Julian Girdham

I think it should be viewed as axiomatic that the more you can do without the use of an LLM to more you will be able to do with an LLM. If generative AI is going to be an intelligence multiplier you need the multiplicand to be as large as possible. A big number times zero is still zero.

More Than Words A veteran writing teacher makes a “moving” (Rick Wormeli) argument that writing is a form of thinking and feeling and shows why it can’t be replaced by...

My philosophy for getting students writing is that writing needs to be a desirable alternative to outsourcing to the automated syntax generation machine. There's lots of hurdles to clear, but the start is to convey that writing is about more than words. www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/john-...

The Occasional 9 Shannon Vallor & AI, Joseph O'Connor in Rome, Ferdia Lennon in Sicily, Barbara Everett on 'Hamlet', Tom Lehrer & Wernher von Braun, Mary Oliver on August, the power of extended reading, and much more.

The Occasional for paid subscribers of The Fortnightly is just out:

Shannon Vallor & AI, Joseph O'Connor in Rome, Ferdia Lennon in Sicily, Barbara Everett on 'Hamlet', Tom Lehrer & Wernher von Braun, Mary Oliver on August, the power of extended reading.

juliangirdham.substack.com/p/the-occasi...

Thank you Louise for that link!

NEW EPISODE OUT NOW!

For today’s episode in Politics on Trial it’s two trials for the price of one. Why could the leading Irish politician Charles Parnell survive accusations of terrorism in 1889 but not of adultery?

Find us at...🎧 ppfideas.com

Thought your essay in the exhibition leaflet was most helpful. Is it published somewhere online?

25TRA416 An introduction to teaching ‘Othello’ Date: Wednesday 10th September Time: 7.00pm - 8.00pm Venue: Online via Zoom Target Audience: Senior Cycle English teachers This webinar for teachers of post-primary English will: ● Outline ways of...

An introduction to teaching 'Othello'.

Free webinar for Leaving Certificate teachers.

Wednesday 10th September, 7.00-8.00pm.

via
@clanavtra.bsky.social

www.edcentretralee.ie/cpd-courses-...

'The AI Mirror' by Shannon Vallor — Julian Girdham In The AI Mirror Shannon Vallor considers the disruptive technology deeply. This is the most valuable book about it I have yet come across.

(New). On 'The AI Mirror' by Shannon Vallor, a deeply-considered look at the backward-facing, often reactionary nature of this technology:

www.juliangirdham.com/blog/the-ai-...

An image of the front page of the article with a weird distorted phot of some flowers.

I have a new article out in the Chartered College of Teaching journal Impact, called ‘Embedding AI in education: A critique’. Here I make five main points, which I will helpfully plop in this thread for those without access or time to read it.

'What does it mean to know?' and the Magdalene Laundries — Julian Girdham Comments on an exhibition of photographs of a Magdalene Laundry, taken by Ethna Rose O’Regan.

(New). On the exhibition 'What does it mean to know?' about the Magdalene Laundries, as photographed by Ethna Rose O'Regan:

www.juliangirdham.com/blog/what-do...

Tracing the real people in Brian Friel’s ‘first great Irish play’ 'Stock characters' in Philadelphia, Here I Come! were not only familiar Irish small-town figures, but inspired by real people

Tracing the real people in Brian Friel’s ‘first great Irish play’

www.irishtimes.com/culture/stag...

The Fortnightly from Julian Girdham | Substack The Fortnightly is about thinking, writing, reading, teaching & more. Every two weeks in the school term since 2016. Always free, but contributions are most welcome, and paid contributors will receive...

The next Fortnightly will be an 'Occasional' for paid subscribers, in early August:

Including Shannon Vallor on AI, Joseph O'Connor, Ferdia Lennon and lots more.

juliangirdham.substack.com

WHOLE BOOKS! I pop into this wonderful podcast episode from @douglemov.bsky.social via @knowledgematrs.bsky.social on the value of reading whole books knowledgematterscampaign.org/post/ep-4-li...

What It’s Like to Be a Student Who Hates ChatGPT “Everyone is using it”—almost everyone.

you've heard about the college kids who can't do anything without ChatGPT's help—but what about the students who oppose generative A.I. for myriad reasons and refuse to rely on it as a shortcut? well, I found and spoke with a few of them here: slate.com/life/2025/07...

An Open Letter to My Son Who has left home for the Marine Corps

I experienced a big change this week as my oldest son left home for the Marines. I decided to write him a letter. #SubstackSky

open.substack.com/pub/adrianne...

25TRA416 An introduction to teaching ‘Othello’ Date: Wednesday 10th September Time: 7.00pm - 8.00pm Venue: Online via Zoom Target Audience: Senior Cycle English teachers This webinar for teachers of post-primary English will: ● Outline ways of...

An introduction to teaching 'Othello': free webinar on Wednesday 10th September, 7.00-8.00pm Irish time.

Registration via @clanavtra.bsky.social -

www.edcentretralee.ie/cpd-courses-...

189: Like a tinsmith's scoop Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and summer reading, vaping shelters in Irish schools (not really), Michael Amherst, Seamus Heaney, Agatha Christie, Arthur Miller and more.

