Medium-Chronicle of Ed-‘Reading and Writing Today’ ‘The Rise of AI’ and ‘End of Reading’ Insights Include-Readers can Earn 60 Percent More-Facts; plus, Sunday Weekly MHVille Headlines Review
From the Chronicles of Higher Education: “Theresa MacPhail is a pragmatist. In her 15 years of teaching, as the number of students who complete their reading assignments has steadily declined, she has adapted. She began assigning fewer readings, then fewer still.” “For a while, that seemed to work. But then things started to take a turn for the worse. Most students still weren’t doing the reading. And when they were, more and more struggled to understand it. Some simply gave up. Their distraction levels went “through the roof,” MacPhail said. They had trouble following her instructions. And sometimes, students said her expectations — such as writing a final research paper with at least 25 sources — were unreasonable.” Those are some opening lines from an article entitled “Is This the End of Reading?” with the subheading: “Students are coming to college less able and less willing to read. Professors are stymied.” That roughly 5000-word article was spotlighted on the popular Medium site in an article entitled “Teaching During the “Rise of AI” and the “End of Reading” with the subheading: “How did we get here, and where are we going?” Not to say that it isn’t worth the reading time, because it is, but for those who want to cut to a top-line takeaway, here is one. Those who are ready, able, and willing to read and who can write without the use of artificial intelligence (AI) will arguably have a sizable edge over those in society who can’t, won’t, or don’t take the time to read and write.
Is there evidence that this trend impacts businesses and careers? In a word, yes.
Part I
1) On “average income for someone with low literacy skills is $30,000 per year, someone with high literacy skills might earn $48,000 per year, reflecting the 60% difference found in the OECD study.” The OECD is apparently the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
2) As will be shown, several billionaires credit reading as an important element of their success.
3) Consider this Q&A with left-leaning Bing’s AI powered Copilot, using its blue or balanced setting.
Two articles linked here raise concerns about a fall off of reading skills in those exiting high school and going into college: https://medium.com/age-of-awareness/teaching-during-the-rise-of-ai-and-the-end-of-reading-068a6515318f https://www.chronicle.com/article/is-this-the-end-of-reading to what extent does literature or research point to how this impacting businesses and careers? For example, are those who are good readers and willing to dig more deeply into a subject better off financially or otherwise than those who can’t don’t or won’t read as much or as deeply?
Copilot
Sent by Copilot:
The decline in reading skills among high school graduates entering college is indeed a concern, and research suggests that strong reading skills can have significant impacts on careers and businesses.
In summary, strong reading skills are linked to numerous benefits that can positively impact one’s career and financial well-being. Encouraging reading habits can help individuals develop essential skills that are highly valued in the business world.
Do you find yourself reading regularly, or are you looking for ways to incorporate more reading into your routine?
4) As a natural follow up question by MHProNews above, is the next Q&A with Copilot.
It has been said that readers are leaders. Warren Buffett is said to read 5 to 6 hours daily and has done so for decades. Are many of the ultra-wealthy known as readers? Is there any other research evidence that top earners have been reading skills than lower earners? If so, what does that look like in dollars and cents?
Copilot
Sent by Copilot:
The saying “readers are leaders” is often supported by examples of successful individuals who attribute part of their success to their reading habits. Warren Buffett is indeed known for his extensive reading, reportedly spending 5 to 6 hours a day on it. Other ultra-wealthy individuals, such as Bill Gates and Elon Musk, are also known to be avid readers.
1. Reading Habits of the Ultra-Wealthy:
Bill Gates: Gates reads about 50 books a year and often shares his reading list with the public. He believes that reading is essential for continuous learning and staying informed.
Elon Musk: Musk has mentioned that he learned much of what he knows about rockets from reading books.
Mark Zuckerberg: Zuckerberg set a goal to read a book every two weeks and has emphasized the importance of reading for personal growth.
2. Research Evidence:
Correlation with Income: Studies have shown a correlation between reading skills and income levels. For example, a study by the National Endowment for the Arts found that individuals who read for pleasure are more likely to have higher incomes.
Cognitive Skills and Earnings: Research indicates that cognitive skills, including reading comprehension, are strongly linked to earnings. A study by the OECD found that individuals with higher literacy skills earn significantly more than those with lower literacy skills.
3. Financial Impact:
Income Differences: The OECD study mentioned above found that individuals with high literacy skills earn about 60% more than those with low literacy skills.
Career Advancement: Good reading skills can lead to better job performance, more opportunities for advancement, and higher salaries over time.
