JD Carpentieri
@jdcarpentieri.bsky.social
Assoc Prof of Social Science & Policy at UCL. The damage I have done to the UK is incalculable.
I have always been angry at February but I may need to reconsider
Happy February!
Welcome to most underrated and fastest improving month. You start in the depths of winter and end waking up in the light to the sound of birds singing, to the sight of snowdrops, daffodils and early blossom in the trees
#BigFebruary
Welcome to most underrated and fastest improving month. You start in the depths of winter and end waking up in the light to the sound of birds singing, to the sight of snowdrops, daffodils and early blossom in the trees
#BigFebruary
February 1, 2026 at 12:42 PM
I have always been angry at February but I may need to reconsider
Fascinating thread
1. The most powerful idea in British politics is "the economy".
Parties promise to "grow", "unleash" or "manage" the economy.
It tops lists of voter concerns.
But what if we had no concept of "the economy"?
Until the 20th Century, we didn't. And its rise has had major consequences.
Parties promise to "grow", "unleash" or "manage" the economy.
It tops lists of voter concerns.
But what if we had no concept of "the economy"?
Until the 20th Century, we didn't. And its rise has had major consequences.
January 23, 2026 at 12:07 PM
Fascinating thread
Reposted by JD Carpentieri
My special Boxing Day post, which seems to have gone down well.
NEW
Jane Austen as a writer about law
Some notes on Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice, by me
(And also why there is only one good adaptation of her works.)
emptycity.substack.com/p/jane-auste...
Jane Austen as a writer about law
Some notes on Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice, by me
(And also why there is only one good adaptation of her works.)
emptycity.substack.com/p/jane-auste...
Jane Austen as a writer about law
Some notes on Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice
emptycity.substack.com
December 27, 2025 at 7:15 AM
My special Boxing Day post, which seems to have gone down well.
Some parents just have this completely twisted idea that if they’re not sending their kids to private school they’re not doing enough for them – and they lose sight of all the other things that money can do for their kids
Starting to unrionically think private schools are good for social mobility in that most of them have less of a value add than fees + ROI over the period would.
December 8, 2025 at 12:45 PM
Some parents just have this completely twisted idea that if they’re not sending their kids to private school they’re not doing enough for them – and they lose sight of all the other things that money can do for their kids
Yeh it’s too bad they’re hyper focused on giving their kids an independent education instead of giving their kids the best possible start in life
December 8, 2025 at 12:31 PM
Yeh it’s too bad they’re hyper focused on giving their kids an independent education instead of giving their kids the best possible start in life
Stacking cork on a salmon seiner, raking blueberries, detassling corn
What skill did you master that you will never, ever use again?
Summer of '95 I had a job assembling single-use film cameras, which I did enough that I can still perform the actions. I don't think they even sell them anymore, but even if they do I'm certainly never going to be making them again!
Summer of '95 I had a job assembling single-use film cameras, which I did enough that I can still perform the actions. I don't think they even sell them anymore, but even if they do I'm certainly never going to be making them again!
What skill did you master that you will never, ever use again?
In the summer of ‘88, I had a job where I installed cell phones into cars. No one has needed that skill in over 30 years.
In the summer of ‘88, I had a job where I installed cell phones into cars. No one has needed that skill in over 30 years.
December 8, 2025 at 10:43 AM
Stacking cork on a salmon seiner, raking blueberries, detassling corn
Reposted by JD Carpentieri
this has become a very important video to me
December 7, 2025 at 4:29 AM
this has become a very important video to me
Same for me -- a very enjoyable and encouraging autumn term, with lots of highly engaged students
For what it's worth, my experience was the exact opposite.
I found my students this semester to be more engaged and excited about the work than they have been in years.
I found my students this semester to be more engaged and excited about the work than they have been in years.
Hearing, and seeing, many university professors express despair, of this sort, this fall. Faculty are famously headstrong and truculent, if sometimes grouchy. But this affect is new. ’ve never seen the widespread descent into sorrow before, that I am seeing now.
December 4, 2025 at 3:34 PM
Same for me -- a very enjoyable and encouraging autumn term, with lots of highly engaged students
I've always hated the "You complete me" line but this makes me more sympathetic towards its larger meaning re the quest for identity kottke.org/25/12/why-is...
Why Is Everyone Running In Rom-Coms?
I am not generally a fan of rom-coms so I didn’t think I was going to post Evan Puschak’s newest video, but he’
kottke.org
December 2, 2025 at 9:42 AM
I've always hated the "You complete me" line but this makes me more sympathetic towards its larger meaning re the quest for identity kottke.org/25/12/why-is...
What a story @madamegaga
December 2, 2025 at 9:06 AM
What a story @madamegaga
People really love a doomer thread about university kids these days, don’t they? (If I ever get bored enough I’ll write a long thread about the VERY limited value of that “1st paragraph of Bleak House” study that everyone was raving about)
November 29, 2025 at 12:09 PM
People really love a doomer thread about university kids these days, don’t they? (If I ever get bored enough I’ll write a long thread about the VERY limited value of that “1st paragraph of Bleak House” study that everyone was raving about)
“At least she didn’t raise my income tax” I say to myself as I sign the redundancy papers
The second problem with this — after the fact that it will bankrupt a bunch of institutions — is that the government doesn’t seem to know if it wants to a) raise lots of money from intentional students or b) discourage universities from relying on international students. You can’t have both!!
These are HEPI estimates of the 20 institutions affected: I think this illustrates the impact if the tariff is absorbed in full by institutions.
What share of the 6% tariff different universities may try to pass on to fees - or the impact might be on demand if they did - is not publicly known.
What share of the 6% tariff different universities may try to pass on to fees - or the impact might be on demand if they did - is not publicly known.
