ELO, exams, and a faster line south

First, I must share the happy news that William came second in the U1800 chess championship over the weekend, which means that he now has his long-awaited ELO rating. His next game will be in early January here in Halmstad, and he could not be more excited. 

Returning yesterday on the morning high-speed train, I got to ride one of the first services to make full use of the new 3,100-metre rail tunnel in Varberg, cutting the journey time from Gothenburg to Halmstad to just 58 minutes – a small but tangible reminder of what public investment can still achieve. Once at work, I was greeted with 56 exams in quantitative methodology to mark, something which, ever since my days as a PhD student in Lund, I take extra pride in doing as promptly as possible. Without wanting to lapse into the all-too-familiar complaining university-teacher trope, the results were nevertheless abysmal: roughly half of the students failed, with some scoring only one or two points out of twenty. It is troubling how many lack even the most basic skills in mathematics and logical reasoning, deficits that clearly originate long before they reach the university.

Anyhow, once the marking was done, I went for ten kilometres of indoor rowing, which I topped up with a seaside half marathon this morning. Afterwards, I stopped by Bärlin for a lussekatt and some time with David Van Reybrouck’s book on Congo, which I am reading to better supervise one of my students this semester. From La table ronde to cobalt mining, I am repeatedly struck by how much thesis supervision extends one’s world into new domains.