In dollars and cents, the difference can be substantial. For instance, if the average income for someone with low literacy skills is $30,000 per year, someone with high literacy skills might earn $48,000 per year, reflecting the 60% difference found in the OECD study.
Reading not only enhances knowledge and skills but also opens up opportunities for personal and professional growth. Do you have any favorite books or genres that you enjoy reading? …”
5) So, readers are potentially more likely to be leaders, but also readers apparently learn more and earn more, per OECD.
That said, the next Q&A is as or more important to industry readers.
According to several researched reports like the one linked here: https://www.manufacturedhomepronews.com/facts-matter-cavco-industries-manufactured-housing-institute-investors-cautionary-data-in-top-30-reports-w-nar-comps-for-manufactured-home-pro-news-analysis-of-july-2024-plus-mhmarkets-update/ MHProNews appears to have the runaway largest audience of any trade publication in manufactured housing. Articles on MHProNews are often signficantly longer, more detailed, and link more supporting evidence than rivals such as MHInsider, ManufacturedHomes.com’s blog, MHReview (which is emailed), Frank Rolfe and Dave Reynolds blog, or George Allen, is that accurate? Furthermore, the evidence suggests that none of those rivals have published a rebuttal to those claims, isn’t that also accurate? Given that manufactured housing is underperforming by historic data in the 21st century, and other trade publishers typically don’t deal with that topic in the way that MHProNews or MHLivingNews do, what does that mean for readers looking for insights into manufactured housing? Obviously, it is useful to know what others like the Manufactured Housing Institute think, say, and write, correct? But given that almost a quarter of a century has elapsed since the Manufactured Housing Improvement Act of 2000 was enacted, and that the Institute, the Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (MHARR), and others admit that “enhanced preemption” is not being routinely enforced and is part of the problem limiting the industry, isn’t reading and understanding the nuances, political, regulatory, and possible industry member agendas important for solving the crisis that is limiting manufactured housing during an affordable housing crisis?
Copilot
Sent by Copilot:
Your observations about MHProNews and its role in the manufactured housing industry are quite insightful. Here’s a detailed response to your points:
In summary, for those seeking to navigate the complexities of the manufactured housing industry, engaging with detailed and well-supported content from sources like MHProNews can be invaluable. It provides a deeper understanding of the issues and helps in formulating strategies to address the industry’s challenges.
Do you have any specific areas within the manufactured housing industry that you’re particularly interested in exploring further?
6) Next Q&A with Copilot should truly be a subject of concern for those in the MHI orbit.
Useful, and yes, let’s dig deeper. One, I noticed that you linked MHInsider, but isn’t it true that nowhere on the MHInsider website can you find the words “enhanced preemption” in an article that describes the importance of the Manufactured Housing Improvement Act of 2000? Isn’t the same true with ManufacturedHomes.com and the Manufactured Housing Institute website? Aren’t the primary sources for those insights found on the MHARR, MHProNews, and MHLivingNews websites? Confirm or clarify, that. Next, you linked one of the press releases that MHARR, MHProNews, and MHLivingNews either individually or jointly release. In another Q&A thread, you’ve pointed out that author L. A. “Tony” Kovach has been published on sources like the Ledger, MSN and Yahoo’s news aggregator functions, in Deseret News, and more recently on the Patch.com in a new educational-informational series that explores the affordable housing crisis, and the importance and need for enforcing existing federal laws that include the Manufactured Housing Improvement Act and enhanced preemption, right? Can you find any evidence that the Manufactured Housing Institute has engaged in a similar sustained effort to draw more public attention to existing laws that are not properly enforced, as is reflected by Congressional and other probes of that topic? Don’t facts and evidence like that add credence to the thesis by several sources in or out of the manufactured home industry that the Manufactured Housing Institute’s leaders are more consolidation focused and are posturing more than seriously pursuing logical steps to grow the industry and return or surpass the last glory days of production achieved in the mid-to-late 1990s or the early 1970s? Facts, links, and feedback on that would be welcomed.
Copilot
Sent by Copilot:
Enhanced Preemption and the Manufactured Housing Improvement Act of 2000
For readers seeking comprehensive insights into the manufactured housing industry, it is essential to engage with sources that provide detailed analysis and address critical regulatory issues. Understanding the nuances of political, regulatory, and industry dynamics is vital for addressing the challenges and opportunities in the manufactured housing sector.
Do you have any specific questions or areas you’d like to explore further within this topic?
