A point well made "This optimism is rare in today’s America, where apocalyptic thinking dominates both left and right, where every technological advance gets framed primarily through its dangers."
New Year's Optimism for 2026? The world needs optimism and infectious optimists. I am offering these interactive webinars between Christmas and the New Year. Optimism:
Thanks for using the term immigrant instead of using migrant.
FYI: I worked at Honeywell with a Russian immigrant who spoke good if slightly accented English. Every year he got a couple of patent checks at the engineering banquet. Admirable guy. I had a couple of Russians with terrible English in one of my C programming class. I asked the admirable guy what I could do to help them and his advice was "Don't do anything". He told me he worked as a mechanic when he first came to the US because that was a job he could do with poor English skills. After a couple of years, he spoke acceptable English and then went looking for an Engineering job. He didn't think there was a way around learning English before learning C. I've talked about making passing ESL level 3 or 4 a requirement to become an immigrant. If noting else, it would eliminate the problem of smart Chinese teaching assistants who can't communicate with their students.
Nice work, Ben! Looking forward to reading more about these projects.
A point well made "This optimism is rare in today’s America, where apocalyptic thinking dominates both left and right, where every technological advance gets framed primarily through its dangers."
New Year's Optimism for 2026? The world needs optimism and infectious optimists. I am offering these interactive webinars between Christmas and the New Year. Optimism:
The Why and How 30 December (29 December Americas) https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_CFvoAfNIQgWVfndh5l708A
Imagine Your Best Possible Self - Guided Reflection and Conversation with Victor Perton 31 December (30 December Americas) https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_cdb9jnGnQ9yMr4uqfntV3Q Loving Kindness
Meditation: Guided Meditation with Victor Perton 29 December (28 December Americas)
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_fNJlnIL3SYa90OyLq5-ROA If you'd like a session after the New Year, let me know.
Thanks for using the term immigrant instead of using migrant.
FYI: I worked at Honeywell with a Russian immigrant who spoke good if slightly accented English. Every year he got a couple of patent checks at the engineering banquet. Admirable guy. I had a couple of Russians with terrible English in one of my C programming class. I asked the admirable guy what I could do to help them and his advice was "Don't do anything". He told me he worked as a mechanic when he first came to the US because that was a job he could do with poor English skills. After a couple of years, he spoke acceptable English and then went looking for an Engineering job. He didn't think there was a way around learning English before learning C. I've talked about making passing ESL level 3 or 4 a requirement to become an immigrant. If noting else, it would eliminate the problem of smart Chinese teaching assistants who can't communicate with their students.