Math Sky, I just learned about Robinson's infinitesimals and I am shook, just shook to learn that you can do calculus entirely without taking limits. Newton and Leibniz were right, they just couldn't prove it.

Ah crap they asked me to area chair.

Become ungovernable

Optimizing for engagement alone can lead to bad results for social media and LLMs. So what's the alternative? You can just ask your users what you actually want to know! Here's Pinterest explaining how they did just that... medium.com/pinterest-en...

Anyone got a take on this study suggesting COVID vaccines (both mRNA and other) increase the risk for some types on cancer? It seems well designed and plausible, but it does have an editor's note saying "concerns have been raised." link.springer.com/article/10.1...

The Sagrada Familia is every bit as awe inspiring as you’ve heard.

I’ve just discovered King Tubby and my understanding of music history is changed forever. He invented dub and pioneered the producer-as-creator… in the 1970s

Ok. I love this conference but my first and probably biggest criticism of #buildpeace2025 is that, although “plurality” is a recurring theme, pretty much everyone here has strongly progressive politics. A lot of talking *about* the other, not *with* them.

Ola! I’m here in Barcelona for #buildpeace26 Who else is here? I see @loreleikelly.bsky.social

Reviewing papers for IASEAI 26 is exciting! Lots of groundbreaking AI safety work! But I can’t help shake a certain imposter syndrome… I am now literally a gatekeeper in my field.

I saw Bugonia and wow. Not for the faint of heart, but incredible.

So I met this guy who’s meditated 4000 conversations between Israelis and Palestinians since October 7th. And he’s building an AI powered platform for difficult conversations. Here’s what he’s learned. www.betterconflictbulletin.org/p/what-you-c...

This date could have been a sext.

ATProto is just a 21st century NNTP, amirite?

@lawfaremedia.org where are you on this? I need expert Sandwich Guy legal analysis. The fate of our nation depends upon it.

I've been saying that putting AI in charge of business will immediately result in fraud from the optimization pressure to make money, and lo! the experimenters have found the effect. www.lesswrong.com/posts/LMwkQL...

I've said that newsrooms should engage in internal "adversarial collaboration" to figure out how to report on contentious political issues. Here's @tanglenews.bsky.social actually doing that, with a conservative staffer grappling with the editor's opinions. www.readtangle.com/things-are-s...

I'm really trying to figure out why I dislike TRON Legacy so much. I am a big TRON fan and I just blotted it from my memory. I thought Ares was actually much better as a TRON film. Legacy's design language just feels too much like an iMac commercial. It's not the inside of a computer anymore.

I grew up in Toronto. I could be a Jays fan again, sure.

Writing R code like it's 2014.

Great quote: Most people who like BJJ really like BJJ, but most people who enjoy running only “kind of” like it. So if you are optimizing for “engagement,” videos about BJJ is a stronger signal...than videos about running! This has nothing to do with content; it is all about co-viewership patterns

GreenEarth is creating open source AI-driven recommender infrastructure for BlueSky. Type a prompt, see your feed change. We are here for the users, the builders, the dreamers. Join us. greenearthsocial.substack.com/p/introducin...

tl;dr we live among intersectional bigotry, so any electorally winning political alliance has to include some bigots. I'm sure many folks here will disagree 😛 Feel free to argue on principle, but can you dispute the numbers? www.theargumentmag.com/p/bigots-in-...

The Portland Naked Bicycle Ride succeeded in shifting the media narrative from "violence" to "naked" for a week, even (especially) in right-leaning sources. www.betterconflictbulletin.org/p/the-strate...

New analysis finds TikTok "systematically boosts" Mamdami over Cuomo medium.com/@dodeles/bey... Last time someone looked at this, TikTok was found to "boost" Republican content. But what does it mean for an algorithm to "boost" content anyway? doomscrollingbabel.manoel.xyz/p/does-tikto...

