Professor Nutella
@jpnudell.bsky.social
Pizza appreciator, ancient historian, reader, writer, baker. In some order.
Blogging here: https://joshuapnudell.com/blog/
Blogging here: https://joshuapnudell.com/blog/
Reposted by Professor Nutella
A lot of editors don't even know about media magnification. One of the shocking things - to me - when I left journalism school was how little editors knew about like the study of journalism as a discipline. It's a profession based in norms even if those norms are harmful.
Unfortunately, in US journalism it is considered neutral to spread a lie, but it is considered "biased" to call out a lie. So, there is a structural asymmetry that rewards colorful lies with virality.
November 30, 2025 at 10:52 PM
A lot of editors don't even know about media magnification. One of the shocking things - to me - when I left journalism school was how little editors knew about like the study of journalism as a discipline. It's a profession based in norms even if those norms are harmful.
*taps mic* people shouldn't be passing qualitative judgement about a student's paper on social media today, either.
November 30, 2025 at 10:50 PM
*taps mic* people shouldn't be passing qualitative judgement about a student's paper on social media today, either.
Reposted by Professor Nutella
The First Amendment gives you the right to say whatever you want in your college paper.
But it does not give you the right to a good grade for it.
But it does not give you the right to a good grade for it.
OU has put the professor here on administrative leave:
November 30, 2025 at 9:21 PM
The First Amendment gives you the right to say whatever you want in your college paper.
But it does not give you the right to a good grade for it.
But it does not give you the right to a good grade for it.
New varia post: AcWriMo wrap-up, as well as links about higher education, history, solar power, my weekly media roundup, and more.
joshuapnudell.com/2025/11/30/w...
joshuapnudell.com/2025/11/30/w...
Weekly Varia no. 158, 11/30/25
New varia post: AcWriMo wrap-up, as well as links about higher education, history, solar power, and more.
joshuapnudell.com
November 30, 2025 at 8:21 PM
New varia post: AcWriMo wrap-up, as well as links about higher education, history, solar power, my weekly media roundup, and more.
joshuapnudell.com/2025/11/30/w...
joshuapnudell.com/2025/11/30/w...
Reposted by Professor Nutella
I have been reading all the "students these days" threads from various sides and I have an essay's worth of thoughts -- there's a lot of complexity and heterogeneity that is hard to communicate on social media. There are a couple of things I will say here though. 1/
November 29, 2025 at 4:20 PM
I have been reading all the "students these days" threads from various sides and I have an essay's worth of thoughts -- there's a lot of complexity and heterogeneity that is hard to communicate on social media. There are a couple of things I will say here though. 1/
Reposted by Professor Nutella
“Based on the available evidence, the skills that future graduates will most need in the AI era—creative thinking, the capacity to learn new things, flexible modes of analysis—are precisely those that are likely to be eroded by inserting AI into the educational process.”
“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 11:10 AM
“Based on the available evidence, the skills that future graduates will most need in the AI era—creative thinking, the capacity to learn new things, flexible modes of analysis—are precisely those that are likely to be eroded by inserting AI into the educational process.”
Reposted by Professor Nutella
@yalepress.bsky.social is offering 30% off its catalog from November 24th through December 5th with the discount code GIFT30
yalebooks.yale.edu/books/
yalebooks.yale.edu/books/
Books - Yale University Press
yalebooks.yale.edu
November 30, 2025 at 1:43 PM
@yalepress.bsky.social is offering 30% off its catalog from November 24th through December 5th with the discount code GIFT30
yalebooks.yale.edu/books/
yalebooks.yale.edu/books/
There’s a direct relationship between the wetness of a snowfall and how much I like shoveling. I genuinely enjoy shoveling light, fluffy snow. Today’s accumulation where I had to repeat “lift with your legs, not with your back” as a mantra, on the other hand…
November 29, 2025 at 11:52 PM
There’s a direct relationship between the wetness of a snowfall and how much I like shoveling. I genuinely enjoy shoveling light, fluffy snow. Today’s accumulation where I had to repeat “lift with your legs, not with your back” as a mantra, on the other hand…
Every time I see someone describe ChatGPT as a first-resort search engine it makes me angry all over again at the destruction of Google search. It speaks to the carnage of our digital information infrastructure more so than being a point in favor of the LLM.
November 29, 2025 at 8:12 PM
Every time I see someone describe ChatGPT as a first-resort search engine it makes me angry all over again at the destruction of Google search. It speaks to the carnage of our digital information infrastructure more so than being a point in favor of the LLM.
Reposted by Professor Nutella
Multiple things are true:
I have students eager to learn whose enjoyment of reading has been drummed out of them;
I have students who want to write (& think) for themselves who become paralyzed at needing to do it;
I also have students who resist seeing my class as anything but a box to check.
