To Scholars

To Scholars Are the stars in your regression tables truly brighter than the stars in the night sky? To borrow a line from Mirana: Are you looking up at the stars? When the parts of research you hate the most can be done in minutes, and when your students consult their AI more than they come to your office hours—what is the "us" in this great educational endeavor? I thought about this for a long, long time. The answer is found in the ancient texts of The Great Learning. Isn’t it simply about returning to the original form of being a student first, and then a teacher? I love universities; I cherish them the way Gollum loves his "Precious." But this is the time for reform—absolute reform. And it doesn’t have to be painful. No, not at all. It is simply a shift in perspective, much like CBT in psychology. Nothing needs to be changed physically, yet everything can change fundamentally. You know the book and movie Flipped, right? Just like that. It can be swift, yet beautiful. Romantic, yet genuine. Be yourself. From teacher to student, be yourself. Seek yourself, express yourself—just as Bruce Lee taught us many years ago. This is nothing new, and I am no one special. You possess the most intelligent minds on this planet. You know far better than I do that this is inevitable. So why wait? We can do this together, and we will grow stronger, better, and lighter. There will be less burnout, fewer headaches dealing with tedious revisions and resubmissions, and less obsessing over long appendix tables that you know very few people will actually read. They are important, for sure. But aren’t there gigantic forests out there far more worth exploring? The youth are waiting. They are waiting for guidance. They are waiting for the brightest people to also be the bravest people. They are waiting for a combination of Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin coming together as one. Because that is the true university. That is the true Hogwarts. Don’t you yearn to send an offer letter of that kind to your students?