Links harvest

• Susie Bright asks: What makes a person change the course of their life?
• Why bother learning stuff?
• Social Media Venn diagram
• As he turns in his dissertation, Cal Newport (of Study Hacks blog fame) reflects on his grad-school experience
• A thought on the university as “an ethically superior institution”
• James Fallows is back in the US after several years reporting in China, and has this priceless quote in his blog post about the healthcare “debate”:

Pretty soon I will lay off the “As a Rip van Winkle returnee to your country, what I notice is….” approach. But I have to say that it is striking to come back — from the world of controlled media and not-always-accurate “official truth” in China — and see the world’s most mature democracy, informed by the world’s dominant media system, at a time of perceived economic crisis and under brand new political leadership, getting tied up by manufactured misinformation. No matter what party you belong to, you can’t think this is a sign of health for the Republic.

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