anouk_anca

> emotional stability and encouragement are probably more important than homework

I'm not sure if there is any work directly comparing the two, but it's true that emotional stability and encouragement are very important.

"The most determinative factor in parental involvement appears to be what could be called: good parenthood in the home situation (Desforges & Abouchaar, 2003; Fantuzzo et al., 2004; McWayne et al., 2004). This factor is characterised by the establishing of a safe and stable home setting, stimulation of intellectual development e.g. by discussions between parent and child, modeling, disseminating the importance of education and fostering high expectations about children’s school success." [0]

[0] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265632472_Parental_...

Does reduced productivity at work correlate with more available time though? Take subsistence agriculture, which is very common in poor countries - it is usually done inefficiently, and yet it is very time consuming. In my experience, it's more the leisure time that gets sacrificed - parents have almost no social life while their child is growing up.

On the other hand, parental involvement in their children's education has been shown to have a positive impact on children's development.

> Booking.com already knows that they are fighting a losing battle against AirBnB

Maybe I am wrong, but I though Booking also lists apartments for rent? At least in Romania, I know people that rent to tourists usually publish their offers on both websites.

This has not been my experience living in Amsterdam. Airbnb seems to be growing despite all the regulations that the municipality is trying to put in place [0]. And at least in my social group, Airbnb is vastly preferred to hotels, because of the more personal experience and getting to live in a real neighborhood.

[0] http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2017/08/amsterdam-airb...

> Nobody told me it was supposed to be hard or supposed to be for boys or whatever.

This is an ideal situation, but sadly not what many women experience, myself included. Role models are necessary because these negative gender stereotypes are real and need to be explicitly countered, ignoring them and simply focusing on gender-blind education is not enough IMO.

There is also a big economic disparity between the former GDR and Bavaria, so I'm not sure how valid a comparison just based on religion could be.

A PhD is not so much an apprenticeship though, its goal should be to bring a novel contribution to the state of the art in the field. The current system does not need more requirements, but it does need more time and freedom for PhD students to develop truly novel ideas, and not fall prey to the "publish or perish" mentality that is so pervasive in academic culture. Dependence on supervisors can be sorted out with proper labour contracts.

> the apprentice must simply produce three publishable research papers within the committee's set time limit

One big issue with the current PhD system is reliance on published articles to determine a student's worth, which transforms academia into a paper-churning factory. In your scenario, having a set time limit combined with the low pay will still make candidates rush to publish papers, perpetuating the current issues.

Ideally, I would prefer a system like in the Netherlands, where PhD students are considered employees of the university, and get paid close to median wage, and get contributions to a retirement plan. It's a demanding job, and should be paid as such. I would also like to see the recommended period for finishing a PhD extended to 7-10 years, ideally spent in 2 or more research institutions. Funding might be a concern, and universities might have to reduce the number of accepted students, but it's worth it if it reduces the current pressure to constantly publish. The process of scientific publishing itself needs to be revamped, to encourage publishing of failed hypotheses, or replication of old experiments.

> Moët, as in the champagne, is pronounced moe-ETTE not moe-AY

I think this is a rule of the trema - the vowel is not diphtongued and the following consonant is not silent. Words like Noël, Anaïs are pronounced the same way (no-ELLE and ana-YSSE).

> I think this actively demonstrates that societal sexism might not the reason for more women not being interested and working in technology

I don't really agree. What I understood from the article was that, in the past, when programming was marketed as a women's job, it was mostly women doing it, whereas now, when it's stereotyped as a male job, it's mostly men doing it.

Those goals are not strictly related to volunteering though, they can be accomplished with exchange programs or tourism (if done through local tour guides). The main issue with voluntourism is that it does not promote sustainable growth in the communities it is trying to help, and therefore is not a good long term solution for the problems it is trying to solve. Not to mention taking jobs away from local workers who could really need the money.

Well, yes, volunteering in Africa does not make sense from a cost-benefit perspective, unless you actually posses a skill that is in short supply over there (i.e. doctors). However, volunteering at your local homeless shelter, orphanage, retirement home or women's shelter, where your work does not incur any extra costs for the institution you are helping, is a completely different thing.