November 24, 2025 at 11:21 AM
“At least she didn’t raise my income tax” I say to myself as I sign the redundancy papers
Absolute king
November 14, 2025 at 6:16 PM
Absolute king
So joyous
D'Angelo and Tom Jones covering James Brown will restore you.
If only time could have stopped in this moment.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRvV...
If only time could have stopped in this moment.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRvV...
D'Angelo & Tom Jones-Get On Up
YouTube video by newkeith
www.youtube.com
October 17, 2025 at 4:41 PM
So joyous
Not sure I buy Pinker’s theory (altho who knows?) but this from Elledge is vg. Too much of social media = purportedly intelligent people gleefully engaging in wilfully disingenuous readings of posts, seemingly for the joy of piling on
"We’ve talked a lot about how X will bring about the end of the world, and it might. I just worry we should talk more about the way the internet is systematically stripping us of our capacity to feel empathy, too."
Written about how we all need to be nicer to each other (especially me)
Written about how we all need to be nicer to each other (especially me)
The Two Minutes Hate
Some thoughts on what pile-ons are doing to our brains, because ouch. Also: everything objectively insane about Kash Patel’s “challenge coin”; and meet “ratzilla”.
jonn.substack.com
October 15, 2025 at 5:15 PM
Not sure I buy Pinker’s theory (altho who knows?) but this from Elledge is vg. Too much of social media = purportedly intelligent people gleefully engaging in wilfully disingenuous readings of posts, seemingly for the joy of piling on
Reposted by JD Carpentieri
A classic case of irresponsible both-sidesism from the NYT. The story is that Trump and MAGA propagandists are lying about Portland to incite a conflict, not that there are different views of the matter.
October 11, 2025 at 1:26 PM
A classic case of irresponsible both-sidesism from the NYT. The story is that Trump and MAGA propagandists are lying about Portland to incite a conflict, not that there are different views of the matter.
Reposted by JD Carpentieri
Not really an overstatement to say that the test of a free society is whether or not comedians can make fun of the country's leader on TV without repurcussions.
July 18, 2025 at 3:39 PM
Not really an overstatement to say that the test of a free society is whether or not comedians can make fun of the country's leader on TV without repurcussions.
JFC
More news breaking at Bounces about Donald Trump's visit to the US Open men's final.
The US Open has sent an email to broadcasters, obtained by Bounces, ordering them to censor any reactions or protests from the crowd to Trump's appearance.
Read more here:
www.benrothenberg.com/p/us-open-do...
The US Open has sent an email to broadcasters, obtained by Bounces, ordering them to censor any reactions or protests from the crowd to Trump's appearance.
Read more here:
www.benrothenberg.com/p/us-open-do...
U.S. Open Orders Broadcasters to Censor Reactions to Trump
An email obtained by Bounces includes instructions from the U.S. Open on supporting Trump's planned stagecraft during the National Anthem.
www.benrothenberg.com
September 6, 2025 at 6:43 PM
JFC
JFC
Just Trump declaring war on a US city, a normal Saturday
September 6, 2025 at 4:21 PM
JFC
Reposted by JD Carpentieri
Pakistani Brits significantly outperform the average in school performance and are much more likely to go to university. So yes just racism from someone else whose mind has been destroyed by twitter.
August 16, 2025 at 12:46 PM
Pakistani Brits significantly outperform the average in school performance and are much more likely to go to university. So yes just racism from someone else whose mind has been destroyed by twitter.
Excellent reflections here about pile-ons: “The crucial thing to realise is that pile-ons are not an exchange of ideas. It is a process in which people try to establish their moral status in relation to yours, or rather the monstrous version of you they have invented”
I watched the Kemi Badenoch interview so you don't have to iandunt.substack.com/p/i-watched-...
I watched the Kemi Badenoch interview so you don't have to
Soon it all be over. But for now, the embarrassment continues.
iandunt.substack.com
August 8, 2025 at 11:40 AM
Excellent reflections here about pile-ons: “The crucial thing to realise is that pile-ons are not an exchange of ideas. It is a process in which people try to establish their moral status in relation to yours, or rather the monstrous version of you they have invented”
Really impressed by how much better my students are at writing nowadays. I must be doing some amazing teaching
August 8, 2025 at 10:50 AM
Really impressed by how much better my students are at writing nowadays. I must be doing some amazing teaching
Reposted by JD Carpentieri
One thing I would like more people, and I mostly mean my fellow men, to understand is that no matter how smart you are, other people are also smart and some of them have tried to work on the same problems you’re working on. If a simple solution hasn’t been found yet, there probably isn’t one.
Coding interviews from people who left government earlier this year, and this is a fantastic quote in response to a question about what DOGE tech folk don't understand.
August 5, 2025 at 1:03 PM
One thing I would like more people, and I mostly mean my fellow men, to understand is that no matter how smart you are, other people are also smart and some of them have tried to work on the same problems you’re working on. If a simple solution hasn’t been found yet, there probably isn’t one.
Reposted by JD Carpentieri
this is not true. many, many people are good thinkers without being good writers. people who *are* good writers tend to vastly overestimate what a component of intelligence it is. but I have edited many intelligent and thoughtful people who were at best average-to-mediocre writers ...
learning to write well is not important because it comes in handy on a few key occasions; it's important because it is indispensable training in how to think. AI gets in the way of that training, and all the more so if it comes to the rescue on those few occasions.
August 3, 2025 at 6:11 PM
this is not true. many, many people are good thinkers without being good writers. people who *are* good writers tend to vastly overestimate what a component of intelligence it is. but I have edited many intelligent and thoughtful people who were at best average-to-mediocre writers ...