Chris Slaby
@cjslaby.bsky.social
Scholar, teacher, writer, earth human person (he/him/his). Art + history: Native American and Indigenous Studies; the environmental humanities; media, culture, and representation. Food and music, too, though those are more passions than subjects of study.
I have quite a soft spot for the Midwest and its landscapes (as well as the Plains, though I’ve never been there), so aside for Judt’s East Coast snobbery, this really is true. The public higher education systems that this country created in the middle of the twentieth century are—were?—so, so good!
True enough - but when they're both gone we'll only miss one of them.
Tony Judt was right.
Tony Judt was right.
December 8, 2025 at 4:03 AM
I have quite a soft spot for the Midwest and its landscapes (as well as the Plains, though I’ve never been there), so aside for Judt’s East Coast snobbery, this really is true. The public higher education systems that this country created in the middle of the twentieth century are—were?—so, so good!
Reposted by Chris Slaby
True enough - but when they're both gone we'll only miss one of them.
Tony Judt was right.
Tony Judt was right.
December 7, 2025 at 2:59 PM
True enough - but when they're both gone we'll only miss one of them.
Tony Judt was right.
Tony Judt was right.
Reposted by Chris Slaby
The onion just prints the news now
December 6, 2025 at 3:00 AM
The onion just prints the news now
Reposted by Chris Slaby
This took a turn
Dictionary.com’s word of the year is “6-7,” a Gen Alpha slang term with no actual definition.
Oxford’s word of the year is “rage bait” and Cambridge picked "parasocial."
Together, they paint a picture of digital nihilism. https://buff.ly/53z5RCh
Oxford’s word of the year is “rage bait” and Cambridge picked "parasocial."
Together, they paint a picture of digital nihilism. https://buff.ly/53z5RCh
December 6, 2025 at 6:00 AM
This took a turn
Reposted by Chris Slaby
AI Is Not Inevitable
join AAUP for a conversation with educators, educator unions, and the Collaborative Research Center for Resilience
zoom.us/webinar/regi...
join AAUP for a conversation with educators, educator unions, and the Collaborative Research Center for Resilience
zoom.us/webinar/regi...
December 5, 2025 at 1:18 PM
AI Is Not Inevitable
join AAUP for a conversation with educators, educator unions, and the Collaborative Research Center for Resilience
zoom.us/webinar/regi...
join AAUP for a conversation with educators, educator unions, and the Collaborative Research Center for Resilience
zoom.us/webinar/regi...
I see this in work from students now. We’ve known about this for a while, the “hallucinations.” If I’m reading a paper, esp a student paper, and esp if in an area I know/topic I study, these things are glaringly obvious. But this requires lots of skilled human labor, as scholarship always has!
Here's the reality this example illustrates:
It's not even just about people blindly trusting what ChatGPT tells them. LLMs are poisoning the entire information ecosystem. You can't even necessarily trust that the citations in a published paper are real (or a search engine's descriptions of them).
It's not even just about people blindly trusting what ChatGPT tells them. LLMs are poisoning the entire information ecosystem. You can't even necessarily trust that the citations in a published paper are real (or a search engine's descriptions of them).
December 6, 2025 at 1:22 AM
I see this in work from students now. We’ve known about this for a while, the “hallucinations.” If I’m reading a paper, esp a student paper, and esp if in an area I know/topic I study, these things are glaringly obvious. But this requires lots of skilled human labor, as scholarship always has!
Reposted by Chris Slaby
Here's the reality this example illustrates:
It's not even just about people blindly trusting what ChatGPT tells them. LLMs are poisoning the entire information ecosystem. You can't even necessarily trust that the citations in a published paper are real (or a search engine's descriptions of them).
It's not even just about people blindly trusting what ChatGPT tells them. LLMs are poisoning the entire information ecosystem. You can't even necessarily trust that the citations in a published paper are real (or a search engine's descriptions of them).
December 5, 2025 at 11:15 PM
Here's the reality this example illustrates:
It's not even just about people blindly trusting what ChatGPT tells them. LLMs are poisoning the entire information ecosystem. You can't even necessarily trust that the citations in a published paper are real (or a search engine's descriptions of them).
It's not even just about people blindly trusting what ChatGPT tells them. LLMs are poisoning the entire information ecosystem. You can't even necessarily trust that the citations in a published paper are real (or a search engine's descriptions of them).
Reposted by Chris Slaby
But here's the real cherry on top re: discovering a published paper that I can only assume was written by an LLM, full of fabricated citations.
When I was searching in various places to confirm that those citations were fabricated, Google's AI overview just kept the con going.
When I was searching in various places to confirm that those citations were fabricated, Google's AI overview just kept the con going.
December 5, 2025 at 10:51 PM
But here's the real cherry on top re: discovering a published paper that I can only assume was written by an LLM, full of fabricated citations.