I have students eager to learn whose enjoyment of reading has been drummed out of them;
I have students who want to write (& think) for themselves who become paralyzed at needing to do it;
I also have students who resist seeing my class as anything but a box to check.
November 29, 2025 at 5:04 PM
Multiple things are true:
I have students eager to learn whose enjoyment of reading has been drummed out of them;
I have students who want to write (& think) for themselves who become paralyzed at needing to do it;
I also have students who resist seeing my class as anything but a box to check.
I have students eager to learn whose enjoyment of reading has been drummed out of them;
I have students who want to write (& think) for themselves who become paralyzed at needing to do it;
I also have students who resist seeing my class as anything but a box to check.
Multiple things are true:
I have students eager to learn whose enjoyment of reading has been drummed out of them;
I have students who want to write (& think) for themselves who become paralyzed at needing to do it;
I also have students who resist seeing my class as anything but a box to check.
I have students eager to learn whose enjoyment of reading has been drummed out of them;
I have students who want to write (& think) for themselves who become paralyzed at needing to do it;
I also have students who resist seeing my class as anything but a box to check.
November 29, 2025 at 5:04 PM
Multiple things are true:
I have students eager to learn whose enjoyment of reading has been drummed out of them;
I have students who want to write (& think) for themselves who become paralyzed at needing to do it;
I also have students who resist seeing my class as anything but a box to check.
I have students eager to learn whose enjoyment of reading has been drummed out of them;
I have students who want to write (& think) for themselves who become paralyzed at needing to do it;
I also have students who resist seeing my class as anything but a box to check.
Reposted by Professor Nutella
This is how I think about it too. The big question is does it matter that a tech that does things a lot faster makes a lot of mistakes it’s hard to catch, and the answer is obviously yes but not to people who have others to clean up after them
Shit flows downhill. When you're an executive, your outputs become someone else's problem. When you're doing the implementation, the gap in every half-assed idea and slipshod assumption becomes visible & it's your responsibility to fix it.
A new global study shows that AI adoption varies by seniority, with 87% of executives using it on the job, compared with 57% of managers and 27% of employees. It also finds that executives are 45% more likely to use the technology on the job than Gen Zers …
November 29, 2025 at 4:02 PM
This is how I think about it too. The big question is does it matter that a tech that does things a lot faster makes a lot of mistakes it’s hard to catch, and the answer is obviously yes but not to people who have others to clean up after them
Reposted by Professor Nutella
A reminder that many of grandma's famous recipes are just depression-era recipes with cheap ingredients.
When my husband's grandma died, his family searched high and low for her famous chocolate cake recipe. Everyone tried for years to recreate it. Nobody could. Finally, someone figured out that it was a recipe on the back of a pre-mixed cake mix. All super cheap and non-fancy ingredients.
No the once a year casserole has to be made perfectly
November 29, 2025 at 12:36 PM
A reminder that many of grandma's famous recipes are just depression-era recipes with cheap ingredients.
Reposted by Professor Nutella
I love all of titles people suggested on this (keep them coming!), but here's the harder question: what makes them well written?
A question for academics: what academic non-fiction book would you hold up as exceptionally written?
Content matters in this to an extent, but I'm particularly trying to identify style here, and setting trade titles written by academics into a different category.
Content matters in this to an extent, but I'm particularly trying to identify style here, and setting trade titles written by academics into a different category.
November 28, 2025 at 10:59 PM
I love all of titles people suggested on this (keep them coming!), but here's the harder question: what makes them well written?
Reposted by Professor Nutella
If we give up on thinking and engaging with things we don't understand then what are we doing?
November 29, 2025 at 2:31 AM
If we give up on thinking and engaging with things we don't understand then what are we doing?
Reposted by Professor Nutella
And I swear, once again, this is not dunking on kids. We are seeing this at all levels--even grad students. AI + social media has had a profound impact on how we think and process our world, and we can't stop to reflect on it, because billionaires keep hurling addictive tech at us.
November 28, 2025 at 10:34 PM
And I swear, once again, this is not dunking on kids. We are seeing this at all levels--even grad students. AI + social media has had a profound impact on how we think and process our world, and we can't stop to reflect on it, because billionaires keep hurling addictive tech at us.
I love all of titles people suggested on this (keep them coming!), but here's the harder question: what makes them well written?
A question for academics: what academic non-fiction book would you hold up as exceptionally written?
Content matters in this to an extent, but I'm particularly trying to identify style here, and setting trade titles written by academics into a different category.
Content matters in this to an extent, but I'm particularly trying to identify style here, and setting trade titles written by academics into a different category.
November 28, 2025 at 10:59 PM
I love all of titles people suggested on this (keep them coming!), but here's the harder question: what makes them well written?