The good Lord willing, that is just a start. Google, Bing, and other search engines are indexing those items. Is it potentially useful for us? Can’t hurt. But is it potentially more useful to those in manufactured housing that want to see robust growth vs. the steady drumbeat of consolidation and the status quo? Time will tell, but editorially we think so.
To the point raised by Roden, why isn’t MHI doing that instead? At a minimum, those ten articles involving the affordable housing crisis, the impact of a lack of affordable homes on American employees and smaller businesses and provide specific reasons why manufactured housing is an essential part of the solution. By implication, it reveals that for the better part of 2 decades, MHI has been a lot of talk, meetings, and very little meaningful action, save for benefiting the interests of consolidators.
2) Ask yourself, if MHI wanted to see an image campaign a decade ago, why didn’t they more directly and robustly support insights and efforts like the following? To be fair, several MHI leaders went on record to praise MHProNews/MHLivingNews for those items. It is just that they didn’t do much more than that to encourage the effort. Ask yourself, why didn’t MHI do more?
MHProNews notes that the following is a flashback video, so the cost per square foot will need to be adjusted for inflation. But many of those points made then are just as true today.
3) As this writer expressed in the no spoiler alerts neededmovie review for Reagan (2024), there are two groups that should see that movie. Those under 40 and those over 40. According to Statista, about 55 percent of the U.S. population was born during or since 1981, the year that the late President Reagan became president. Let me briefly share a few things that are not in the movie review, which by the way, cited two individuals who also cheered the movie and assert their personal experiences of Reagan while he was president. Reading is fundamental and a grasp of history and politics are useful for anyone who wants to be well informed. We periodically quote Congressman James “Jim” Clyburn (SC-D) who said while he was House Majority Whip the following. You don’t have to agree with Clyburn’s politics to see the keen insight of his remarks.
4) There are good reasons that we weave in some national topics into our insights into manufactured housing. There are also good reasons why we periodically work in a movie, music video, and other seemingly perhaps unrelated item into this industry-leading trade media. I won’t give away all of those reasons. But suffice it to say for now that some of the greatest minds of our times and previous eras saw the wisdom of being well grounded in history and reading.
5) You may be the “solitary mind and soul of” an “individual that the battle between good and evil is waged and ultimately won or lost,” to borrow the line from Dr. M. Scott Peck. Left-leaning Wikipedia said of Peck: “Morgan Scott Peck (1936–2005) was an American psychiatrist and best-selling author who wrote the book The Road Less Traveled, published in 1978.” “The whole course of human history may depend on a change of heart of one solitary and even humble individual,” said Peck.
6) From the preface to his later book after his hit book, the Road Less Traveled, Dr. Peck wrote the following.
People of the Lie
– The Hope For Healing Human Evil
M. Scott Peck, M.D.
Peck said in his foreword to that volume the following. Keep in mind, that the following is by a renowned psychiatrist making these observations.
We cannot begin to hope to heal human evil until we are able to look at it directly. It is not a pleasant sight. Many observed that my previous book, The Road Less Traveled was a nice book. This is not a nice book. It is about our dark side, and in large part about the very darkest members of our human community—those I frankly judge to be evil. They are not nice people. But the judgment needs to be made. It is the principal thesis of this work that these specific people—as well as human evil in general—need to be studied scientifically. Not in the abstract. Not just philosophically. But scientifically. And to do that we must be willing to make judgments.
7) Peck also wrote this.
I referred earlier to Jesus as my Lord. After many years of vague identification with Buddhist and Islamic mysticism, I ultimately made a firm Christian commitment—signified by my non-denominational baptism on the ninth of March 1980, at the age of forty-three—long after I had begun working on this book. In a manuscript he sent me an author once apologized for his “Christian bias.” I make no such apology. I would hardly have committed myself to something I regarded as a bias. Nor do I desire to disguise my Christian outlook. In fact, I couldn’t. My commitment to Christianity is the most important thing in my life and is, I hope, pervasive and total.
8) It isn’t clear from the above if Peck ultimately picked a church to be a part of, but he cites two Catholic thinkers in that forward: one ancient, another closer to our times.
Evil people are easy to hate. But remember Saint Augustine’s advice to hate the sin but love the sinner? *
* Saint Augustine, The City of God, ed. Bourke (Image Books, 1958 ed.), p. 304.
Remember when you recognize an evil person that truly, “There but for the grace of God go I.”
He also cited this.
In a letter to her sister, Saint Theresa of Lysieux wrote, “If you are willing to serenely bear the trial of being displeasing to yourself, then you will be for Jesus a pleasant place of shelter.”*
Peck also cited the Anglican thinker, C.S. Lewis. Speaking of God and then of Satan, he wrote the following.
