Joseph Kohlmann
@jkohlmann.bsky.social
He / him · #Manhattan #NYC · Staff software engineer · Design+eng, #HCI, #DesignSystems, listening, empathy, #house #music, video #games, #photography, #cats, Black feminism, trans rights, Palestinian liberation, antiwhiteness, broken systems, #union labor
Pinned
Reposted by Joseph Kohlmann
Me after eating that third paczki knowing I should have stopped at one
February 16, 2026 at 2:24 PM
Me after eating that third paczki knowing I should have stopped at one
Reposted by Joseph Kohlmann
The number of snakeoil salemen in journalism who promise infinite growth, infinite revenue, infinite stories is quite stunning
February 16, 2026 at 1:55 PM
The number of snakeoil salemen in journalism who promise infinite growth, infinite revenue, infinite stories is quite stunning
Reposted by Joseph Kohlmann
So this reminds me of when the Village Voice decided stories would not appear on 1 web page, but that you'd have to click through to 5 pages to read the story...bc, 5 web pages, 5 times the ad revnue, baby!!!!
Ofc, no one clicked thru...ppl only read the first 20% of your story then stopped.
Ofc, no one clicked thru...ppl only read the first 20% of your story then stopped.
February 16, 2026 at 1:53 PM
So this reminds me of when the Village Voice decided stories would not appear on 1 web page, but that you'd have to click through to 5 pages to read the story...bc, 5 web pages, 5 times the ad revnue, baby!!!!
Ofc, no one clicked thru...ppl only read the first 20% of your story then stopped.
Ofc, no one clicked thru...ppl only read the first 20% of your story then stopped.
Reposted by Joseph Kohlmann
How many marathons could I run every day if I didn’t have to run them? A million? A billion? A TRILLION???!!!
“By removing writing from reporters’ workloads, we’ve effectively freed up an extra workday for them each week.”
A newspaper editor actually said this! @theonion.com is cooked.
A newspaper editor actually said this! @theonion.com is cooked.
A conscientious journalism grad withdraw from a job when she learned the Cleveland Plain Dealer uses AI to write its stories.
Now the editor is castigating her and journalism professors for not being “prepared for the workforce.”
You can’t make this shit up.
www.cleveland.com/news/2026/02...
Now the editor is castigating her and journalism professors for not being “prepared for the workforce.”
You can’t make this shit up.
www.cleveland.com/news/2026/02...
February 16, 2026 at 1:15 PM
How many marathons could I run every day if I didn’t have to run them? A million? A billion? A TRILLION???!!!
Reposted by Joseph Kohlmann
“By removing writing from reporters’ workloads, we’ve effectively freed up an extra workday for them each week.”
A newspaper editor actually said this! @theonion.com is cooked.
A newspaper editor actually said this! @theonion.com is cooked.
A conscientious journalism grad withdraw from a job when she learned the Cleveland Plain Dealer uses AI to write its stories.
Now the editor is castigating her and journalism professors for not being “prepared for the workforce.”
You can’t make this shit up.
www.cleveland.com/news/2026/02...
Now the editor is castigating her and journalism professors for not being “prepared for the workforce.”
You can’t make this shit up.
www.cleveland.com/news/2026/02...
February 16, 2026 at 1:10 PM
“By removing writing from reporters’ workloads, we’ve effectively freed up an extra workday for them each week.”
A newspaper editor actually said this! @theonion.com is cooked.
A newspaper editor actually said this! @theonion.com is cooked.
Reposted by Joseph Kohlmann
"AI detectors" are themselves AI, and yet are endlessly trusted by people on here if they say that a newspaper article is AI.
AI detectors are snake oil. None of them reliably works. And UK broadsheet are not yet using AI to write articles. No, that link to the deal you found doesn't prove it.
AI detectors are snake oil. None of them reliably works. And UK broadsheet are not yet using AI to write articles. No, that link to the deal you found doesn't prove it.
Just because I keep seeing those "I checked this piece and it's written by AI" - this is an old article of mine, before AI was available. So could we not?
February 16, 2026 at 10:44 AM
"AI detectors" are themselves AI, and yet are endlessly trusted by people on here if they say that a newspaper article is AI.
AI detectors are snake oil. None of them reliably works. And UK broadsheet are not yet using AI to write articles. No, that link to the deal you found doesn't prove it.
AI detectors are snake oil. None of them reliably works. And UK broadsheet are not yet using AI to write articles. No, that link to the deal you found doesn't prove it.
Reposted by Joseph Kohlmann
As just such a journalism professor, I invite Chris here to lay out his own pedagogical vision for the only private profession mentioned by name in the Constitution. If it’s “let the machine write for you” then I further invite him to resign and make room for real journalists
A conscientious journalism grad withdraw from a job when she learned the Cleveland Plain Dealer uses AI to write its stories.
Now the editor is castigating her and journalism professors for not being “prepared for the workforce.”
