Adam Smith
@dradamame.bsky.social
Educational developer and musician (pianist/organist). Maggie's dog dad. Opinions are my own, not my employer's.
A reminder that 'soulless' and 'austerity' are next to each other in the Deloitte handbook. Glad to see an institution looking for another path forward. www.chronicle.com/article/what...
What Can a Struggling University Do if It Can’t Cut Any More? Change.
Instead of continuing to shrink, Southern Oregon U. is trying to shift how it functions.
chronicle.com
When the daddy headlines write themselves ...
Scientific American@sciam.bsky.social · 3d agoMaybe you've never thought much about the sex lives of arachnids, but here we are. It turns out some daddy longlegs have surprisingly complex, lurid and even violent mating habits www.scientificamerican.com/article/dadd...
What she ( @sarosecav.bsky.social ) said: "... I believe what our youth need in learning to live healthfully in a technological world is akin to what they need to learn to live healthfully in a sexual world - not abstinence-based approaches but education, open conversations, and good modeling."
Sarah Rose Cavanagh@sarosecav.bsky.social · 6d agoJuly newsletter! Featuring @retrievelearn.bsky.social and Bethany Lisi, some new curiosity & learning research, why college should be more fun, a battle about phones and play and mental health, and one solution for what to do about all that zucchini. newsletter.sarahrosecav.com/on-curiosity/
Thanks @naomialderman.bsky.social for both this project and her book 'The Future,' which helped me embrace an episode of insomnia this morning ... 200 pages later, and I didn't want to stop reading. I really really like the 'Couch to 5k' frame for reading! naomialderman.substack.com/p/couch-to-5...
reading instead of scrolling will make you happier
'couch to 5k' for reading, week 2: some lovely readers have made us *trackers*! and: how has it gone?! how are you enjoying it?
naomialderman.substack.com
Chef's kiss. The amount of people who decry polarization w/o consideration of what we're 'polarized' about (human rights v. not human rights, as one example) ...
Rebecca Solnit@rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 2w agojust heard a foundation declare its mission as reducing "polarization" as though there's some sweet spot halfway between white supremacy/radical inequality/climate denial and the opposite we should all aim for. There isn't. Been railing against it forever.
Love love LOVED this piece. Nuance is not a four-letter word ... and Haidt's good/bad simplification creates only more divides. "To quote Odgers: why are we banning things when we could be building things? Taking teen mental health seriously has to mean more than just banning social media.
Matthew Sheffield@matthew.flux.community · 3w agoJonathan Haidt is a right-wing activist that no one on the left should be supporting. His campaign against children having tech freedom is extremely harmful to disadvantaged kids, goes against better social science data, and empowers Christian supremacists. Please read this and share w/parents:
In a finding that will in no way make anyone nervous ...
Kyle Cheney@kyledcheney.bsky.social · 3w agoThe Justice Department appears to have included a fake AI-generated. citation in an ICE detainee's case. Judge Jarbou, a Trump appointee in Michigan, called it out: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
I still most likely sound like an old man when I say "Speeding is a waste (re: irresponsible use) of fuel." Nice to know that it's also adding to global warming...
Scientific American@sciam.bsky.social · 3w agoTurns out, speeding isn't cheap.
I really appreciate this stance. Too many people try to use "but it's useful" as a counterargument to what we say, for example, in The AI Con. Useful for whom and at what cost (to the user and especially others) should always be the immediate follow up.
tante@tante.cc · 3w ago"In a burning world we need to hold ourselves and each other to a higher standard. “Useful” is far, far from being good enough." https://tante.cc/2026/07/15/useful-is-not-sufficient/
Some alarming social perceptions in here ... like the one that any man interested in teaching/mentoring must have ulterior motives (and that college is a scam). www.chronicle.com/article/why-...
Why Many Young Men Don’t Think College Is for Them
Yes, they question the value of a college degree, but their disaffection runs deeper. The leader of a research group studying young men explains.
chronicle.com
Also ... maybe this is a slight adjustment to the libertarian propaganda of the OG? bmr.unm.edu/the-libertar...
The Libertarian Propaganda of the Little House Books - Blue Mesa Review
By Megan Osborn
bmr.unm.edu
G. Willow Wilson@gwillow.me · 4w agoSomebody (Rebecca Onion) didn't read the books. If they read the books, they would know the Black doctor is in the books. He nurses the Ingalls family through malaria. He's based on a real Black doctor who lived near the Ingalls family in Independence, KS, REBECCA ONION slate.com/culture/2026...
Wonder if this will become a new faultline in higher education... an all (universities basically requiring AI use/literacy) or nothing (see below) approach. While I know where my sympathies lie, I'm wondering what other overhaul will accompany this choice: investments in pedagogy?
Amy Landers@amylanders.bsky.social · 4w agoUniv of Chicago law's AI policy: "Across all 1L sections, we will prohibit the use of electronic devices such as laptops, tablets, and phones in the classroom." Hey, I heard that gasp. www.law.uchicago.edu/news/ai-stra...