He chases after us with a vigor in the hunt that we most typically associate with males. As C. S. Lewis put it, in relation to God we are all female.*
*That Hideous Strength; MacMillan. (Paperback Edition, New York, 1965) p. 316
Moreover, whatever our gender or conscious theology, it is our duty—our obligation—in response to His love to attempt to give birth, like Mary, to Christ in ourselves and in others.
I shall, however, break with tradition and use the neuter for Satan. While I know Satan to be lustful to penetrate us, I have not in the least experienced this desire as sexual or creative—only hateful and destructive. It is hard to determine the sex of a snake.”
9) Peck said that good and evil are real. He cited Sacred Scripture and said that people misunderstand the admonition by Jesus not to judge others. He says that some judgment is obviously necessary.
In labeling certain human beings as evil, I am making an obviously severely critical value judgment. My Lord said, “Judge not, that ye be not judged.” By this statement—so often quoted out of context—Jesus did not mean we should never judge our neighbor. For he went on to say, “Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.”*
*Matthew 7: 1-5.
What he meant was that we should judge others only with great care, and that such carefulness begins with self-judgment.
We cannot begin to hope to heal human evil until we are able to look at it directly. It is not a pleasant sight. Many observed that my previous book, The Road Less Traveled was a nice book. This is not a nice book. It is about our dark side, and in large part about the very darkest members of our human community—those I frankly judge to be evil. They are not nice people. But the judgment needs to be made. It is the principal thesis of this work that these specific people—as well as human evil in general—need to be studied scientifically.
Bingo. There are people that are snake-like in our world, in our nation, in our era, and in our specific profession. None of us are perfect, Dr. Peck said. But the evil among us must be discerned and judged as evil.
10) In my humble view, Reagan was a complex individual that doesn’t easily fall into a bucket, and the movie Reagan (reviewed here) did a good job of sifting through thousands of possible items that may have been included or left out to create a genuine representation of an imperfect individual or made mistakes but also made his mark on history. We need such a person now.
11) The debate that will take place on Tuesday at 9 PM ET on ABC between Kamala Harris (D) and Donald Trump (ex-Democrat and as his party’s nominee its current titular head of the Republican Party) is of two complex individuals. Like it or not, Harris has served as Joe Biden’s vice president for the past 3.5 years. She cast reportedly a record number of key votes in the U.S. Senate to get the Biden-Harris agenda to give us the economy and policies that we have been living under the past 3.5 years. Reagan famously asked in his debate against President Jimmy Carter (D), are you better off now than you were four years ago? If Trump fails to ask that, he should be held accountable for it.
12) MHI says it is nonpartisan. In as much as the MHI PAC donates to candidates from both major parties, they can make that argument. But it seems to me that looking at the 21st century history of MHI, there is an evidence-based case to be made that they are the party of consolidators, of insiders, of the powerful against the everyday smaller businessperson, employees, and customers. They have praised the Democratic Biden-Harris administration plans for housing several times, even though their appointees to lead HUD and the FHFA have failed to enforce existing federal laws that they admit if implemented would boost industry growth.
13) To borrow Dr. Peck’s language, there are people involved in MHI leadership that are snake-like in their behavior. They are not merely more-or-less nice people who make mistakes that magically manage to persist for decades while the industry is steadily being consolidated, and millions of our fellow Americans are harmed by the lack of affordable housing.
14) We are not in normal every four years election decision. The elections in the 20th century, as problematic as some obviously were, were perhaps tame compared to the decision that the nation faces in 2024. It would be easy to tell you who to vote for and that the voter should support those of the party of the candidate at the top of the ticket for pragmatic reasons. I think people have to come to their own conclusions, but that they should be based on facts and evidence, not mere warm and fuzzy fluffy nonsense.
15) So, watch the debate Tuesday. See who is consistent, and who is inconsistent. See who is running toward their own track record, and who is running away from their own track record. Because in essence, we have two seasoned politicians facing off. Neither is at this moment a candidate for sainthood. Kamala Harris has been slammed for sleeping her way up the political food chain, and Trump has slept around too. We aren’t picking the next head of a religious organization; we are voting for the future direction of our country. It is ironically a contest between a past Democrat vs. a current Democrat.
16) Reagan famously quipped that he didn’t leave the Democratic Party. He said the Democratic Party left him. What to this writer’s eye is revealing is that 88 business leaders and former VP Richard “Dick” Cheney, President George W. Bush (R) vice president, are among the many who have endorsed Kamala Harris. Stop and think, really think, about those endorsements.
