On: Tell YC: Answers from John McCarthy

[aston]

Pissing contest, I know, but that doesn't necessarily hold at all top tier schools. At MIT I've found pretty much every professor to be willing to chat with students, whether just after class or at office hours. At the same time, I have noticed a general lack of students wanting to...

[carterschonwald → aston]

I think that a model of when students will talk with profs is the following :

"comfort level being outgoing" * "likelihood of doing research for fun" + "comfort level being outgoing" * "confusion over the days lecture"

this plus a little bit of reflection on the distribution of socialization styles amongst smart folks is a fairly complete model.