You can’t make this shit up.
www.cleveland.com/news/2026/02...
Now the editor is castigating her and journalism professors for not being “prepared for the workforce.”
You can’t make this shit up.
www.cleveland.com/news/2026/02...
February 16, 2026 at 2:24 PM
As just such a journalism professor, I invite Chris here to lay out his own pedagogical vision for the only private profession mentioned by name in the Constitution. If it’s “let the machine write for you” then I further invite him to resign and make room for real journalists
Reposted by Joseph Kohlmann
Wow, I hope 1.4% of productivity translates directly into a 1.4% increase in profit because as soon as OpenAI stops subsidizing the cost of their APIs, they're going to need every penny
New NBER paper based on a survey of CFOs. Firms report no productivity increases due to AI adoption so far but expect a 1.4% productivity boost over the next 3 years. www.nber.org/papers/w34836
February 16, 2026 at 9:20 AM
Wow, I hope 1.4% of productivity translates directly into a 1.4% increase in profit because as soon as OpenAI stops subsidizing the cost of their APIs, they're going to need every penny
Reposted by Joseph Kohlmann
An internal Meta doc reveals far-reaching surveillance plans from Facebook's parent company that rely on the distraction of political turmoil
Meta plan to use political turmoil as cover for new surveillance tech rollout
An internal Meta doc reveals far-reaching surveillance plans from Facebook's parent company that rely on the distraction of political turmoil
www.thecanary.co
February 16, 2026 at 9:38 AM
An internal Meta doc reveals far-reaching surveillance plans from Facebook's parent company that rely on the distraction of political turmoil
Reposted by Joseph Kohlmann
Nobody wants to know how to make platforms that work in ways that aren’t harmful to their users. They just don’t. They just want to put a fig leaf over the ways their business models directly correlate to those harms.
February 16, 2026 at 7:26 AM
Nobody wants to know how to make platforms that work in ways that aren’t harmful to their users. They just don’t. They just want to put a fig leaf over the ways their business models directly correlate to those harms.
Reposted by Joseph Kohlmann
Tech companies and policy-makers are currently rolling out online safety mechanisms for protecting children that directly conflict with all of the copious research and expert opinion on what they should be doing instead to prevent child harms. No one cares about the research.
February 16, 2026 at 7:31 AM
Tech companies and policy-makers are currently rolling out online safety mechanisms for protecting children that directly conflict with all of the copious research and expert opinion on what they should be doing instead to prevent child harms. No one cares about the research.
Reposted by Joseph Kohlmann
It’s not actually thinking. Please, stop this.
February 14, 2026 at 9:51 PM
It’s not actually thinking. Please, stop this.
Reposted by Joseph Kohlmann
(Even before this, all the way back to the beginnings of programming culture in the 1930s, there was always a huge reactionary element that ultimately was in it for the power and money and didn’t care about the craft.)
February 15, 2026 at 1:36 PM
(Even before this, all the way back to the beginnings of programming culture in the 1930s, there was always a huge reactionary element that ultimately was in it for the power and money and didn’t care about the craft.)
Reposted by Joseph Kohlmann
The essay linked says it’s been three years since this started but I think this cultural shift actually began around 2008–2010, with the advent of crypto and the metastasizing of complex web frameworks to replace native apps.
> To those who [...] use fear and intimidation to help sell the agenda of the big tech CEOs who [...] use coal-fired GPUs to capture society’s output and sell it back to us[...]: I not only scold you, I shun you. That goes double if I once admired and respected you.
ratfactor.com/tech-nope2
ratfactor.com/tech-nope2
A programmer's loss of identity - ratfactor
ratfactor.com
February 15, 2026 at 1:32 PM
The essay linked says it’s been three years since this started but I think this cultural shift actually began around 2008–2010, with the advent of crypto and the metastasizing of complex web frameworks to replace native apps.
Reposted by Joseph Kohlmann
This loss of identity has been deeply connected to burnout—in the sense of burnout as “loss of an ideal”
aworkinglibrary.com/writing/loss...
aworkinglibrary.com/writing/loss...
February 15, 2026 at 1:53 PM
This loss of identity has been deeply connected to burnout—in the sense of burnout as “loss of an ideal”
aworkinglibrary.com/writing/loss...
aworkinglibrary.com/writing/loss...
Reposted by Joseph Kohlmann
The most difficult part of the past few years has been observing colleagues, whom you assumed shared a similar set of morals, demonstrate with their actions that that is clearly not the case
A programmer's loss of identity - ratfactor
ratfactor.com
February 15, 2026 at 1:46 PM
The most difficult part of the past few years has been observing colleagues, whom you assumed shared a similar set of morals, demonstrate with their actions that that is clearly not the case
Reposted by Joseph Kohlmann
I was just saying a few minutes ago that The Atlantic does not label their humor pieces clearly enough for context. Apparently, they don't label their tragic fiction pieces well enough, either.
