David George (@davidgeorge) — Bluesky Profile

3 months ago

Will you incorporate LLMs and AI prompting into the course in the future?
No.

Why won’t you incorporate LLMs and AI prompting into the course?
These tools are useful for coding (see this for my personal take on this).

However, they’re only useful if you know what you’re doing first. If you skip the learning-the-process-of-writing-code step and just copy/paste output from ChatGPT, you will not learn. You cannot learn. You cannot improve. You will not understand the code.

In that post, it warns that you cannot use it as a beginner:

…to use Databot effectively and safely, you still need the skills of a data scientist: background and domain knowledge, data analysis expertise, and coding ability.

There is no LLM-based shortcut to those skills. You cannot LLM your way into domain knowledge, data analysis expertise, or coding ability.

The only way to gain domain knowledge, data analysis expertise, and coding ability is to struggle. To get errors. To google those errors. To look over the documentation. To copy/paste your own code and adapt it for different purposes. To explore messy datasets. To struggle to clean those datasets. To spend an hour looking for a missing comma.

This isn’t a form of programming hazing, like “I had to walk to school uphill both ways in the snow and now you must too.” It’s the actual process of learning and growing and developing and improving. You’ve gotta struggle.

This Tumblr post puts it well (it’s about art specifically, but it applies to coding and data analysis too):

Contrary to popular belief the biggest beginner’s roadblock to art isn’t even technical skill it’s frustration tolerance, especially in the age of social media. It hurts and the frustration is endless but you must build the frustration tolerance equivalent to a roach’s capacity to survive a nuclear explosion. That’s how you build on the technical skill. Throw that “won’t even start because I’m afraid it won’t be perfect” shit out the window. Just do it. Just start. Good luck. (The original post has disappeared, but here’s a reblog.)

It’s hard, but struggling is the only way to learn anything.

You might not enjoy code as much as Williams does (or I do), but there’s still value in maintaining codings skills as you improve and learn more. You don’t want your skills to atrophy.

As I discuss here, when I do use LLMs for coding-related tasks, I purposely throw as much friction into the process as possible:

To avoid falling into over-reliance on LLM-assisted code help, I add as much friction into my workflow as possible. I only use GitHub Copilot and Claude in the browser, not through the chat sidebar in Positron or Visual Studio Code. I treat the code it generates like random answers from StackOverflow or blog posts and generally rewrite it completely. I disable the inline LLM-based auto complete in text editors. For routine tasks like generating {roxygen2} documentation scaffolding for functions, I use the {chores} package, which requires a bunch of pointing and clicking to use.

Even though I use Positron, I purposely do not use either Positron Assistant or Databot. I have them disabled.

So in the end, for pedagogical reasons, I don’t foresee me incorporating LLMs into this class. I’m pedagogically opposed to it. I’m facing all sorts of external pressure to do it, but I’m resisting.

You’ve got to learn first.

Some closing thoughts for my students this semester on LLMs and learning #rstats datavizf25.classes.andrewheiss.com/news/2025-12...

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3 months ago

Not in the UK at this point. Legal proceedings must be started within 12 months of publication (panorama broadcast Oct 24). Varies by state in US, but florida is 2 years. Of course, the programme was never broadcast in America.

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7 months ago

AI slop and the destruction of knowledge This week I was looking for info on what cognitive scientists mean when they speak of ‘domain-general’ cognition. I was curious, because the nuances are relevant for something I am researching at t…

AI slop and the destruction of knowledge irisvanrooijcogsci.com/2025/08/12/a...

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5 months ago

Always nice to see papers out in the wild.

Opening the batting in this month's @qjep.bsky.social is "Apparent statistical inference in crows may reflect simple reinforcement learning"

By @davidgeorge.bsky.social, Dominic Dwyer, Me & @mikelepelley.bsky.social

share.google/0IoZwV3sne1N...

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5 months ago

Time in the city: Exploration and problem-solving behaviours reveal long-term urban adaptation in wild red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) Urbanisation is one of the most important forms of human-driven landscape change, creating novel situations in which some species thrive. Animals' willingness to touch, explore, and solve novel challe...

Excited to share our latest preprint from the #BritishCarnivoreProject, showing #exploratory diversity and behavioural #innovation in #wild red #foxes may emerge after long-term #urban exposure across many decades. 🦊🧠🧩🌃

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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5 months ago

#1
Following on from my earlier thread about claims of “bias” in universities (link below 👇), I was struck by James Marriott’s column in today’s Times. It’s full of anecdote & caricature. The real story of UK universities is structural, financial, and political. 🧵
👉 bsky.app/profile/prof...

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7 months ago

Job Alert!!! We are looking for a motivated postdoc to join a 3-year BBSRC funded project led by my colleague Carl Stevenson (I’m coPI). This multi-disciplinary project will combine in vivo heart rate monitoring and optogenetics with behavioural testing (fear and active avoidance) in rats.

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7 months ago

Relationships between boldness and husbandry in captive gentoo penguins Pygoscelis papua | Journal of Zoo and Aquarium Research

New 🐧paper with colleagues from @thedeephull.bsky.social and the School of Environmental and Life Sciences at @uniofhull.bsky.social
Thanks for involving me in the project!
www.jzar.org/jzar/article...

