Anand Sarwate (he/him)

Got an email/newsletter using Lena as an example image. It's 2026. C'mon, people.

Someone should gift my senator, Chuck Schumer, a copy of Max Frisch’s Biedermann und die Brandstifter.

I am guessing he does not know German, but I can’t find a translation in Spinelesscowardese so maybe English will have to do.

Perhaps he will need some Cliff‘s Notes.

This thread brought to you by being on too many search committees and being tired of having my time wasted. I'm more angry at the candidate's advisor(s), who likely never told them this, thinking it's "obvious" or "back in my day we didn't have Zoom interviews..."

Basically: do your homework and think through how *this job* and not just *any job* is right for you. If you can't be bothered to do that, will you even be able to write a grant proposal?

Finally: you don't know what it's like here. Ask questions! Be curious! Show you're interested!

There is no notion of "safety school". If you sound like you'd take an offer while holding your nose, it will be pretty clear.

It's also clear if you try obvious/trite hyperbole: "I want to come because you are a world-class institution!"

This is not saying that if you have reasons you don't want to disclose (e.g. partner has a job in the area, a.k.a. the "two body problem" [this term is dumb, stop using it!]) you should reveal them. But if you say something super generic it will sound like you already think we are mid.

My department is definitely not top-10 in the rankings. We also don't have a ton of resources for on-campus interviews.

If you are not actually serious about accepting an offer, we won't bother interviewing you. There are tons of excellent candidates.

In case anyone is on the academic job market and has an upcoming online video interview:
* do some research on the department: what classes can you teach, who can you collaborate with?
* be able to answer "why do you want to come here" with something more concrete than "because you are great..."

ICLR AC: "The scores were too low, reject. Reviewer A's score was the lowest."
Also ICLR AC: "Reviewer A was marked as AI generated."
Also also ICLR AC: "Reviewer A is unlikely to raise their score."

It's ok to reject the paper, but come on...

Action, Ease & Personalization: AI Chatbot News Experiences How habitual AI chatbot users in the US and India stay informed

My partner @drnycnerd.bsky.social and co-authors from @cnti.bsky.social published a report on how people use LLM-based chatbots to get the news (even if it is wrong).

cnti.org/reports/chat...

“When we use terms like ‘output,’ ‘feedback,’ ’interface,’ and ‘networking’ to express the transactions of everyday life, we reveal how thoroughly artificial things now shape our sense of human being.” -Langdon Winner, “The Whale and the Reactor” (Preface)

But how does my new mayor feel about zoning for combination pizza hut and taco bells?

YouTube video by RoflRadicalRaddish The Critic - "L'Artiste est Morte"

Bezos calling his new startup Prometheus just makes me think of Jay Sherman's college film. I'll just call it "Promotheus" from now on.

I didn't even graduate that long ago (2008) and when I heard this was the norm in some fields I was horrified.

I would argue that this is also now true of (wireless) communication technologies. Like plumbing in that way.

Does that make the OpenAI erotic chatbots... metrosexual?

JD Vance claims that diversity weakens unions, as people end up distrusting each other and not organizing.

Let me tell you two menswear stories related to this claim. 🧵

TFW you open a new browser tab and your fingers automatically type "overleaf.c" + tab.

The line between satire and reality has blurred even further

Google AI search result for “was 2010 fifteen years ago?” returning: “No, 2010 was 14 years ago, not 15 years ago. The current year is 2025, and to find the number of years ago 2010 was, you subtract 2010 from 2025, which equals 14. Current Year: 2025 Past Year: 2010 Years Ago: 2025 - 2010 = 14 years”

Good news about the cutting-edge AI tools from the $3-trillion-dollar company.

Mousepad from #ISIT 1998, the International Symposium on Information Theory, in honor of Claude E. Shannon 1948 paper, "A mathematical theory of communication"

Worn, vintage yet precious to my heart. Souvenir: a mousepad from #ISIT 1998, the International Symposium on Information Theory, in honor of Claude E. Shannon 1948 paper, "A mathematical theory of communication", where I was a lucky voluntary student.

YouTube video by John Rutter & The Cambridge Singers The evening primrose from Five Flower Songs - Benjamin Britten, John Rutter, The Cambridge Singers

There is a lovely set of choral pieces by Britten, the flower songs, and The Evening Primrose is a balm:

youtu.be/fCEr1tIvDe4?...

The Banal Evil of AI Safety Chatbot companies are harmful and dishonest. How can we hold them accountable?

This. Actually this.

www.argmin.net/p/the-banal-...

The scansion doesn’t work for singing it to the tune of Bohemian Rhapsody.

Really sad to hear about their recent fire!

Evergreen! Also: "drones helping save people after natural disasters" vs. "drones killing anyone else who survived after we bombed them."

"Do you need an accelerant? Maybe some kindling?"

by applying a QR decomposition, any matrix can be written as a QR code multiplied by an upper triangular matrix

Ah posted to the wrong post, will delete.

You mean kids from 2005-2016 were not 50% smarter than everyone else???????????