Is not who wrote the law, but in which conditions laws should be applicable. United Nations and poor countries, you can write the law but poor countries will continue to be poor because they don't have the power to impose their reality. If you don't have power you are invisible.
Google has power, so he question who wrote the laws and he knows that power is a way to rewrite the law.
Khan Academy is a good resource if you haven't a good teacher and you have a lot of time for learning.
With a good teacher you can learn more with less time. If you are in a small group you can ask the teacher and you will learn that he can give you not only the answer you are looking for but a new perspective about that subject.
So Khan Academy is a good resource in certain occasions, but never as a good teacher should be.
One can't make genius quality work, but society can do it.
An army of researchers can visit any single idea in a field, and then one of then makes a great discovery, one that is the source of a great revolution, that is a genius is born, so we (society) can make genius quality work.
Summarizing the post is nine lines long, at the core is this quote from Eleanor Roosevelt:
Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people.
Now my question is: the value of this quote is in the person who wrote it or in its content?
Great mind are great in a narrow sense. When you examine the lives of people with great minds you discover that the greatness is not so great. For example Newton did some experiments by diving a hole in his eyes, Fisher was in jail and a never ending story of miserable lifes for great people.
The knowledge that there are a great group of Ladies in some place can attract a powerful group of men, so we end with a crowded place, the next day everyone is looking for some more relaxed place to contact with someone interesting.
The author points that programming projects are driven by or looking for venture capital, so there are few computer science projects.
What is the solution? You can't pay creative people to build computer science. The only think that society can do is to increase the respect and consideration for those that strive to widen the frontiers of knowledge. The great work will be done when those men reflect a flame in their eyes.
Inspiration is the force of gravity for discovery, but not everyone lives in the same planet here. Allow people to grow and make research and you should find inspiration and the force to discover and innovate.
In your case I think you are should learn what are your strengths and weakness. So you should ask yourself what type of idea can I develop that can give me some feedback about my capacity to built something valuable. Once you know something about yourself you should look for a good team. A good team is the one that gives you the best opportunity to built the valuable idea that you have.
I think those lectures can be summarized a lot if the audience has some advanced background. The authors could put some tag in the content, revealing what type of content is about background and core material. Going directly at the core is great when you know well the background material.
I think that children at school should be given some money and learn to manage their education and hire their teachers, that should be a unique experience. They would learn to govern themselves and the value of honesty. That would be a great revolution.
The more you are able to control your surroundings the more you realize that your action is a crucial factor in your life. Errors are one way to learn, that is the lesson to remember.
I can't recommend any book. Lately when I am reading a book I need a way of elaborating my thoughts other than reading in a linear way.
I find so many ideas and branching points that I want to explore while reading that I can't follow the author path.
Perhaps in the future books with be self-developing, that is you don't go from one page to the next one, you can ask a question and the book develop a new chapter, so the book for the future will be more about communication and less about a monologue.
Could HN be like a book? is there a central point from which all derive, a source to construct knowledge and get information?
Google has power, so he question who wrote the laws and he knows that power is a way to rewrite the law.