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the likelihood of someone completing a STEM degree—all things being equal—rises by 2 percentage points for every 10-point decrease in the university’s average SAT score.4 The smarter your peers, the dumber you feel; the dumber you feel, the more likely you are to drop out of science. Since there is roughly a 150-point gap between the average SAT scores of students attending the University of Maryland and Brown, the “penalty” Sacks paid by choosing a great school over a good school is that she reduced her chances of graduating with a science degree by 30 percent. Thirty percent! At a time when students with liberal arts degrees struggle to find jobs, students with STEM degrees are almost assured of good careers. Jobs for people with science and engineering degrees are plentiful and highly paid. That’s a very large risk to take for the prestige of an Ivy League school.
David and Goliath
Malcolm Gladwell
Truman’s indignation disguised his own great uneasiness about bombs that destroyed entire cities. In the last days of the war, Los Alamos had cast a third plutonium core for shipment out to Tinian, where a Fat Man high-explosive assembly was ready to receive it. Truman decided not to authorize its use and told his Cabinet why; Secretary of Commerce Henry Wallace noted the President’s reason in his diary: “Truman said he had given orders to stop the atomic bombing. He said the thought of wiping out another 100,000 people was too horrible. He didn’t like the idea of killing, as he said, ‘all those kids.’ ”881 In October, not long before his confrontation with Oppenheimer, already impatient with Soviet intransigence in Eastern Europe, Truman had complained to his budget director, Harold D. Smith, “There are some people in the world who do not seem to understand anything except the number of divisions you have.” Smith had rejoined in the Jimmy Byrnes mode, “Mr. President, you have an atomic bomb up your sleeve.” And Truman had concluded somberly, “Yes, but I am not sure it can ever be used.”
Personal Invitations and “Doing Things That Don't Scale” There's great power in a personal invitation. When you personally invite someone to your community, it lets the person know that they were personally considered and approved. It makes them feel special and creates an understanding of intimacy and quality.
The Business of Belonging
David Spinks
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