct answer selected for a minute and a half and went 22 secs over bc i was unsure </3

@DanielNahum the stimulus references a whole (institutions) vs its parts (staff members). answer e references an intention (maybe "public purposes?" not strongly implied) vs. another purpose (the stimulus mentions it is achieving its goals, so this does not make sense). answer b makes a specific part/whole comparison, so that answer choice fits better

im not sure if the questions are going to ramp up in difficulty in this unit, but i do wish that we had some 4 and 5 difficulty questions so that we can get some harder practice in while we are learning the specific question type

"You Try - Intentionally Harming a Child"

Actually 7sage, I don't think I will.

hi kevin

i dont know why i have such a hard time reading these questions. i feel like i keep making mistakes because i forget halfway through that i am supposed to be weakening the argument and i look for an answer that strengthens it. so frustrating

@TheBigFatPanda i think the strength of this answer choice comes from it referencing the placebo effect. If this back pain study was a real study, this would be a pretty clear criticism of it, since the members of each group are very clearly aware of which group they are in. Plus, the answer does not necessarily have to severely weaken the argument, it just has to weaken it the most out of every other answer choice

bruh i forgot we moved on to strengthen questions thats the only reason i got this one wrong

i fucking love sharks

avg of ~3 seconds over but 5/5!

pat you tricky motherfucker...

5/5 and under time for each question! woohoo!

on 4 and 5 cant you just slap the ol "it is not the case that..." on the front of each statement to negate it and arrive at the same meaning?

@katrina some and both imply some intersection, so the negation of that is no intersection at all

it is a little frustrating to use the same example over and over again for these techniques instead of new ones. i think already having an understanding of the rule of this example obscures the usefulness of the technique

examples

• all jedis are force users

• those who are not force users can't be jedis

• if someone is a jedi they must use the force

could question 4 also be interpreted as

Things being compared: currently available instruments vs. more sophisticated instruments

quality being compared: ability to detect planets outside our solar system

"Winner:" more sophisticated instruments

or is flawed understanding of the point being made?

@Sameer Ahamad i think the phrase "than to" does a lot of the heavy lifting to indicate that we are comparing sorghum vs. most other cultivars of corn in their relation to some cultivars of corn. I think if that phrase was instead "than are," then we would be comparing corn cultivars

im thinking that a piece of contextual information that indicates another person's contrary argument preceded by "some people think..." would not be a concession point because it does not necessarily cut against the author's claim. so, a concessionary point is moreso a counter-premise, and not a counter-conclusion? otherwise, the examples we learned about in the previous lesson that start with "some experts say..." could count as a concessionary point. what does everyone else think?