The Fortnightly 189 is out

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and summer reading, vaping shelters in Irish schools (not really), Michael Amherst, Irish as a subject in Ireland right now, Seamus Heaney, Agatha Christie, Arthur Miller, the endangered semi-colon.

juliangirdham.substack.com/p/189-like-a...

The Occasional 8 James Shapiro, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Emma Smith on 'Macbeth', 'Jane Eyre', Robert Seethaler, Richard Flanagan, Sylvia Plath, short reviews (Donal Ryan, Deborah Levy, Vincenzo Latronico and more).

The latest edition of The Occasional is out:

Including James Shapiro, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Emma Smith on Macbeth, Jane Eyre, Robert Seethaler, Richard Flanagan, Sylvia Plath, short reviews and more.

juliangirdham.substack.com/p/the-occasi...

Done!

An open letter from educators who refuse the call to adopt GenAI in education

A strong statement of resistance to the relentless marketing of "AI" in education spaces. I encourage all educators to have a look and consider signing on:

openletter.earth/an-open-lett...

Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: 25TRA416 An introduction to teaching ‘Othello’. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar. Disclaimer: Please note that no recordings will be shared with participants. Slides will be shared if the presenter is agreeable to this. Please only register for our webinars if you have an internet ...

An Introduction to Teaching ‘Othello’. Free webinar.

Wednesday 10th September, 7.00pm - 8.00pm.

For Senior Cycle English teachers, via @clanavtra.bsky.social

Registration:
zoom.us/webinar/regi... pic.x.com/EcYBGL2GlW

Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: 25TRA416 An introduction to teaching ‘Othello’. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar. Disclaimer: Please note that no recordings will be shared with participants. Slides will be shared if the presenter is agreeable to this. Please only register for our webinars if you have an internet ...

An Introduction to Teaching ‘Othello’. Free webinar.

Wednesday 10th September, 7.00pm - 8.00pm.

For Senior Cycle English teachers, via @clanavtra.bsky.social

Registration:
zoom.us/webinar/regi... pic.x.com/EcYBGL2GlW

Thank you for the advice. I started on the Lydia Davis after others said it was good, but will move on after that one!

Reading round-up, January to June 2025 — Julian Girdham A round-up of short reviews from January to June 2025, including Donal Ryan, Tim Winton, Deborah Levy and Andrew O’Hagan.

Short reviews of Donal Ryan, Deborah Levy, Tim Winton, Hanne Ørstavik, David Baddiel, Elizabeth O’Connor, Tony Judt, Andrew O’Hagan, Vincenzo Latronico, Isabel Colegate, Lucy Worsley, John Guillory, Hisham Matar, Patrick McGuinness, Michael Amherst.

www.juliangirdham.com/blog/reading...

What has it been like shifting from reporter to media executive, managing a staff instead of filing stories yourself? And do you write any of the jokes at The Onion? Or are you strictly managing the business? The Onion’s process is deeply, beautifully inefficient. Every day, our writers take 150 headlines into a physical writers room in Chicago and whittle them down to maybe one or two. These people throw away the funniest sentence I will ever write in my life six times by noon every weekday. The point of taking over this place was to preserve this process, which I learned this week is almost assuredly more rigorous than The New York Times. That’s why I don’t touch any of it. I just try to get more people to pay attention to the output, and get our work into different mediums and new places. We brought back the paper, reinvested in the Onion News Network, bought a full page ad in The Times for something they were going to write anyway. The role is to make the world-class work they’re already doing seep into everyday American life more frequently, and that’s working. You actually can do this, you know. You can just try to highlight the beauty of things you like and not try to vampirically extract value at every step. If people get one thing out of this whole Q&A, I hope it’s that. You do not have to make an A.I. version of your own employees that operate at 1.5x speed but produce purely iterative garbage, especially in media and journalism. People don’t actually want that shit. Make a good, human thing and people will bend over backwards to support you. This is a valid way to run a company.

Also talked about The Onion being inefficient on purpose.

www.status.news/p/the-onion-...

Deepfakes On this page you’ll find information about deepfakes and other forms of synthetic media, including AI images, audio, and video. Before you go any further, make sure to grab the free 20+ page resource ...

New resources on AI and deepfakes. On this new page on my site you'll find examples, a 'real or fake' game, and a free 20+ page PDF about deepfakes and AI media leonfurze.com/deepfakes/ #ArtificialIntelligence #AIEducation #AIEdu #AIInEd #AIInEdu #EduSky #Deepfakes #ImageGen #AIImages

Reading round-up, January to June 2025 — Julian Girdham A round-up of short reviews from January to June 2025, including Donal Ryan, Tim Winton, Deborah Levy and Andrew O’Hagan.

For your holiday reading ideas, a round-up of short reviews over the last 6 months:

www.juliangirdham.com/blog/reading...

On the ‘beach’ I really want something that makes me think. I’m already relaxed. Prefer ‘easier’ reads for when life is busy and demanding.
Last summer: Middlemarch. Wonderful.

Fintan O'Toole: I have had more wives than Henry VIII. It's news to me too Artificial intelligence has trouble distinguishing fact from fiction, so it has to spew out absurd ‘factoids’ instead

www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2025...

Thank you!