"What we are actually listening to is human limitation and the audacity to transcend it. Artificial Intelligence, for all its unlimited potential, simply doesn’t have this capacity." - Nick Cave, on whether AI can write a song, written in 2019(!) www.theredhandfiles.com/considering-... #databs

What I am suggesting is that, in the same way that people turning to AI for therapy suggests a failing of both public mental health institutions & our own capacity as a society to provide individual & community support, that so many would turn to AI suggests a systemic failure to value the arts.

Book: Test-Driven Data Analysis (by @njr0.bsky.social) Chapter 1 Data analysis as if the answers actually matter ht @cghlewis.bsky.social cc @rmcelreath.bsky.social book.tdda.info/book/chapter...

i think some pro-AI people are also taken aback by what feels like the sudden implication that they’re not cool when they’ve been told the last couple of years how they’re on the cutting edge and anyone who didn’t get on board would end up looking like a loser when maybe it’s the other way around

My book on TDDA is out. TDDA is like test-driven development (TDD) for data science with reproducible research. The tdda library has cross-language command-line tools and Python APIs. 20% off at www.routledge.com/Test-Driven-... with code 26SMA1. book.tdda.info #data #testing #reproducilibility

terrible. 20 years ago, the internet was full of hobbyist blogs and forums. over time, these have been replaced by paywalled substacks and private discord channels, each a walled garden. google's decision to prioritize AI just makes it less likely people will create free, public info

R, Python, Stata, SPSS, SAS, Matlab

What happens when everyone can build software by chatting to an LLM? How does that change the dynamic of internal tools? Who is the Magical Glue Person and why might they emerge victorious? These and other questions answered in our latest episode: halfstackdatascience.com/s5e2-the-mag... #databs

Film you've watched more than six times with gif hard mode: no star wars, star trek, lotr, dc, marvel, disney, pixar, dreamworks, spielberg, cameron, wachowskis, or ghibli

Now that LLMs can spit out practice questions and become tireless tutors, where does that leave humans (e.g. me) teaching things like Intro to Python? My hope is that as educators, our focus can move further towards helping people *apply* their knowledge to real project work. Thoughts? #databs

I need to get back to this too actually. What's more human than making your ridiculous ideas, the ones that make you *you*, a reality?

The machine cannot capture the stupidity of my soul. I yearn too greedily for absolute idiocy. The machine do not know the pleasure of intentional folly. It is divinely given, made possible by the human touch.

When people stress out about "falling behind if they don't adopt AI," it's because productivity metrics are largely based on output volume and not on quality or understanding.

I know AI has people divided and there are a lot of nuanced discussions to be had, but can we at least all rally around the idea that "AI dungeon master for D&D" is an absolutely awful, soul-destroying idea that can get straight in the bin? No, I will not be linking to it but it exists 😬 #databs

What's your favourite origin/root of a word? (in any language) I love etymology so much. It's like history & conspiracy theories combined. Our language has secret messages & lizard DNA baked into it. Like how 'gargoyle' comes from gargle / gurgle, because of the water spewing out their mouths

If you could experience any video game again for the first time, what would it be? I can't name just one but whatever, it's my feed, so I'll mention a few: - Grim Fandango - Fallout 4 - the Mass Effect trilogy

Milla Jovovich (yes, *that* Milla Jovovich) releasing an AI memory product that beats benchmarks is further proof we're in the weirdest timeline. #databs #datasky github.com/milla-jovovi...

If you use GitHub (especially if you pay for it!!) consider doing this *immediately* Settings -> Privacy -> Disallow GitHub to train their models on your code. GitHub opted *everyone* into training. No matter if you pay for the service (like I do). WTH github.com/settings/cop...

Trying to get an LLM to generate a specific document and I keep having to make it refine it. It had the absolute gall to call the latest document "_FINAL". Maybe it *will* replace us!

This is an interesting one. On the one hand, I get that AI tools (not just LLMs) can democratise things like writing, which is good. I've read posts from people who have used AI to translate their thoughts into English. But! Even those people didn't use AI to write the original thing...

I love the framing of AI users as nannies of the LLMs. "Misbehavior is blamed on the nanny, or the parents, never the little boy." It's so true that especially in AI hype circles every mistake the thing makes is a "skill issue". #databs #datasky

I keep a Trello board of random project ideas I want to do at some point. About two months ago I created one titled: Raspberry Pi "idea generator" box Please help - what on earth did I mean by that? 🤣

Saw a data analyst ad that had "Familiarity with ChatGPT or other AI tools for data analysis" as a nice to have 🤪 I guess we're at the point where employers think ChatGPT is a tool for data analysis. Cool cool cool cool cool. #databs #datasky

Here’s the thing about folks speedrunning the creative process with AI: I could go to the beach every morning and put a grain of sand in a cup. They’d take their cup to the beach and fill it one day; but the point isn’t to have a cup of sand. It’s to fill my life with a thousand trips to the beach.