When I was searching in various places to confirm that those citations were fabricated, Google's AI overview just kept the con going.
When I was searching in various places to confirm that those citations were fabricated, Google's AI overview just kept the con going.
Reposted by Chris Slaby
I note with sadness and loss the death of my friend and client Frank Gehry. He was a man of exceptional warmth and depth, a man bent on doing good rather than just talking about it. Something I noted particularly in his talks with clients in the Gulf States where he was adamant about respect
Frank Gehry, who stretched architecture’s boundaries, dies at 96
His unearthly but brilliant designs, from Los Angeles to Bilbao, became global landmarks.
www.washingtonpost.com
December 5, 2025 at 9:00 PM
I note with sadness and loss the death of my friend and client Frank Gehry. He was a man of exceptional warmth and depth, a man bent on doing good rather than just talking about it. Something I noted particularly in his talks with clients in the Gulf States where he was adamant about respect
Reposted by Chris Slaby
One of my favorites — Saul Leiter, Snow, 1960.❄️
December 5, 2025 at 1:53 PM
One of my favorites — Saul Leiter, Snow, 1960.❄️
Couldn’t agree more! It never fully materialized, but a couple of years ago, riffing off of a colleague who had been very intentionally pushing students to be more discerning about the past, I had thought about/started to implement this. Discernment, of both information but also aesthetics!
This is great. One of the things we should be teaching is "taste" and "discernment." This used to not be unusual. I have an experience in The Writer's Practice that's a "passion argument" where students have to convince the audience to do something (like read a particular book). I used it often.
Had a lot of fun writing this review of @tomcomitta.bsky.social’s strange, moving, and hilarious book. Gets us to think, as I argue here, about the value of an aesthetic education—something we all should aim for as we teach our kids.
mid-theory.com/2025/12/04/u...
mid-theory.com/2025/12/04/u...
December 4, 2025 at 8:32 PM
Couldn’t agree more! It never fully materialized, but a couple of years ago, riffing off of a colleague who had been very intentionally pushing students to be more discerning about the past, I had thought about/started to implement this. Discernment, of both information but also aesthetics!
Reposted by Chris Slaby
This is great. One of the things we should be teaching is "taste" and "discernment." This used to not be unusual. I have an experience in The Writer's Practice that's a "passion argument" where students have to convince the audience to do something (like read a particular book). I used it often.
Had a lot of fun writing this review of @tomcomitta.bsky.social’s strange, moving, and hilarious book. Gets us to think, as I argue here, about the value of an aesthetic education—something we all should aim for as we teach our kids.
mid-theory.com/2025/12/04/u...
mid-theory.com/2025/12/04/u...
Unwanted Reading: A Review of Tom Comitta’s ‘People’s Choice Literature’
The Sunday before I taught Beloved last spring, I sat on my couch wondering how I was going to convince a room full of second semester seniors that, before they left high school that June, they sho…
mid-theory.com
December 4, 2025 at 6:52 PM
This is great. One of the things we should be teaching is "taste" and "discernment." This used to not be unusual. I have an experience in The Writer's Practice that's a "passion argument" where students have to convince the audience to do something (like read a particular book). I used it often.
Reposted by Chris Slaby
“When you allow a machine to summarize your reading, to generate the ideas for your essay, and then to write that essay, you’re not learning how to read, think, or write.“
November 30, 2025 at 9:40 AM
“When you allow a machine to summarize your reading, to generate the ideas for your essay, and then to write that essay, you’re not learning how to read, think, or write.“
Reposted by Chris Slaby
❌ learn to code
✅ learn to read
✅ learn to read
November 30, 2025 at 2:01 PM
❌ learn to code
✅ learn to read
✅ learn to read
Reposted by Chris Slaby
ChatGPT's newest commercial is "helping organize a study schedule" and this is the company that needs to bring in over a $100 mil/year to break even??
November 30, 2025 at 12:46 AM
ChatGPT's newest commercial is "helping organize a study schedule" and this is the company that needs to bring in over a $100 mil/year to break even??
Reposted by Chris Slaby
David Graeber's Bullshit Jobs remains a great lens for understanding AI's broad adoption in the workplace: it mainly does bullshit work, and the people most engaged in bullshit work and the most enthusiastic proponents; so, executives then, the high lords of managerial feudalism
A study by Dayforce shows 87% of executives use AI for work, compared to 57% of managers and just 27% of employees.
I think this explains the massive disconnect we see in how CEOs talk about AI versus everyone else. It also raises the question of how useful it truly is for frontline work?
I think this explains the massive disconnect we see in how CEOs talk about AI versus everyone else. It also raises the question of how useful it truly is for frontline work?