New blog post: thoughts on Louise DeSalvo's The Art of Slow Writing.
joshuapnudell.com/2025/11/28/t...
joshuapnudell.com/2025/11/28/t...
The Art of Slow Writing
Thoughts on Louise DeSalvo’s The Art of Slow Writing.
joshuapnudell.com
November 28, 2025 at 9:46 PM
New blog post: thoughts on Louise DeSalvo's The Art of Slow Writing.
joshuapnudell.com/2025/11/28/t...
joshuapnudell.com/2025/11/28/t...
A question for academics: what academic non-fiction book would you hold up as exceptionally written?
Content matters in this to an extent, but I'm particularly trying to identify style here, and setting trade titles written by academics into a different category.
Content matters in this to an extent, but I'm particularly trying to identify style here, and setting trade titles written by academics into a different category.
November 28, 2025 at 8:41 PM
A question for academics: what academic non-fiction book would you hold up as exceptionally written?
Content matters in this to an extent, but I'm particularly trying to identify style here, and setting trade titles written by academics into a different category.
Content matters in this to an extent, but I'm particularly trying to identify style here, and setting trade titles written by academics into a different category.
The Manchurian Candidate (2004) is a strange film. It retains more of a 1950s/1960s speculative fiction aesthetic than most remakes I can think of, despite updating the setting to its present moment.
November 28, 2025 at 4:03 PM
The Manchurian Candidate (2004) is a strange film. It retains more of a 1950s/1960s speculative fiction aesthetic than most remakes I can think of, despite updating the setting to its present moment.
Reposted by Professor Nutella
Another way to put this is that we have a significant population of the public — for whatever definition of public (ie the people participating in any given discourse) — who are largely devoid of influences from their own lifeworlds but extremely happy to assume everyone else is determined by them.
November 28, 2025 at 2:50 PM
Another way to put this is that we have a significant population of the public — for whatever definition of public (ie the people participating in any given discourse) — who are largely devoid of influences from their own lifeworlds but extremely happy to assume everyone else is determined by them.
Reposted by Professor Nutella
I’ll give you a personalized book recommendation if you promise you won’t procure the book from a billionaire…
Black Friday reminder: You can support independent bookstores and get great deals without lining the pockets of billionaires 😌
November 28, 2025 at 3:02 PM
I’ll give you a personalized book recommendation if you promise you won’t procure the book from a billionaire…
Reposted by Professor Nutella
I had an interesting set of interactions w AI-generated content that I think is instructive. A very bright student made a claim in an essay that struck me as outlandish, so I searched the question on Google which turned up that phrasing the search a certain way makes the AI summary agree w the claim
November 28, 2025 at 2:18 PM
I had an interesting set of interactions w AI-generated content that I think is instructive. A very bright student made a claim in an essay that struck me as outlandish, so I searched the question on Google which turned up that phrasing the search a certain way makes the AI summary agree w the claim
The more I think about “working with” AI generated scaffolding, whether in the form of an outline or text generation, the more it seems to me akin to the thought terminating cliche. It seems like it offers something pertinent to the task at hand while actually cutting off analysis.
November 28, 2025 at 2:30 PM
The more I think about “working with” AI generated scaffolding, whether in the form of an outline or text generation, the more it seems to me akin to the thought terminating cliche. It seems like it offers something pertinent to the task at hand while actually cutting off analysis.
The final menu
-Seitan “steak” tips (with a Penzey’s steak seasoning)
-Miso mashed potatoes
-Baked Mac and cheese with spicy peppers (frozen, but grown in the garden)
-Rolls
-broccoli (frozen, alas, because the fresh options at the store were bad)
Not pictured: pumpkin pie for dessert
-Seitan “steak” tips (with a Penzey’s steak seasoning)
-Miso mashed potatoes
-Baked Mac and cheese with spicy peppers (frozen, but grown in the garden)
-Rolls
-broccoli (frozen, alas, because the fresh options at the store were bad)
Not pictured: pumpkin pie for dessert
November 28, 2025 at 12:06 AM
The final menu
-Seitan “steak” tips (with a Penzey’s steak seasoning)
-Miso mashed potatoes
-Baked Mac and cheese with spicy peppers (frozen, but grown in the garden)
-Rolls
-broccoli (frozen, alas, because the fresh options at the store were bad)
Not pictured: pumpkin pie for dessert
-Seitan “steak” tips (with a Penzey’s steak seasoning)
-Miso mashed potatoes
-Baked Mac and cheese with spicy peppers (frozen, but grown in the garden)
-Rolls
-broccoli (frozen, alas, because the fresh options at the store were bad)
Not pictured: pumpkin pie for dessert