Rob Danisch
@robdanisch.bsky.social
Professor of Rhetoric and Communication, University of Waterloo, lover and defender of democracy
As I grade my interpersonal communication final exams, I can say that all of this is terrible advice. Sports and movie stars don't make you a sparkling conversationalist:
www.thestar.com/life/convers...
www.thestar.com/life/convers...
Conversation tips from Toronto's social scene stars
From Edward Burtynsky to Adrienne Clarkson, the city's most notable storytellers shared their advice for breaking the ice.
www.thestar.com
December 14, 2025 at 10:17 AM
As I grade my interpersonal communication final exams, I can say that all of this is terrible advice. Sports and movie stars don't make you a sparkling conversationalist:
www.thestar.com/life/convers...
www.thestar.com/life/convers...
What an absolute moron.
Jimmy Fallon: "And do you use ChatGPT when raising your baby?"
Sam Altman: "I cannot imagine figuring out how to raise a newborn without ChatGPT."
Sam Altman: "I cannot imagine figuring out how to raise a newborn without ChatGPT."
December 9, 2025 at 4:05 PM
What an absolute moron.
Reposted by Rob Danisch
Remember when the internet wasn't awful? We can go back to that.
Some friends and I have released the Resonant Computing Manifesto: a call to bring back such a time, to see if we can bring back a world where technology works for us, rather than against us.
resonantcomputing.org
Some friends and I have released the Resonant Computing Manifesto: a call to bring back such a time, to see if we can bring back a world where technology works for us, rather than against us.
resonantcomputing.org
The Resonant Computing Manifesto
Technology should bring out the best in humanity, not the worst—a manifesto for resonant computing built on five principles that reject hyper-scale extraction for human flourishing.
resonantcomputing.org
December 5, 2025 at 5:57 PM
Remember when the internet wasn't awful? We can go back to that.
Some friends and I have released the Resonant Computing Manifesto: a call to bring back such a time, to see if we can bring back a world where technology works for us, rather than against us.
resonantcomputing.org
Some friends and I have released the Resonant Computing Manifesto: a call to bring back such a time, to see if we can bring back a world where technology works for us, rather than against us.
resonantcomputing.org
This gets a lot about AI right too. Good to see so much clear-eyed analysis coming out.
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
Colleges Are Preparing to Self-Lobotomize
The skills that students will need in an age of automation are precisely those that are eroded by inserting AI into the educational process.
www.theatlantic.com
December 4, 2025 at 8:42 PM
This gets a lot about AI right too. Good to see so much clear-eyed analysis coming out.
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
This feels a bit more extreme compared to my experience at UWaterloo, but only a bit more. There’s much truth here
An issue we're seeing at all levels of university is that many students are simply refusing to do *anything*. They aren't reading the syllabus, aren't following assignment guidelines, aren't engaging with material, ignoring deadlines. And this might seem like old news, but it truly has ramped up.
November 29, 2025 at 1:33 PM
This feels a bit more extreme compared to my experience at UWaterloo, but only a bit more. There’s much truth here
Reposted by Rob Danisch
There’s a reason Caesar was forbidden to cross the Rubicon and return to Rome with his army. It’s what separates a relatively free society from a fascist one.
Pirro: "These Guardsmen and all who are here to protect the District are the line that separates a civilized society from a barbaric one."
November 27, 2025 at 4:07 PM
There’s a reason Caesar was forbidden to cross the Rubicon and return to Rome with his army. It’s what separates a relatively free society from a fascist one.
This was lovely to read and reinforces a lot of what I'm trying lately:
Explore this gift article from The New York Times. You can read it for free without a subscription. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/25/m...
Explore this gift article from The New York Times. You can read it for free without a subscription. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/25/m...
I’m a Professor. A.I. Has Changed My Classroom, but Not for the Worse.
www.nytimes.com
November 27, 2025 at 10:53 AM
This was lovely to read and reinforces a lot of what I'm trying lately:
Explore this gift article from The New York Times. You can read it for free without a subscription. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/25/m...
Explore this gift article from The New York Times. You can read it for free without a subscription. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/25/m...
After over 25 years of teaching humanities courses at universities and reading thousands of pages of student writing, the idea that I can't immediately tell when something was written by AI is ridiculous. I know because I've spent countless hours of my life reading student work.