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9 months ago

(Un)intentionality bias in action observation revisited When observing individuals in action, we often infer their goals and intentions. Yet, in situations where actions are ambiguous and could be either in…

Happy to share our latest study on (Un)intentionality bias in action observation! We found that people perceive ambiguous actions as intentional—especially when posture aligns with the goal. This bias shifts with schizotypal cognitive traits.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

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11 months ago

Endless restructures ‘make campuses more inefficient, not less’ Surveyed professional staff blame constant restructuring for escalating administrative burden and deteriorating administrative efficiency

www.timeshighereducation.com/news/endless...

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1 year ago

On the responsibilities of intellectuals and the rise of bullshit jobs in universities You may never have considered yourself to be one. Why would you? But if you’re reading this, there is more than a likelihood that you are one. If you’re a

academic.oup.com/brain/articl...

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1 year ago

NEW on Wonkhe: James Coe comes to the defence of maintenance as undervalued but essential in the success of any university https://bit.ly/41osvMK

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1 year ago

This is true. And yet The Royal Society saw fit to make him a fellow, one of the highest honours in science. And they have yet to comment on his role in the destruction of science in the USA

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1 year ago

When I worked in UK academia I recall hearing of a Japanese man who was baffled at how Britain had decided to run its universities like firms. “Why? Your universities are excellent and your firms are terrible.”

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1 year ago

Love this from Denmark

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1 year ago

‘Devastating’: jobs on the line as Edinburgh cuts £140 million Scotland's oldest university said staff cuts will follow as it says voluntary redundancies ‘not enough’ to tackle financial blackhole

www.timeshighereducation.com/news/devasta...

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1 year ago

I'm not going to be striking over pay - totally misguided venture, and even the ballot serves to sew confusion and discord

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1 year ago

The Guardian view on campus cuts: academics pay a high price for Westminster’s mistakes | Editorial Editorial: The government should not stand aloof as a crisis unfolds in our universities. A new settlement is needed

The Guardian view on campus cuts: academics pay a high price for Westminster’s mistakes | Editorial www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

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1 year ago

University cash crisis will get worse despite tuition fee rise, BBC told More than three quarters of universities are expected to face financial problems next year.

“Almost three quarters of universities in England will face financial problems next year - despite tuition fees increasing.”

The sector is at crisis point.

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1 year ago

"This is not an isolated problem. It is a nationwide crisis."

Thank you for taking the initiative on this letter, @newcastleucu.bsky.social! And an excellent letter it is too, clear and referenced.

Please everyone who cares about higher education and research, co-sign. #UKHE

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1 year ago

Can confirm. Adding the F word to your google searches turns off AI summaries. E.g.:

"how do massively parallel reporter assays work?"
vs
"how do f*cking massively parallel reporter assays work?"

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1 year ago

screenshot of a wordpress webpage
transcription:
Most recent updates

(in the past fortnight, approximately; last updated 31 January 2025)

Cardiff announced they are seeking to lose 400 colleagues.

The university for the Creative Arts ran a Mutually Agreed Resignation Scheme and is looking into restructuring

The University of Dundee will no longer issue contracts to post-graduate students for teaching in 2025.

Durham is planning to lose 200 (!!!) non-academic colleagues and opened a voluntary severance scheme.

Kent opened another voluntary severance scheme, but is looking to cut £20million within three weeks…

Lancaster is cutting 400 posts over the next two years

Newcastle announced they’re making 300 FTE redundancies

The Open University opened another Voluntary Severance Scheme

Reading opened a targeted voluntary severance scheme, targeting, amongst others, biological engineering, environment, English, languages, education.

University of West England: Bristol Old Vic will no longer be accepting enrolments from September 2025.

In case you feel inclined to ask your friendly local UK academic how they are. This has been our past fortnight...
qmucu.org/qmul-transfo...

😵‍💫

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1 year ago

A quote from the writer AR Moxon from 2017. He wrote:

"Historians have a word for Germans who joined the Nazi party, not because they hated Jews, but out of a hope for restored patriotism, or a sense of economic anxiety, or a hope to preserve their religious values, or dislike of their opponents, or raw political opportunism, or convenience, or ignorance, or greed. That word is "Nazi." Nobody cares about their motives anymore. They joined what they joined. They lent their support and their moral approval. And, in so doing, they bound themselves to everything that came after.
Who cares any more what particular knot they used in the binding?"
A.R. Moxon

This.

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1 year ago

Scandalous

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1 year ago

How can we make sound replication decisions? | PNAS Replication and the reported crises impacting many fields of research have become a focal point for the sciences. This has led to reforms in publis...

Nice read from @pnas.org: "How can we make sound replication decisions?"

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1 year ago

York Minster congregation outraged over ‘deeply inappropriate’ concert Gig at cathedral by metal band Plague of Angels would be ‘outright insult’ to their faith, say parishioners

Worth reading at least until the end of the 4th paragraph

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1 year ago

Pretty much anything from Bob Rescorla, an exquisite experimentalist.

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1 year ago

I may have put on a little weight over Christmas but I'm not sure I appreciate this email from @ordnancesurvey.bsky.social

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1 year ago

Morning!
I’d like to follow as many independent bookshops as possible, especially ones who love their children’s books.
Can you help me? If you know a great Indy bookshop on Bluesky please let me know.
We are @halfwayupbooks.bsky.social (I’m Events Manager and Trish is the Owner/Manager).

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1 year ago

Cardiff University job losses deeply concerning, says Welsh Secretary Jo Stevens The university has blamed a funding shortfall for its proposals to cut 400 full-time roles and close a number of degree programmes.

For the Secretary of State to actually say 'I hope enough people will take voluntary redundancy to avoid compulsories, in our national flagship university on which the South Wales economy depends' is... very brave. www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/jo-s...

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