We extended that at a technical college I went to for a while because so many of the teachers were downright incompetent.

"Those who can, do; those who can't, teach; those who can't teach work here."

I had a professor in college teaching computer systems and design. Somehow he got to talking about the NSA. He said that back in the 60s, the NSA had computers that were running at 1000. “1000?” I asked, wondering if he’d forgotten the units. He replied “Yes, 1000.”

And nowadays they are over 9000. How time flies…

I've heard this joke before on HN.

I'm not sure I got the pointe. Could you explain?

The professor is incompetent because he doesn't actually know how to talk about the performance of computers. It's not really a "joke", more of an anecdote

Or he was about to reveal classified information and stopped short.

In the original it's actually over 8000, which is interesting because numbers usually don't cause translation issues.

I’ve told this once or twice before I think. True story.

I heard from a group of teachers (my mother was a teacher) that were at our house once. "Those who can, do; those who can't, teach; those who can't teach, administrate."

Maybe if we paid those who teach better, we'd attract the best of the best to teach. Instead we drive good people out by making the job unbearable.

> Maybe if we paid those who teach better, we'd attract the best of the best to teach.

I agree struggling for basic survival as a public servant is not ideal, but be careful not to turn education into a lucrative opportunity where people come for money not passion.

Money is certainly not the only way to attract talent (though teachers still need to pay their bills) and in most schools i've attended the talented teachers were just ridiculously hindered by the bureaucrats defining their program and agenda. David Graeber's talk "Manageurial feudalism and the revolt of the caring classes" comes to mind.

I believe that we should be making whatever changes we need to ensure that some of the most capable minds in our field are doing something more useful than ad tech. Speaking from experience, seeing where my classmates went to after we graduated a few years ago.

Making teaching a "lucrative opportunity" by paying a decent wage has absolutely no downsides.

What exactly are the downsides of an increase in intelligent people competing for teaching positions?

We should pay better those who teach better, not everyone. Otherwise we just make the market bigger with even more room for incompetence. Look at the software industry.

And what kind of metrics can you use to determine whether someone teaches well? Whatever metrics you use, there's probably ways to game the system without providing better services.

Exactly, and this would be just as true, only on bigger scale, if we just raised wages and tried to filter out 'the best of the best' from a now larger pool of candidates. I should write "if anything" at the start of my previous comment as I don't really believe a good solution based solely on financial incentives exists.

Your other comment efficiently expresses my intuition on the topic.

There's a common extension to this about teaching colleges -

'Those who can, do; those who can't, teach; those who can't teach, teach teachers.'

Or maybe he was just smart enough to go for a steady job with less stress and humble enough to make a self-deprecating joke.

TIL that quote is _actually_ from George Bernard Shaw. https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/176500.html

And I thought it was by Khaled Hosseini.

(He wrote The Kite Runner (among others), which is a heartbreaking novel).

and I thought it was Jack Black