從Netflix新片Gray Man到要不要做homework 到亞裔的學術成功 以及Zuckerberg 的內部“坦言”

# The Gray Man Takes the Stoic-Spy Cliché Way Too Far

Netflix 寄予希望的大投入製作，線上和院線幾乎是同步的。個(ge) 人覺得在spy 類型的電影裏麵是屬於(yu) 好看的，隻是影評人的反饋普遍不是特別好。

這篇文中從(cong) 男主Ryan Gosling 的角度評論了下該片。文中開頭損人的方式很有意思：

Stoicism has long been a powerful weapon in Ryan Gosling’s cinematic arsenal. One of his best-remembered films remains the taut 2011 thriller Drive, in which he played an unnamed stunt driver who is cool behind the wheel but monosyllabic in conversation. As Officer K in Blade Runner 2049, he was quite literally robotic, an artificial “replicant” designed to be void of emotion. In First Man, he portrayed the astronaut Neil Armstrong as prickly and standoffish, far more ready to face his work than any interpersonal relationship. But as remote as he seemed in each of those movies, he was always grappling with a complex character, proper story stakes, and a touch of internal weirdness. His newest lead role, in Netflix’s action blockbuster The Gray Man, has none of that.

大致的意思就是先誇了下Ryan Gosling 在之前的作品裏麵各種各樣的好，最後轉折，但是在這個(ge) Gray Man 裏，每一種“好”都沒有落上。?

還沒完，文中還把Ryan Gosling 和Brad Pitt 類比了下 （The actor he’s frequently reminded me of is Brad Pitt...）,說人家Brad Pitt 演的好的角色的特點都是“帥而不自知”...

Pitt found the principal roles that worked for him by pairing up with directors such as David Fincher, Quentin Tarantino, and Steven Soderbergh. Their protagonists had more of an oddball energy, handsome men who seemed ill at ease with their God-given looks.

# The Movement to End Homework Is Wrong

從(cong) “標化”考試成績隻是反應家庭背景，不是考生的能力開始。目前類似的說法適用範圍已經越來越大：不僅(jin) 僅(jin) 是標化考試，所有的學校指標反映的都是家庭背景，而不是能力：

“Research has highlighted inequalities in students’ homework production and linked those inequalities to differences in students’ home lives and in the support students’ families can provide.”

這個(ge) 話題終歸還是嚴(yan) 肅了，但homework 的題目是考試比較喜歡的，所以倒是可以積累一些語料：

homework 無用

Do students really need to do their homework?

As a parent and a former teacher, I have been pondering this question for quite a long time. The teacher side of me can acknowledge that there were assignments I gave out to my students that probably had little to no academic value. 

homework 有用

It’s one that became quite clear to me when I was a teacher: Kids need to learn how to practice things. Homework, in many cases, is the only ritualized thing they have to do every day. ... I’m not sure what good it would do if the kid didn’t know how to do something relentlessly, over and over again, until they perfected it. Most teachers know that type of progress is very difficult to achieve inside the classroom...

# Asian American Student Success Isn’t a Problem

當名校取消標化考試比如SAT申稱要促進多元化的時候，我們(men) 就聽聽就好，這個(ge) 是特別站不住腳的，因為(wei) 促進diverse 有個(ge) 很容易的方式：擴招。

Many of the universities that have dropped the SAT requirement have cited a desire for diversity and equity and a de-emphasis on hard-core academic competition. (This has always struck me as errant and, frankly, self-serving reasoning. If elite colleges actually want economically and racially diverse campuses free from the academic stressors that plague high school students, they should take their own advice and stop competing so fiercely to prove that they are the most exclusive places of higher learning in the world.)

而為(wei) 什麽(me) 學校會(hui) 弱化考試或者分數呢？

一個(ge) Tufts 教授（Natasha Warikoo）的研究結果

So what happens when a big influx of wealthy Asian immigrants, mostly from China and India, come to a liberal, wealthy suburb that has always prided itself on its academic accomplishments? Warikoo correctly notes that for years, scholars and sociologists have simply assumed that these relatively privileged and upwardly mobiles Asian Americans would simply melt into the upper middle class. What she found through her research is that the transition isn’t quite so smooth, in large part because many of the white families who live in these suburbs are worried that the new competition from Asian students will harm their own children’s chances of getting into elite colleges. As a result, some white parents in Woodcrest called for a de-emphasis on academics and a prioritization of mental health. Much like the moves away from the SAT, these changes sound worthwhile, but it’s worth examining the motives behind them.

# ‘Operating With Increased Intensity’ : Zuckerberg Leads Meta Into Next Phase

員工內(nei) 部會(hui) 議，“你們(men) 中的一些人會(hui) 不喜歡這裏，我OK；我覺得你們(men) 中的一些人並不適合這裏。”

In an employee meeting around the same time, Mr. Zuckerberg said he knew that not everyone would be on board for the changes. That was fine, he told employees.

“I think some of you might decide that this place isn’t for you, and that self-selection is OK with me,” Mr. Zuckerberg said. “Realistically, there are probably a bunch of people at the company who shouldn’t be here.”