November 25, 2025 at 5:25 PM
After over 25 years of teaching humanities courses at universities and reading thousands of pages of student writing, the idea that I can't immediately tell when something was written by AI is ridiculous. I know because I've spent countless hours of my life reading student work.
Reposted by Rob Danisch
I think it’s pretty clear at this point that one of the main impacts of LLMs is to disrupt thinking: to make it so that far too many people never properly learn how to do it, and then to control the output so there are thoughts that people never learn how to think.
November 24, 2025 at 5:18 PM
I think it’s pretty clear at this point that one of the main impacts of LLMs is to disrupt thinking: to make it so that far too many people never properly learn how to do it, and then to control the output so there are thoughts that people never learn how to think.
Reposted by Rob Danisch
💥 New publication out on the alignment of AI & authoritarianism 💥
We argue that AI is not simply extending, but actively modulating, key dynamics of authoritarianism, and present a flexible analytical framework to account for these changes.
rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
We argue that AI is not simply extending, but actively modulating, key dynamics of authoritarianism, and present a flexible analytical framework to account for these changes.
rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
November 24, 2025 at 9:39 AM
💥 New publication out on the alignment of AI & authoritarianism 💥
We argue that AI is not simply extending, but actively modulating, key dynamics of authoritarianism, and present a flexible analytical framework to account for these changes.
rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
We argue that AI is not simply extending, but actively modulating, key dynamics of authoritarianism, and present a flexible analytical framework to account for these changes.
rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Reposted by Rob Danisch
Relying on ChatGPT to teach you about a topic leaves you with shallower knowledge than Googling and reading about it, according to new research that compared what more than 10,000 people knew after using one method or the other.
Shared by @gizmodo.com: buff.ly/yAAHtHq
Shared by @gizmodo.com: buff.ly/yAAHtHq
November 21, 2025 at 11:48 AM
Relying on ChatGPT to teach you about a topic leaves you with shallower knowledge than Googling and reading about it, according to new research that compared what more than 10,000 people knew after using one method or the other.
Shared by @gizmodo.com: buff.ly/yAAHtHq
Shared by @gizmodo.com: buff.ly/yAAHtHq
This is incredibly stupid. The enshitification of the new york times continues:
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/08/o...
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/08/o...
Opinion | A.I. Is Already Intelligent. This Is How It Becomes Conscious.
www.nytimes.com
November 8, 2025 at 6:53 PM
This is incredibly stupid. The enshitification of the new york times continues:
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/08/o...
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/08/o...
Reposted by Rob Danisch
We deserve a better democracy than this! If you agree, pre-order my new book On Mindful Democracy from Thich Nhat Hanh’s Parallax Press. Here, I forward a radical vision of democracy grounded in everyday acts of #mindfulness, #community, and mutual care.
20% off discount code: MINDFUL20
20% off discount code: MINDFUL20
On Mindful Democracy – Parallax Press
An antidote to political burnout and civic despair: drawing on mindfulness and modern wisdom to cultivate resilience, healthy engagement, and skillful presence in turbulent times
www.parallax.org
November 7, 2025 at 2:42 PM
We deserve a better democracy than this! If you agree, pre-order my new book On Mindful Democracy from Thich Nhat Hanh’s Parallax Press. Here, I forward a radical vision of democracy grounded in everyday acts of #mindfulness, #community, and mutual care.
20% off discount code: MINDFUL20
20% off discount code: MINDFUL20
So the tech bros and computer nerds who probably didn't have any friends growing up and struggle to talk to people made stuff that causes the rest of us to have fewer friends and struggle to talk to other people. Great.
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
The Age of Anti-Social Media Is Here
The social-media era is over. What’s coming will be much worse.
www.theatlantic.com
November 6, 2025 at 11:39 AM
So the tech bros and computer nerds who probably didn't have any friends growing up and struggle to talk to people made stuff that causes the rest of us to have fewer friends and struggle to talk to other people. Great.
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
Apparently, one of the main uses of AI is advice about difficult conversations. As I head off to campus to teach my basic 100-level interpersonal communication class, which I've taught for 25 years, I've been wondering why I keep making it easier, more simple each year.
