I mean, I'm sure it was a profound teaching moment on your part and not just a reaction to me bugging the heck out of you with questions... (and to be fair, you and @markgalassi.bsky.social had shown me how to use man pages, Usenet searches, and pointed me to O'Reilly books...)
Oh, and since I'm sure my cranky teenage self never said it at the time: Thanks Titus! 😉 (7/6)
I'm frustrated at how readily many students are willing to give up their own agency in the process, assuming they can always go back to the LLM. But if that's all they do, what value do they bring to an employer? (6/6)
Have others found good ways to convince students of that they will never learn a topic without putting in real effort? That if they want to be able to catch the coding nuances that the LLM misses, they need to understands those nuances deeply themselves? (5/6)
I was recently reminded of this when I asked Claude a weird GIT question for probably the 3rd time after copy-and-pasting the previous answers. For coding, I never copy code into big projects (I learn the ideas and implement them myself), but am more lax about these quick tasks and it shows. (4/6)
At the time I was frustrated because it slowed down my progress so much to save him 30 seconds for a quick answer, but in the end he was, of course, right. I was forced to learn context and gain a deeper understanding. And the work to find those answers made them stick when I finally did. (3/6)
I remember in the late 80s/early 90s (late HS, early college) shifting from MS DOS to Unix and BASIC to C. I was working with @titus.idyll.org on various projects and he answered most of my questions, until one day he told me to stop asking until I searched on my own for at least an hour. (2/6)
Today I'm teaching about responsible AI usage in my Computer Science capstone class. I regularly emphasize the need to understand code and to cite anything AI generated. But how can I make the point that AI is reducing depth of understanding because students no longer have to dig for answers? (1/6)
I've had a good experience with PDF Expert, but I think they've moved to a subscription model recently, which seems less ideal. Not sure if you can still just buy a regular license.
BUT - I’m going to stay hopeful! I mean up to 20 will make it to round two…
Oh - that is a good idea! We’ll have to think about if there’s something else we can do with ours as well. Blog entry if nothing else. ;-)
Huh - for me it’s Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi! Some interesting biology in there.
It does also allow us to learn about those few companies who try to stick to their values despite political winds.
A couple of years later, my dad mentioned that the only reason his small business could afford someone so incredibly skilled is that no one else would hire her. I remember being so confused by that and then frustrated on her behalf when I learned why. (2/2)
Early 1980's, my dad hired a (clearly trans) programmer who was amazing. I got to know her before I even knew transphobia was a thing. My parents were the least judgemental people I've ever known so as a kid I never even had reason to think about it beyond "huh, that's different". (1/2)
Sorry I missed your call, the frogs had my phone again.
Here's something I never thought I'd ask: @harvard.edu - where is the best place to donate to show our support? I went to alumni.harvard.edu/giving, but it wants me to specify a school and a fund to give to and there was no option for "Standing up to Government Overreach" or anything similar...
The goal is for liberal education to teach you how to critically think. That helps with both A and B, but they're not the only point of it. Critical thinking helps in all parts of your life.
And counterexamples will always exist. No form of education (or anything else) will help universally.
Wow, those are really gorgeous.
Nominate your friends! Nominate yourself! Nominate your favorite professor! It’s all okay! It’s all encouraged! Do it, because too many people simply don’t!!! #alife #alife25 #alife2025
The International Society for Artificial Life promotes Artificial Life research and celebrates researchers who do an exceptional job. Help identify ALife people and projects who should be recognized by nominating them here! forms.gle/5ajEpG43APUn...
Until Musk and his illegal budget cuts are OUT, @hakeem-jeffries.bsky.social must refuse all budget negotiations with Speaker Johnson. Republicans can't agree where cuts should come from & can't lose more than 2 GOP house votes; Dems have leverage if Johnson needs help kicking the can down the road.
I agree 100%. And yet I would take him back right now with hearty enthusiasm.
The interesting part is that Musk is putting a lot of trust in Trump here. If the two of them have a serious falling out, Musk will likely end up going to jail for a very long time.
Indeed, I don't post a lot about politics, but I do try to stay as informed as I can. Here's a NYTimes article (gift link) that sums up the current situation well: www.nytimes.com/2025/02/05/u...
So, how is it that most Americans seem to be just going about their day, blissfully unaware (or uncaring) that the foundations of our democracy seem to be coming out by the roots?
Accidentally wrote this thread of some thoughts on what an organized movement among scientists to fight back against government suppression of science might look like, and how to start.
Note: part of my point is that we should listen to experts on social change in making these plans. I'm no expert.
Same. But even then, it's really hard to have a sense of which other economies are going to hold up the best in the face of the U.S. economy sliding. It might make sense to spread the money around, but that is even more of a hassle.
With tariffs about to trigger high inflation in the U.S., and other decisions that have the potential to damage our economic standing in the world, where are folks putting their personal savings to weather the storm?
I don't think the general public (or the press) understands how disruptive a halt in federal grants & loans could be. If it lasts longer than a few weeks it could tip us into a major recession all by itself.