Definitely of a piece with @jamesmlang.bsky.social 'Write Like You Teach.' When I think of Jill Lepore's work in the New Yorker (as well as her excellent books), I think of someone who is cognizant of her capital A audience. Loved this piece. www.insidehighered.com/opinion/colu...
Heather Cox Richardson Hears the Public Scholar Music
The historian behind Letters From an American, now read by more than three million subscribers, says the secret to public scholarship is remembering how to teach.
insidehighered.com
If science/journalism/education is anything other than a public good, then it is subject to the whims of its funders.
Naomi Oreskes@naomioreskes.bsky.social · last mo.My latest. I know a lot of people will strongly disagree. that's okay. I am just trying to get us all thinking about the problem, and potential solutions. | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Leaving aside 'frequently unasked questions' (lolz) as a nice title, this piece helped me (along with a @slate.com writeup). Defining stochastic parrot is a descriptor (not a pejorative). Stochastic Parrots 🦜: Frequently Unasked Questions by @emilymbender.bsky.social medium.com/p/stochastic...
Stochastic Parrots 🦜: Frequently Unasked Questions
It’s been a bit over five years since the Stochastic Parrots paper (Bender, Gebru et al 2021) was published (and somewhat longer since…
medium.com
From interview w/ Emily Bender on misunderstandings of LLMs and the phrase 'stochastic parrot': "The message that I always bring when I have a chance is that, when the text that comes out of one of these systems makes sense, it’s because we are making sense of it." spectrum.ieee.org/stochastic-p...
What Emily Bender Really Meant by "Stochastic Parrots"
Five years later, its lead author revisits the paper in the age of ChatGPT
spectrum.ieee.org
"What the U.S. desperately needs is socialists, traditional liberals, independents, and pro-democracy conservatives to disagree with one another during Democratic primaries but then join together to defeat the MAGA right in general elections..." newrepublic.com/article/2125... via @newrepublic.com
Democratic Centrists Need to Stop Saying “Both Sides” Have “Extremes”
Yes, democratic socialists are left of traditional Democrats. But they aren’t remotely as radical—or anywhere near as powerful—as the MAGA right.
newrepublic.com
I concur but understand how this will be cast as communism on the order of “taking your beef.” do we tax and/or regulate the consumer … or the producer? Do we simply shame people in dangerously large vehicles (beyond cyber truck shaming… obvs)? Do we lobby for better walkable infrastructure?
The War on Cars@thewaroncars.bsky.social · last mo."The report calls for hood height caps of 85 cm (33.5 inches), width limits of 192 cm (75.6 inches), taxes tied to vehicle dimensions, parking fees based on size, and regulatory incentives reserved for smaller EVs measuring less than 4.2 meters (165.4 inches) long."
“That’s the worse dystopian outcome …” he says… “the idea of us willingly, without any overlord telling us so, saying ‘I think my voice would be better expressed by an unthinking machine who has plagiarised all of the world’s authors and has come up with this terrible soup of bad writing.’”
Neil Turkewitz@neilturkewitz.bsky.social · last mo.“You’re one of one. You’re unprecedented in the entire line of human history. Only you have your brain. Only you can think of what you can think of. Only you can tell a story in a particular way. Why would you cede that to a machine?” —Dave Eggers
Will never not sing my praises for @allisonpugh.bsky.social 's The Last Human Job. Reorienting our economy to value the caring/relational work that our demographics will soon require (again population, possible automation of many jobs, need for dignified work) points in the direction of this book.
Princeton University Press@princetonupress.bsky.social · last mo.@allisonpugh.bsky.social's The Last Human Job is featured in Moe Carrick’s piece for @fastcompany.com: “Pugh’s research. . . [is] about what it costs, to both parties, when someone is seen versus processed. AI will not save your culture. The people leader who knows her people will."
And next up on my totally self-generated reading list ... I'm always up for discussions of motivation. I'm also always up for a 'myth-busting' approach. Thanks to learningandthebrain.com for these monthly book reviews! www.learningandthebrain.com/blog/motivat...
Motivation Myth Busters by Wendy Grolnick, Benjamin Heddy, and Frank Worrell – Education & Teacher Conferences
learningandthebrain.com
You've duran(n)ed your last duran.
Brandy Schillace@bschillace.brandyschillace.com · last mo.You’ve gardened your last sound.
Hosting a summer group read on this. One critique is that some of the anecdotes seem a bit ... magical ... (one small shift and VOILA! a common frustration resolves in almost sitcom like simplicity), but still agree that the book gives health perspective. www.learningandthebrain.com/blog/book-re...
Book Review: 10 to 25, by David Yeager – Education & Teacher Conferences
learningandthebrain.com
The evidence-base around performance evaluations rhymes with critiques of traditional grading (backward looking, veil of objectivity, etc.). It's striking that the creation of quantitative measures in a fluid, subjective 'knowledge work' environment also rhymes. theconversation.com/job-performa...
Job performance reviews are outdated and often pointless. Why do we still use them?
One survey showed employees are 57% less likely than leaders to believe performance management is working well. But there are better ways.
theconversation.com