Why did links get downranked on Twitter? My best guess (with slight inside info) is: a) Link posts do less well naturally because of UI, which Twitter now confirms b) so link posts were formerly *boosted* c) ranking greatly simplified after Elon, including removing link boost x.com/nikitabier/s...

Seeing lots of "did those protests matter?" chatter. Please see my FAQ. www.betterconflictbulletin.org/p/does-prote...

Our team is building open algorithmic feeds for ATProto. The big bet here is not that we can make something radically better than the platforms, but radically more collaborative. We're building tools for everyone to experiment with the problem. And choose what they like best from the results.

TIL the Apollo 13 astronauts were on team "hotdogs are sandwiches" and I might never be the same.

What people believe about immigration, what the relevant facts are about economics, demographics and crime, who's pushing what narratives, what policies poll well, and what the humane ways out of this disaster might be. www.betterconflictbulletin.org/p/we-have-to...

80 degrees out so I’m still working on campus but outside, reading papers, drinking a boba tea, touching grass.

The Mormons seem to be actually following the biblical conflict advice about loving your enemies. They could be an important “third side” in American politics. www.betterconflictbulletin.org/p/you-gotta-...

Honestly the thing I love about today's WAFFLES discourse is how utterly, hilariously, terminally online it is. If you know what I'm talking about you also spend way too much time on the internet. Also, I've been doing that longer than you and yes, it's always been this way.

‘War-ravaged’ cities don’t typically have artisanal kombucha on every corner.

Ready to die on the hill of "social media doesn't have to suck"

Had an impromptu epic whiteboard sesh about deep theory with a student this afternoon and I’m like hell yeah, living the academic dream. So much of the rest of it is actually email.

I was experimenting with images illustrating how social media distorts our perceptions, amplifying rage. (actual post in replies)

Today's writing music: Sines and Singularities by Bluetech. This album got me through grad school (the second time around, when I studied journalism in Hong Kong). It still gets me focussed when I need to lock in. www.youtube.com/watch?v=kW8S...

Musk just announced that you'll soon be able to control your Twitter feed by telling Grok what you want to see. Guess what. WE'RE ALREADY BUILDING THAT FOR BLUESKY Join us.

I've been hearing recently from both libs and cons that the other side is such a threat that it must be crushed. I think this makes dialog all the more urgent, precisely to preserve our ability to disagree and have it matter. Am I naive or enlightened? www.betterconflictbulletin.org/p/why-build-...

Today's coding music: deadmau5, but no words www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOD-...

Lots of arguing about whether left or right supports political violence more. tl;dr: - right has done more in recent decades www.congress.gov/116/meeting/... - left did way more in 1970s www.start.umd.edu/pubs/START_I... 1/2

An exceptionally shrewd operator. Also: the insanity of a society that makes this front page news fora week, whereas the far more transparently political assassination of the Minnesota House speaker was just a blip.

Looked at my data collections for state-backed activity. If the report were a picture:

I actually feel less confident about my posts being seeon the BSky vs. Twitter. The problem is, what if my peeps aren't online when I poast? Maybe we need an ICYMI feed? (In Case You Missed It)

How many people actually approve of Kirk's murder, on BlueSky and on Twitter? I got tired of anecdotes saying we are surrounded by bloodthirsty extremists, so I took a sample and counted. www.betterconflictbulletin.org/p/how-many-p...

Here’s why I don’t cheer the shooting: Morally, it’s repugnant. Strategically, atrocities provide political cover for escalation by the aggrieved party. The audience here isn’t the politicians but the voters.

I don’t know if it’s just who I follow but I’d love an “anything except bitter about politics” feed. With the open source feed builder we’re making you will be able to do that by writing a prompt.

What if we made a BlueSky feed called "Stuff You Like" which was literally just the posts you're most likely to press the <3 button on? Basic b*tch algorithmic feed, but maybe if it was totally transparent it would be useful. "Press the button, get more of that."

The slogan wasn't "égalité, fraternité, and strategic deplatforming of the other side," I promise you.