November 6, 2025 at 11:15 AM
Apparently, one of the main uses of AI is advice about difficult conversations. As I head off to campus to teach my basic 100-level interpersonal communication class, which I've taught for 25 years, I've been wondering why I keep making it easier, more simple each year.
There's so much truth here:
www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...
www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...
Why Students Are Obsessed With ‘Points Taken Off’
Students and professors are in a drawn-out battle over grade inflation. It may never end.
www.theatlantic.com
November 5, 2025 at 12:41 PM
There's so much truth here:
www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...
www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...
This is Jon Stewart at his best:
www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...
www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...
Will Paramount Cancel Jon Stewart?
The “Daily Show” host talks with David Remnick about his contract with Paramount Skydance, the government’s attack on political satire, and how our institutions got so weak.
www.newyorker.com
November 3, 2025 at 2:32 PM
This is Jon Stewart at his best:
www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...
www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...
Reposted by Rob Danisch
"The collapse of the institutions where young people learn to make and critique art stands to greatly benefit companies like OpenAI, which, in the absence of human artists and critics, can both make the stuff and tell us it’s good." lareviewofbooks.org/article/lite...
Literature Is Not a Vibe: On ChatGPT and the Humanities | Los Angeles Review of Books
Rachele Dini discusses OpenAI’s “A Machine-Shaped Hand” and an academic sector in crisis.
lareviewofbooks.org
November 1, 2025 at 10:31 PM
"The collapse of the institutions where young people learn to make and critique art stands to greatly benefit companies like OpenAI, which, in the absence of human artists and critics, can both make the stuff and tell us it’s good." lareviewofbooks.org/article/lite...
People spend way more time rationalizing than reasoning. We’d all be better if it were the reverse. Social media seems designed to make sure we keep up the rationalizing and don’t engage in reasoning.
November 2, 2025 at 3:24 PM
People spend way more time rationalizing than reasoning. We’d all be better if it were the reverse. Social media seems designed to make sure we keep up the rationalizing and don’t engage in reasoning.
If I were a pediatrician, I’d prescribe books. They’re the best medicine.
November 2, 2025 at 2:19 PM
If I were a pediatrician, I’d prescribe books. They’re the best medicine.
Reposted by Rob Danisch
This is not getting the attention it deserves, but Beutler is absolutely right. We need politicians to go directly after the social media algorithms and curb the rot that has driven us here
New from me: Emmanuel Macron delivered remarks in Germany recently that I think could serve as a template for an outside-the-box, ambitious political figure. But timing and breaking with prevailing orthodoxy would be critical. www.offmessage.net/p/defiant-re...
The Defiant Resistance Speech An American Should Have Given
There's power waiting to be claimed by an ambitious political figure who makes this his or her cause.
www.offmessage.net
October 31, 2025 at 7:52 PM
This is not getting the attention it deserves, but Beutler is absolutely right. We need politicians to go directly after the social media algorithms and curb the rot that has driven us here
Reposted by Rob Danisch
Moreover, they are the biggest plagiarism machines in the history of the world. They can not get answers correct without one of us having done it for them in the past, and then getting our work stolen by the corporation that designed the plagiarism machine and got all the money for it
Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.
October 27, 2025 at 4:03 PM
Moreover, they are the biggest plagiarism machines in the history of the world. They can not get answers correct without one of us having done it for them in the past, and then getting our work stolen by the corporation that designed the plagiarism machine and got all the money for it
Reposted by Rob Danisch
You spend more time on social media than you intend to, because time flows faster on these platforms, causing you to lose hours in what feels like minutes. This is no accident; it’s a result of a decades-long plot to steal your time.
My new essay.
www.gurwinder.blog/p/how-social...
My new essay.
www.gurwinder.blog/p/how-social...
How Social Media Shortens Your Life
And How to Expand it
www.gurwinder.blog
August 3, 2025 at 1:55 PM
You spend more time on social media than you intend to, because time flows faster on these platforms, causing you to lose hours in what feels like minutes. This is no accident; it’s a result of a decades-long plot to steal your time.
My new essay.
www.gurwinder.blog/p/how-social...
My new essay.
www.gurwinder.blog/p/how-social...