Levi John Wolf

I gotta say I find a lot of AI discourse around higher ed very confusing. "if ChatGPT can write your essays is college even worth it?" did people think math teachers were assigning problem sets because *they* couldn't figure out the answers?

It did actually answer my question though 😅

I've just had the most surreal experience: I googled a relatively niche question about an academic topic and got an AI response paraphrasing *my own* crossvalidated (the stats stack overflow) answer from years prior.

Episode 23: Navigating the Academic Job Market (Part 2) The GLaD Podcast · Episode

Ep. 2 of our "Navigating the Shoals of the Academic Job Market" is live! we dive into putting an application together, what interviews might be like, and share @rsfrankl.bsky.social , @darribas.bsky.social and I share our experiences in these rough and wild waters!
open.spotify.com/episode/2PNm...

Haha it’s certainly HPC the “hard” way….

It is so constraining to write in a TUI... I'm finally admitting that git+vim+Hugo is a bit masochistic for me, and have moved blog.ljwolf.org back to Tumblr. Just having an iOS app already means it's 1000x easier to keep up to date!

We’ve gotta do that ourselves!

Hence why the big platform firms push these things so strongly… just like PyTorch/Pyro/JAX+Tensorflow jockeying, these tools don’t *remove* friction per se, they displace it in the stack. I love llms for learners, but I’m not sold that they end this “front” of the “language war…”

I wonder whether this will make the *library side* of these debates even more winner-take-all? Lower barriers for users make it more important for language library developers to “keep parity” with one another, and even possibly slightly ahead. It also intensifies the value of network/ecosystem!

For users, this is probably true! Who can be territorial when the most basic barriers to usage (like installation and familiarity) get ground down by Copilot-type things…but!

if you're curious: doi.org/10.1177/0309...

I never looked into it, but it’s a solid idea—Ron used to have this “classics that weren’t” project w/ books/papers he thought were primed to be impactful but, for whatever reason, never were. That catmog and the associated paper about London housing is *very* ahead of its time.

Thanks again #GISRUK2025 for coming by!

New episode of the #GLaD podcast just dropped, Time (mis)management. Everything you always wanting to know (or not) about why we (@rsfrankl.bsky.social, @levijohnwolf.bsky.social and yours truly) are always late, and maybe that’s OK…

gladpodcast.podbean.com/e/episode-21...

Spatial Inequality This paper explores the concepts and computational methods used tomeasure spatial inequality, emphasizing a reproducible approach thatsocial scientists can apply to their research. The analysis focuse...

Some, like #27, are startlingly contemporary! Also, @fcorowe.bsky.social is editing a revival w/ the Digital CATMOGs at ERSA’s REGION journal! AFAIK, Serge’s got the first! doi.org/10.18335/reg...

Episode 3: How to Conference Podcast Episode · The GLaD Podcast · 03/18/2023 · 1h 59m

Second day at #AAG2025 is about to start and maybe you are already overwhelmed as a first time attendee? Here is a podcast by @rsfrankl.bsky.social @darribas.bsky.social @levijohnwolf.bsky.social that you should listen while you get ready for conferencing! podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

Last day to register for #GISRUK2025 at the early bird rate and get in before the prices increase! More details on the programme and events can be found on the conference website - gisruk.github.io

Look forward to seeing many in Bristol in a few weeks!

Sure to be a good time! Come join us in Bristol for all sorts of cool geographic and environmental data science in a beautiful and cool setting 😎

The programme for #GISRUK2025 is now live! See whats happening at this years conference in Bristol, April 22-25th. Registration is still open for if you haven't yet registered! gisruk.org/gisruk-2025

@levijohnwolf.bsky.social @caitrobin.bsky.social

Looking forward to seeing you at Spatiotemporal Causal Analysis (#STCausal2025), stcausal2025.spatial-causal.org with @grantdmckenzie.bsky.social and Cecile de Bezenac!

Thanks for hosting me, @maynoothuniversity.ie! It was a really great time!

Very excited to have @levijohnwolf.bsky.social on campus @maynoothuni.bsky.social tomorrow for a talk on 'City systems and the cause of inequality' for the Geography Department Seminar Series - excited for the talk, stop in if you're around!

That's wonderful! Congratulations!

Value-by-alpha maps: An alternative technique to the cartogram The cartogram, or value-by-area map, is a popular technique for cartographically representing social data. Such maps visually equalize a basemap prior to mapping a social variable by adjusting the siz...

if you are going to do it, I'd recommend a value-by-alpha over a "standard" bivariate choropleth that uses hue blending: pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

I really enjoyed our conversation, and I hope you do, too!

This HN thread on @anthropic.com asking job applicants to not use AI is fascinating… I've seen talented LLM-loving students plateau & burn out on problems the LLM bungles. Seems I'm not alone. Even if LLMs improve, will that plateau ever go away? I doubt it.

news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4291...

We're nearing the deadline, too! Come join us for a rad time in Bristol this April!

The 2025 GISRUK abstract deadline has now been extended to January 31st, 2025! We're really excited to welcome papers rethinking the role "Process" plays in GIScience. We hope to see your abstract real soon!

app.oxfordabstracts.com/stages/76668...

Another year in the books! Join @rsfrankl.bsky.social, @darribas.bsky.social, and I in a GLaD Podcast on our year in Geography, Life, and Data—work/life balance (maybe?) in a year of "too much yes," data+model innovations in 2024 & beyond, and NYT's Spelling Bee!

www.podbean.com/eas/pb-w4mrv...

The 2025 GISRUK abstract deadline has now been extended to January 31st, 2025! We're really excited to welcome papers rethinking the role "Process" plays in GIScience. We hope to see your abstract real soon!

app.oxfordabstracts.com/stages/76668...