February 15, 2026 at 5:20 PM
I was just saying a few minutes ago that The Atlantic does not label their humor pieces clearly enough for context. Apparently, they don't label their tragic fiction pieces well enough, either.
Reposted by Joseph Kohlmann
We can’t have any serious discussions about literacy if we are t having real discussions about how people are purposely trying to mislead people
Sounds like emotional misdirection and as such, dishonest
Nieman Lab interviewed the writer
www.niemanlab.org/2026/02/the-...
Nieman Lab interviewed the writer
www.niemanlab.org/2026/02/the-...
The Atlantic’s Elizabeth Bruenig on her “hypothetical,” heavily reported measles essay
"We were attracted to the idea of providing a play-by-play of the progression of measles in granular detail."
www.niemanlab.org
February 15, 2026 at 5:16 PM
We can’t have any serious discussions about literacy if we are t having real discussions about how people are purposely trying to mislead people
Reposted by Joseph Kohlmann
Like, even if the AI is part of the process, journalists have to actually like, write down what they've reported. And they might as well just write this down into, you know, the actual article.
February 16, 2026 at 3:24 AM
Like, even if the AI is part of the process, journalists have to actually like, write down what they've reported. And they might as well just write this down into, you know, the actual article.
Reposted by Joseph Kohlmann
"By removing writing from reporters’ workloads, we’ve effectively freed up an extra workday for them each week" is an insane sentence.
This AI-loving newspaper editor is teaching young journalists a valuable lesson: editors can be dumbasses
www.cleveland.com/news/2026/02...
www.cleveland.com/news/2026/02...
Journalism schools are teaching fear of the future: Letter from the Editor
Journalism schools lag in teaching AI, crucial for modern reporting, which aids in efficient news gathering and frees reporters for fieldwork.
www.cleveland.com
February 16, 2026 at 3:19 AM
"By removing writing from reporters’ workloads, we’ve effectively freed up an extra workday for them each week" is an insane sentence.
Reposted by Joseph Kohlmann
Writing is thinking. You can't possibly set up early-career journalists for long-term success if you systematically deny them the experience of thinking through their own reporting and structuring it as stories.
This AI-loving newspaper editor is teaching young journalists a valuable lesson: editors can be dumbasses
www.cleveland.com/news/2026/02...
www.cleveland.com/news/2026/02...
Journalism schools are teaching fear of the future: Letter from the Editor
Journalism schools lag in teaching AI, crucial for modern reporting, which aids in efficient news gathering and frees reporters for fieldwork.
www.cleveland.com
February 16, 2026 at 3:38 AM
Writing is thinking. You can't possibly set up early-career journalists for long-term success if you systematically deny them the experience of thinking through their own reporting and structuring it as stories.
Reposted by Joseph Kohlmann
My thoughts on AI and writing is simple: if you do not care enough to put time in to write and edit something, it signals to me that I should not put my time in to read it. Life is short. Why would I spend time reading something you care so little about?
This AI-loving newspaper editor is teaching young journalists a valuable lesson: editors can be dumbasses
www.cleveland.com/news/2026/02...
www.cleveland.com/news/2026/02...
Journalism schools are teaching fear of the future: Letter from the Editor
Journalism schools lag in teaching AI, crucial for modern reporting, which aids in efficient news gathering and frees reporters for fieldwork.
www.cleveland.com
February 16, 2026 at 3:48 AM
My thoughts on AI and writing is simple: if you do not care enough to put time in to write and edit something, it signals to me that I should not put my time in to read it. Life is short. Why would I spend time reading something you care so little about?
Reposted by Joseph Kohlmann
Indeed, and while there have always been bad, even malicious, journalists, this broader campaign to displace thinking is more sinister.
Nothing is more docile than a proletariat unequipped to frame their own arguments, relegated to fact-checking a denial of service machine.
February 16, 2026 at 5:35 AM
Indeed, and while there have always been bad, even malicious, journalists, this broader campaign to displace thinking is more sinister.
Reposted by Joseph Kohlmann
This is something we should think about across all writing intensive fields. Even if you're using the AI to turn notes into drafts, you are offloading the kinds of creative and epistemic decisions that drive the organization of your writing to a machine.
Thinking about the many decisions that get made when you turn your notes into a draft and what that looks like when the bot is making all of those decisions, even if you get the "final say" after the decisions have been made. www.cleveland.com/news/2026/02...
February 16, 2026 at 4:52 AM
This is something we should think about across all writing intensive fields. Even if you're using the AI to turn notes into drafts, you are offloading the kinds of creative and epistemic decisions that drive the organization of your writing to a machine.
Reposted by Joseph Kohlmann
No judgment on the game more generally yet, but this description in the new 2d god of war game is one of the clumsiest pieces of game writing I've seen
February 13, 2026 at 6:15 PM
No judgment on the game more generally yet, but this description in the new 2d god of war game is one of the clumsiest pieces of game writing I've seen