Paul L. Franco

You're right; I need to own this and also start showing up to the office in JNCOs.

I decided to listen to Korn yesterday because I have these 1990s yellowing harman kardon computer speakers in my office and was feeling nostalgic and then a colleague knocked on my door to chat and I forgot to minimize the Spotify window and now I'm worried my colleague doesn't respect me any more.

If saying things like: "Hello. I'm your naturally intelligent companion this term. I can solve PhD-level problems. Is there a question about class I can help with?" will encourage my university to put as many resources into teaching students how to use office hours as they are into AI, I'll do it.

I think we should rebrand Professors as "Natural Intelligence Companions" in the hopes of getting universities to throw a bunch of resources behind getting students to come to class and office hours to use our services.

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If you are driving a car and become angered by a bus this should be a You Must Change Your Life moment. The gentleness of this great beast, and its great indifference, should reveal you to yourself.

My sartorial advice for academics: If *you* can't remember what shirt from your teaching outfits you wore last time to teach, your *students* can't remember either.

Like this.

A picture of sam darnold, Seahawks QB, wearing an old school hawks jersey looking downfield. Behind him is the text: FACING CRITICISM in all caps.

Please, someone start doing this for academic philosophers. Please.

Susan Stebbing on Logic and Analysis This volume contains new scholarly essays on the work of Susan Stebbing and offers fresh perspectives on logic and the philosophy of science

'Susan Stebbing on Logic and Analysis' (ed. S. Chapman) is now out in the Philosophers in Depth series. link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

Just when I thought I was finally nearing the top of the faculty power rankings something like this happens....

I also made it clear that anything might influence the power rankings. Ask a good question at a colloquium? Expect to go up a few spots. Fail to say hi to me in the hall? Don't be surprised to see a dip. Defend your dissertation? You better believe you're at the top that week (no guarantees after).

I'm reflecting on my term as Director of Grad Studies as it nears its end and one of the most effective things I did was write and distribute a weekly power rankings report of all the grad students in the program. It did lower morale, but less than expected, and yielded massive productivity gains.

A coffee table book about tables owned by famous philosophers interspersed with quotes of philosophers using tables to make philosophical points would sell dozens of copies at least..

Slide that says: You're welcome! in bold text. Underneath that is further text what says: "I’d be happy to share further insights in the hotel lobby over a beer (your treat), otherwise, I gladly accept tips:" and underneath that is redacted information for Cash app, Venmo, and PayPal.

In the past, I've always ended my talks with a "Thank you!" slide and I give my email if people have any further questions, but this year, I'm going with something new.

Also, tools like this strike me as a good way to make sure that no hidden gems that say interesting things are found and further entrench particular views about particular topics.

Can AI Write a Useful Philosophical Literature Review? (guest post) - Daily Nous A pair of philosophers have developed a new research tool that uses AI to provide comprehensive and reliable philosophical literature reviews, and they'd like you to give it a try. Just last week I ch...

One part of my job I like most is looking at tables of contents of old philosophy journals on JSTOR and taking a quick look at articles and telling other people about them, so I don't relate to the comments here that are like, "That's the worst part of doing research."

dailynous.com/2026/02/12/c...

every type of guy is an eternal thought in the mind of Mencia

There is one thing of which one can say neither that it is a Pomeranian, nor that it is not a Pomeranian, and that is the breed standard Pomeranian in the American Kennel Club.

No one is having a reasonable conversation about the things some people--Paul especially--are saying about Paul: That he's too smart, he'll take everyone's jobs, there won't even be philosophy any more if he, who is unlike anything we've seen before, stays on his trajectory of solving everything.

Headline from British Vogue I Ate Nothing But Sardines For 3 Days - Here's How My Skin Changed with a photo of a sardine

Only British Vogue has the courage to publish true science as it was practiced in the 18th century Transactions of the Royal Society

Is Brian Leiter or Justin Weinberg academic philosophy's Shams?

From the billiards community on Reddit: The ball exploded when I broke Explore this post and more from the billiards community

If you're teaching Hume on induction, here's a relevant reddit post for you to use.

www.reddit.com/r/billiards/...

Yuval Noah Harari Historian This is the first time in history nobody has any idea what the world will look like in 10 years — what the job market will look like, what social relations will look like, et cetera. So hedge your bets. Don’t focus on a narrow subject like coding. Give equal importance to your head (intellectual skills), your heart (social skills) and your hands (motor skills). It is in the combination of these three that humans still have a large advantage over A.I. Also, try to enjoy the ride.

Important wisdom about hedging your predictions from the guy who just said AI agents will be legally recognized as persons in some countries within five years and will also soon control all language-based systems like finance and religion.

Ajeya Cotra A.I. risk researcher: I think A.I. will eventually be more transformative than the invention of agriculture — as transformative as the emergence of Homo sapiens as a species.

Sorry, but AI is more like the invention of farming, and probably even more disruptive than Homo sapiens coming into existence.

What’s a technology that had a transformational impact similar to A.I.? Melanie Mitchell Computer scientist: Social media. Yuval Noah Harari Historian: The evolution of language in the Stone Age. A.I. is the first technology that is an agent rather than a tool. And A.I. is the first entity on the planet that is going to master language better than humans, and in that way gain control of all language-based systems humans have created since the Stone Age, from finance to religion.

AI, the biggest deal since cavepeople started grunting to mean things, will soon control finance and religion.

Yuval Noah Harari Historian Within five years, A.I. agents are likely to become legal persons in at least some countries.

Okay.

HOPOS

This article from HOPOS looks at the case of epistemological scientism in the history of philosophy of science and discusses the implications of epistemological scientism for the practice and value of philosophy. Read more https://ow.ly/z0yo50Y56s9 The HOPOS Journal

How Far Did Rocky Go in His Training Run in 'Rocky II'? Rocky wasn't just a boxer. He was a marathoner.

I know I’m a homer but this was the most quintessentially McQuade story. Perfect idea, perfect execution. Dan was the only person on Earth who could’ve written this.