The Value of Feedback

My mind wandered while watching Will Wilkinson and Joshua Knobe talk about "Experimental Philosophy".

First I was thinking about how much I enjoyed "Hypothetical Philosophy", or where you discover what you think you believe based on choices between two responses to a given philosophy. I have largely abandoned that path due to grievous emotional damage and the realisation that what you think you would do in a situation and what you would actually do are more than likely not the same thing, and are likely to change over time.

I like the idea of experimental philosophy though in terms of trying to get at what people actually think rather than what they say they think.

But then my mind wandered to what I was doing. I was watching two professors discussing something from different sides of America, while I was in Bermuda, and that I was likely to write a comment on a Blog to most likely be read by a handful of people if I was likely to guess from South Africa, Canada, the UK, the USA, and Namibia.

I can now see what books my friends who use the application on facebook are reading.

I know MIT puts all their lecture notes on the web. I know that companies and non-profits are busy putting all written and audio words, still and moving pictures on the web.

So... what of my boyhood dream. The one I had since reading `The Power of One' to one day study at Oxford. Why Oxford? Well, because that is where PK went.

With universal and free access to all human knowledge and platforms for exchanges with the greatest minds, why go to university?

1) The people.
2) The certificate/signal.

So... if you already have enough signal, then it is just the people?
So... if you already have exchange with incredible people, then is it just... ?

hmmm

Then my mind wandered to the sustainability of universities. Seth Godin shows how the web provides a better way of getting the signal. You actually get people who love doing something (that happens result in what you want)for free... then you pick the best ones and pay them.

The biggest selling point for me of formal studies once you have the signal and the interaction is quality feedback. Universities don't always provide that. Tutors normally do the marking, and with all due respect to my tutors from university, I normally respected the opinions of my friends more than my tutors. Then for the exam all you got was a mark, no feedback.

Occasionally, you get an amazing tutor or an amazing lecturer who is prepared to give you quality feedback.

That is something for which I would be willing to pay.

So... is there an opportunity for `Freelance Academics' without the constraints of university. They charge for feedback. So... I write a blog and I want to get better. More people will read it if it is interesting. But I am under no illusions that my philosophical, ethical, economic or sporting musings are of sufficient quality to get the likes of a Richard Dawkins, Seth Godin, Malcolm Gladwell, Will Wilkinson, Garr Reynolds, Megan McArdle, Kerry Howley etc. etc. to read and comment on my blog on a regular basis.

I have a single regular commenter/jouster... and this is mainly because I am one of his few regular commenters/jousters. The majority of the minority of people who read this blog are passive readers.

So... whether it be blogging, writing essays, doing presentations, studying anything that interests you, I think there should be a market for academics/professionals to give feedback.

Feedback has value. Feedback from friends is incredibly valuable, but they wouldn't be friends if you had to pay (I could make reference to another regular blog topic, but I `won't'). I would be interested to see what the current market price would be for quality feedback from someone whose opinion you care about.

The same works for paying an external `job coach' to come to meetings with you, or study your work behaviour for a week/month/once a year.