👋This is also how I feel! Hello friends, please enjoy my dumb little thoughts ❤️

Trying to break my addiction of checking football news multiple times a day even though I don't really watch football anymore. But I will briefly break my attempted football hiatus to say: it would be SO funny if Arsenal bottled it and didn't win the league. That is all.

One of my biggest fears as a data educator is running my "Intro to APIs" material in preparation for a class only to find that the API has been deprecated since the last time I used it. Didn't happen today but it's happened enough times! #databs #datasky

One dark UX pattern that really irritates me is when the logout/sign out button is hidden deep in Settings. It's not a setting, it's a primary action! Insert "old man yells at cloud" meme.

Researchers face this dilemma all the time. You can talk to the media with care & nuance, but you will always be outflanked by anyone willing to simplify, exaggerate, speak with undue certainty, answer questions outside their expertise & extrapolate in ways unsupported by the data.

Are you using open models on a regular basis? If yes, I’d love to hear about it! - what’s your use-case? - local or through an inference provider? - how has the experience evolved over time? - anything you miss from the closed models, if you’ve used them? Would appreciate reposts for visibility 🙏

Louder for those at the back: once you start to think about LLM outputs as optimising for *plausibility*, it's easier to put into context what LLMs can/can't do and how to use them properly. #databs #datasky

A succinct and useful list of rules for teaching data science, including some of my favourites: "teach with real data" and "have students do projects". #databs #datasky

BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAJAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA *breathes* AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHA

We recorded an end of year review episode. We talked about what happened on the podcast, the world of AI, and what great sci-fi we read in 2025. Listen wherever you listen! Looking forward to recording more in 2026! #databs #datasky

I just thought everyone should see this

When your friend makes a claim about Hungarian football and you get the compelling urge to check WITH DATA 😤 #databs #datasky

The state of LinkedIn man... I see posts like: "I used <AI technology X> for the first time today. [...] Follow for more tips using <AI technology X>!" I realise the irony of saying people on LinkedIn shouldn't be posers, but this immediate need to be seen as experts in something is excruciating.

When I say I love seeing other people's wild ideas for data projects come to life, this is what I mean. Seriously cool idea.

LinkedIn notification: "You have one of the most-viewed profiles. Add verification to boost trust." 1. I don't need to see the data to know I *don't* have one of the most-viewed profiles unless it's a weird subpopulation 2. If I already have one of the most-viewed profiles, why take any action?

Posting this article as a bookmark to myself. Damn, it really hit home. "instead of causing consolation, screens only make us feel more distant and disconnected and lonely, as an apathy sets in that is increasingly abstract, a kind of stomach-level sadness" www.tommydixon.ca/p/how-to-end...

One of the things I said in my 2025 review is how I want to spend less time on social media. One point of internal resistance has always been "but what about the community?" but as much as I loved Data Twitter and its reincarnations, it's not the same as your *local* community.

Today I felt somewhat compelled to write up my year in review. Featuring: - things I did - people we spoke to on the podcast - talks I've given - books I loved and more! Happy new year everyone and especially the #databs community! davidasboth.com/2025-year-in...

It has been nice to avoid social media entirely for a few days. As a belated Christmas present, I was delighted to discover that one of my favourite magic routines on Penn & Teller Fool Us is now back on YouTube so you can all have it as a treat: www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRfl...

LinkedIn must be up there in the list of "websites that absolutely do not need a Year in Review".

Ouch. Little did we know that just 18 short years later we'd not even manage a win away to Malta...

Thanks for everyone who recommended something! My gift to you is this piano rendition of The Beatles's Blackbird by Hiromi, quite possibly my favourite jazz pianist. www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUC3gm4KA_o

Recently, I started a tiny experiment: - coming up with a data challenge - livestreaming my own ongoing solution (~once a week) The topic I picked was "are there films rated higher than the books they're based on?" Here's a sneak peek, will livestream a write up at some point! #databs #datasky

Hey @profanity.accountant how am I doing?

A lot of the AI culture wars seem to stem from: 1) calling everything under the sun "AI", lumping ChatGPT in with random forests 2) not making a distinction between AI the technology and the AI that's the companies stealing copyright and shoving chatbots where they don't belong #databs #datasky

I can't explain it, but one of my comfort viewings is panel shows where Kevin Bridges is a guest and none of the other guests understand a word he's saying. A fine example: www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cK_...