Why does writing often feel worse right after we start?
This question behind is my 3rd piece in my Long Carve series on long writing projects.
If your writing suddenly feels worse after you begin, you may be exactly doing it right.
🧵
catherineeunicedevries.substack.com/p/writing-is...
Brian Evans, pres. of the Texas AAUP, says if students ask about current topics, instructors will have to decide whether to engage or not, since everything discussed in class will have to be pre-cleared. “What kind of education is this?” 🤬
www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/edu...
We hope to wrap up data collection in early March so please share widely! Thanks so much!
18.02.2026 15:38 — 👍 7 🔁 5 💬 0 📌 0The Call for Abstracts has been extended until March 2nd, and we're excited about building an engaging scientific program. We hope you'll consider submitting your work, and hope to see you in June!
18.02.2026 11:38 — 👍 5 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0
I'm looking for a postdoc to work on our NIH-funded R01 which is a longitudinal cohort of adolescents (13-20) doing EMA and passive text sensing! Please apply, especially if you have experience in the analysis OR collection of these data.
PLEASE SHARE!!
indiana.peopleadmin.com/postings/32132
Banner image with screenshot of scientific article from nature Medicine, as well as two panels from the study method and results
⚠️ Despite all the hype, chatbots still make terrible doctors. Out today is the largest user study of language models for medical self-diagnosis. We found that chatbots provide inaccurate and inconsistent answers, and that people are better off using online searches or their own judgment.
09.02.2026 17:07 — 👍 358 🔁 168 💬 7 📌 33
Are you a grad student who wants to give a talk at Princeton’s psychology department (in-person or on Zoom)?
Nominate yourself or someone you know: forms.gle/WN2ybYMuZiW3...
Priority given to non-Ivy and URM students. International applicants welcome.
Deadline is this Friday (Feb 6)!
Editorial by @astridchevance.bsky.social on censorship in academia.
Worth your time.
#AcademicSky #PsychSciSky 🧪
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
LMK what a good medium would be. Bluesky doesn't support pics
30.01.2026 22:13 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 1I have pictures, which I would be happy to share backchannel
30.01.2026 22:11 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0My kid's daycare did this, which is a wild thing to ask of babies/toddlers
30.01.2026 20:18 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
Education is a public good for all.
When politicians censor classroom teaching in order to narrow the field of topics that students can engage in, they rob them of a stellar world class education.
This is what is happening at Texas A&M & other institutions in the state.
🧵
“Abbott’s order to block state agencies & public universities from using skilled foreign worker will lower the quality & diminish the value of education and research at Texas universities. This is political interference in students’ right to learn."
–Todd Wolfson, AAUP President
This misuse of children's data has been known for years by NIH. Accountability is overdue. We need real enforcement and an honest reckoning with how genomic data can be weaponized. We are witnessing a renaissance of scientific racism--federal institutions are both ignoring and encouraging it.
24.01.2026 13:31 — 👍 40 🔁 14 💬 0 📌 0
“More than anything that draws students to our campuses — more than winning sports teams & fancy dining halls, state-of-the-art labs & well-stocked libraries — academic freedom is what makes our universities work."
— Belle Boggs, North Carolina AAUP President
@ncaaup.bsky.social
Coming up! iRISE (improving Reproducibility In SciencE) is hosting 3 free virtual train-the-trainer workshops:
2/4: Intro to Reproducibility
🔗 forms.office.com/e/D...
2/18: Preregistration
🔗 forms.office.com/e/r...
3/4: Equity, Diversity & Inclusion in Research
🔗 forms.office.com/e/j...
Hey folks: Check out this grad student-led, interdisciplinary, virtual conference being held in April.
Abstract submissions due end of Feb
Writing is thinking
Outsourcing the entire task of writing to LLMs will deprive us of the essential creative task of interpreting our findings and generating a deeper theoretical understanding of the world.
The commitments in the SAFE Labs Handbook.
A new community-driven lab handbook for reducing conflict and creating more positive and equitable work environments gets strong support from a survey of 200 researchers.
buff.ly/K7CGFLV
Why Underachievers Dominate Secret Police Organizations: Evidence from Autocratic Argentina Adam Scharpf Christian Gläßel Abstract: Autocrats depend on a capable secret police. Anecdotal evidence, however, often characterizes agents as surprisingly mediocre in skill and intellect. To explain this puzzle, this article focuses on the career incentives underachieving individuals face in the regular security apparatus. Low-performing officials in hierarchical organizations have little chance of being promoted or filling lucrative positions. To salvage their careers, these officials are willing to undertake burdensome secret police work. Using data on all 4,287 officers who served in autocratic Argentina (1975-83), we study biographic differences between secret police agents and the entire recruitment pool. We find that low-achieving officers were stuck within the regime hierarchy, threatened with discharge, and thus more likely to join the secret police for future benefits. The study demonstrates how state bureaucracies breed mundane career concerns that produce willing enforcers and cement violent regimes. This has implications for the understanding of autocratic consolidation and democratic breakdown.
Perennial reminder of this excellent paper about how secret police forces are swamped with underachievers
“We don’t want clever people. We want mediocrities.”
(Ungated summary here ajps.org/2019/10/08/w...)
The HiTOP Society will have its first free-standing conference this year on June 4-6. The Call for Abstracts is now open, and we hope you'll consider submitting your HiTOP-related work!
www.hitop-system.org/hitop-2026-c...
👩🏫 I'm giving a continuing education webinar on @BpdCompass on January 30th from 1-4 pm ET.
$99 for Professionals
$10 for Students
Learn a transdiagnostic, personality-focused treatment that address BOTH BPD and common comorbid conditions. 🤩
Learn more: personality-compass.com/bpd-compass-...
Speaking of #rstats, my buddy Joey Merrin and his colleagues recently published a paper in AMPPS/had an R package "CATAcode" accepted to CRAN.
Looks like a banger set of resources to navigate those finicky "choose-all-that-apply" (CATA) survey questions! Check it out!
Worried about increased surveillance of syllabi & course curricula at your institution?
Check out these resources from the Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom to integrate in your course, such as language for academic freedom to put in your syllabus, a teaching module, and a reading list.
Congratulations!!! So, so deserved!
07.01.2026 20:48 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
The final title of this piece is:
“Confronting Crisis and Reclaiming Purpose in Psychological Science”
with @lluaces.bsky.social @sheilacrowell.bsky.social @junegruber.bsky.social @tinaboisseau.bsky.social @anthonyperillo.bsky.social @jenperillo.bsky.social
Now in press at Nature Mental Health
on this sunday-est of sundays, syllabus-ing for a new term
you're not alone against the oligarch agenda of cognitive deskilling, data capture, surveillance, and bias:
we've got assignment ideas, memes, recommended readings, o' captain speeches, syllabus policies, and so much more against-a-i.com
🤠 Hey, Texas faculty! As you prep for the spring semester check out our blog for tips + advice. 👇
1) Don’t self-censor, know your rights! 2) Report censorship of your teaching, research, or expression.
3) Organize your department. We are stronger together!
aaup-texas.org/blog/f/2025-...
We need better ways to tell computers and humans apart
Article: The potential existential threat of large language models to online survey research
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
AI is an academic freedom issue! @aaup.org
academicfreedomontheline.substack.com/p/new-aaup-r...
