Academics: 'But will an academic job ultimately fulfil me?'

Academic job market: 'I wouldn't worry about it'

Average academic seminar:

Academic 1: 'I read the abstract'

Academic 2: 'I read the paper'

Academic 3: 'I misread the paper'

Academic 4: 'I was told there were sandwiches?'

“… it is aspirational branding, it’s just a deeply misanthropic variety — we want you to have the cool high tech thing, even if it is at the expense of everyone else, or the wellbeing of, well, society in general.”
Great from Brian Merchant
bloodinthemachine.com/p/for-tech-ceo…

While I'm grateful for the reviewer's suggestions, further changes are beyond the scope of my word count, patience, interest, and intellect.

In light of the GPT-4o demos launched yesterday, I thought I would post an article I wrote back in 2018/19 (when Google had just launched Duplex). You can access the text here tinyurl.com/3epdze4r or via Thesis Eleven

*movie character with multiple PhDs*

Non-academics: “wow, they must be smart”

Academics: “wow, they must be mentally unbalanced”

Co-authoring is wild, because you either write something amazing together in 4 weeks or agree to pick it back up in 2040

Today is pub day for a big report I wrote for ICRC on AI in conflict.

Humans who use AI in war should always be able to make an appropriate decision, regardless of whether the computer is right or wrong. The report shows why that’s easier said than done.
shop.icrc.org/decisions-deci…

In the irrational mind of every 25 year old PhD student lives the fear that they’ll break this record

Junior academics 10 weeks before the lecture starts: 'I'll need to read multiple books, prepare a comprehensive powerpoint slide deck, and write out...'

Senior academics 10 minutes after the lecture starts:

if you can't advance your academic discipline, at least help with its demise

[narrator voice] “witness the tender moment the academic reconnects with the draft they abandoned 8 years ago”