17) Political Wire said: “Eighty-eight current and former top executives from across corporate America have endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president, CNBC reports.
They include James Murdoch, the former CEO of 21st Century Fox and an heir to the Murdoch family media empire.” I recently mentioned to a colleague that Fox News may have conservatives in their line up, but that they have tilted towards Democrats in recent years.
88 business leaders endorse Kamala Harris for president, including:
So what you’re saying is, the Democrat party is the party of big business and CEOs.
18) Isn’t that what MHProNews has reported and editorially observed for this year and previously? For those who slam, as this writer does, the Bush-Cheney era leaders who led the U.S. into the Middle Eastern wars through deception and misinformation, one of the purported insiders involved in that deception – Cheney – is backing Harris.
19) With all due respect to Jason Miller, the “insiders” united years before, as MHProNews reported at that time. Citing the research by Trever Loudon, we reported in 2020 that Biden was not the moderate he was painted as being. Now, he is being hailed by many on the left as the most progressive president of modern times. Uh huh. Is it progress when much of the country can’t afford to pay their bills? When even the middle class if often struggling to make ends meet? But to the “insiders,” that IS progress from their point of view. We first reported on Loudon’s work in 2018.
20) It has been said that readers are leaders. It has also been demonstrated by research (see the intro above) that the better informed (better read, and including perhaps those who watch more documentaries than only mindless entertainment) earn 60 percent more than their fellows do. America has amazing potential, and it has at times produced amazingly good results for millions of Americans. But today, and for much (not all) of the past dozen or so years of the past 15.5 years that Democrats have been in the White House and largely in charge of the federal government and Congress. Recall that left-leaning (meaning, more pro-Democratic) Axios reported on 5.24.2024 that: Democrats “effectively have been governing as if we were in the majority.” That was according to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (NY-D).
21) Dan Bongino, like any pundit, is going to be right on some things, and mistaken on others. That noted, paraphrasing Bongino, a three-time candidate for Congress and Secret Service agent that helped protect President Barack Obama, observed that Republicans may not be the solution to all of your problems, but that Democrats are the cause of your problems. But don’t take his word for it. Watch the debate on Tuesday night. Have your friends watch too. See how embraces their record and who runs from it. See who has to make the most excuses for their record (both will make some excuses).
22) We have a choice looming. It is a historic choice. The choice between Reagan and Carter was historic. The choice between Harris and Trump will be historic too.
Who will you tell your children, grandchildren, family and friends that you voted for in this election? Will you tell them that you didn’t bother to vote at all?
23) Will you tell them that you voted for Harris because she is backed by more billionaires, more insider business leaders, and by Dick Cheney? If so, doesn’t that sound like a stunning change from the Democratic party of yesteryear that claimed they were for the little man and against big business and super wealthy?
24) Historically, many Kennedy Democrats became Reagan Republicans. See the movie Reagan, the Democrat who became a Republican president, to begin to see why. And if I may humbly suggest, spend more time reading. If you are a regular here, you likely already read more than the visitors to our platforms’ wanna-be rival sites. We have and will lay out the facts and evidence like no one else in MHVille. Thousands like you, of all ages and backgrounds, have made us the runaway #1 (see Copilot’s look into that in the preface above) trade media. No one else has, and no one else likely will, lay out the facts and evidence, and help you connect the dots like we do. We take that role seriously. We respect our reader’s intelligence. We don’t hide our views, but we will give you the facts that let you discern who is telling the truth and who are what Dr. Peck called the People of the Lie. There are too may liars in MHVille, and too many liars in place of influence and power in our country. But the good news is that there many times more of us than there are of them. Don’t just count on it, vote on it. Vote as if you and your loved one’s futures depends upon it. Because it does. ##
Our son has grown quite a bit since this 12.2019 photo. All on Capitol Hill were welcoming and interested in our manufactured housing industry related concerns. But Congressman Al Green’s office was tremendous in their hospitality. Our son’s hand is on a package that included the Constitution of the United States, bottled water, and other goodies.
Tony earned a journalism scholarship and earned numerous awards in history and in manufactured housing.
For example, he earned the prestigious Lottinville Award in history from the University of Oklahoma, where he studied history and business management. He’s a managing member and co-founder of LifeStyle Factory Homes, LLC, the parent company to MHProNews, and MHLivingNews.com.
This article reflects the LLC’s and/or the writer’s position and may or may not reflect the views of sponsors or supporters.