Execs are embracing AI more than their employees are, new research suggests
Research from HR software company Dayforce suggests that executives are leaning into AI far more than their employees.
www.businessinsider.com
November 30, 2025 at 12:30 AM
David Graeber's Bullshit Jobs remains a great lens for understanding AI's broad adoption in the workplace: it mainly does bullshit work, and the people most engaged in bullshit work and the most enthusiastic proponents; so, executives then, the high lords of managerial feudalism
Reposted by Chris Slaby
my “AI is over” anecdote is that my wife was hired over the summer to write scripts for a big tech company explaining how to use their AI tools and after many rounds of revisions, the latest notes said “we’re finding a lot of AI fatigue among our users” and to remove all references to AI
Anecdotally on twitter seeing a big shift the last few days from every AI slop account saying every other creative field is “over” and they’re in control now to now posting about how nobody likes them and it’s not fair and they’ll persevere and real artists respect and uplift eachother
November 30, 2025 at 12:27 AM
my “AI is over” anecdote is that my wife was hired over the summer to write scripts for a big tech company explaining how to use their AI tools and after many rounds of revisions, the latest notes said “we’re finding a lot of AI fatigue among our users” and to remove all references to AI
Reposted by Chris Slaby
On Monday, author Casey Schmitt will discuss her new book THE PREDATORY SEA in a virtual event hosted by @jcblibrary.bsky.social! Learn more & register:
JCB Reads: Casey Schmitt's The Predatory Sea. Human Trafficking and Captivity in the Seventeenth-Century Caribbean | John Carter Brown Library
Zoom link: https://brown.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ERxVIYvZROWkIFcp8gH7Ag
bit.ly
November 29, 2025 at 12:34 PM
On Monday, author Casey Schmitt will discuss her new book THE PREDATORY SEA in a virtual event hosted by @jcblibrary.bsky.social! Learn more & register:
Reposted by Chris Slaby
Ken Burns Revolution documentary drinking game where you take a shot every time you recognize the author of a primary source before the narrator tells you.
November 24, 2025 at 12:02 PM
Ken Burns Revolution documentary drinking game where you take a shot every time you recognize the author of a primary source before the narrator tells you.
Reposted by Chris Slaby
Film and media studies edition: do a shot when you accurately guess the voiceover actor.
www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/t...
www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/t...
November 28, 2025 at 2:20 AM
Film and media studies edition: do a shot when you accurately guess the voiceover actor.
www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/t...
www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/t...
Reposted by Chris Slaby
“The communications could help prove what’s known as “willful” infringement, which triggers significantly higher damages of $150,000 per work.“
The OpenAI ruling writers should know about 👀 (if your work was scraped for LLM training, this affects you). www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/bus...
OpenAI Loses Key Discovery Battle as It Cedes Ground to Authors in AI Lawsuits
The issue has been a major battleground in discovery. OpenAI could be on the hook for hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars if it was aware it was infringing on copyrighted material.
www.hollywoodreporter.com
November 29, 2025 at 4:06 PM
“The communications could help prove what’s known as “willful” infringement, which triggers significantly higher damages of $150,000 per work.“
Without writing a whole thread: I think it is pretty grim out there right now in education. Some things have “always” been there, some have been in the works for decades, and some are at most a few years old. Kids, just like us, are stuck in systems. But there is, IMHO, something about right now.
November 29, 2025 at 4:26 PM
Without writing a whole thread: I think it is pretty grim out there right now in education. Some things have “always” been there, some have been in the works for decades, and some are at most a few years old. Kids, just like us, are stuck in systems. But there is, IMHO, something about right now.
Reposted by Chris Slaby
This broadly tallies with my experience of teaching, and what colleagues have shared, over the last decade or so, though of course there are exceptions
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 2:41 PM
This broadly tallies with my experience of teaching, and what colleagues have shared, over the last decade or so, though of course there are exceptions
Reposted by Chris Slaby
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 28, 2025 at 10:15 PM
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.
Reposted by Chris Slaby
‘Benjamin Franklin smuggled saucy comment pieces into the New-England Courant under the alias of a worthy widow called Silence Dogood – the first of many noms de plume that he adopted for his squibs and satires.’
Ferdinand Mount on Franklin’s science.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Ferdinand Mount on Franklin’s science.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Ferdinand Mount · His Very Variousness: Benjamin Franklin’s Experiments
Benjamin Franklin was a total immerser; he bathed in the cold morning breeze, just as he plunged into the freezing...
www.lrb.co.uk
November 28, 2025 at 3:53 PM
‘Benjamin Franklin smuggled saucy comment pieces into the New-England Courant under the alias of a worthy widow called Silence Dogood – the first of many noms de plume that he adopted for his squibs and satires.’
Ferdinand Mount on Franklin’s science.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Ferdinand Mount on Franklin’s science.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...