Prof Stephen Serjeant

Sounds about right. When I was a lecturer at the University of Kent, the workload allocation was 10 hrs for writing & delivering each new-from-scratch 1 hr lecture. Delivering an hour’s lecture you’ve given before was allocated 2 hours, maybe slightly generously (but only slightly)

Screenshot of Threads thread by gutz156. Concatenated text follows. A French aristocrat wrote: most geniuses remain unknown — and when I learned the reason, I realized nothing has changed since The line came from the memoirs of Marquis de Villeroy, written in 1782. He observed that the brightest men in Paris never rose beyond small circles. “They possessed truth,” he wrote, “but no audience.” He noticed a paradox — intelligence didn’t attract attention; it repelled it, because the mind that questions also threatens. Villeroy described dinners where shallow charmers won applause while real thinkers sat silent. “They spoke with care,” he wrote, “and the room punished them with boredom.” The court didn’t hate genius — it simply had no patience for precision. Attention always flowed to those who could flatter, not clarify. He concluded that talent fails not from lack of effort, but from over-complexity of delivery. The human brain rewards familiarity, not depth. The clever man wants to be understood; the crowd wants to be confirmed. Every era repeats that trade: truth exchanged for attention. Modern research calls it the fluency effect. People trust what’s easy to process. Hard ideas create friction, and friction feels unsafe. That’s why marketers outperform philosophers — they speak in rhythm, not revelation. The mind mistakes simplicity for truth. Villeroy’s final note reads: “Genius needs translation before it needs recognition.” Two centuries later, the stage hasn’t changed — only the spotlight. Most brilliant minds still fade, not because they’re wrong, but because they refuse to sing their wisdom in the language of the crowd.

An 18th century observation on populists and scholars, but startlingly relevant today. Posting also to the 🧪 feed for scicomm folk. From Threads

In an Exclusive Interview, Dr. Jane Goodall Leaves Behind Her Last Words “In the place where I am now, I look back over my life. What message do I want to leave?”

Very good point, which made me rummage again to check. It appears to be real: www.netflix.com/tudum/articl...

WOW. Posting also to the 🧪 feed

This post took me down a wonderful rabbit hole ending up at this @cellpress.bsky.social Current Biology special issue from 2015 with plenty of lovely accessible long reads perfect for a Sunday morning www.cell.com/current-biol... 🧪

@gork.bluesky.bot Is this true?

Great news!
JSTOR now have a free account with an Independent Researcher category. You can access 100 documents per month

www.jstor.org/action/showL...

So yeah, this is something I've seen a LOT of shortly before the last few American elections. Just in case this is useful to any of my pals there ...

Sky News and the BBC repeatedly mention the "migrant crisis" in doing so they are normalising and legitimising far right talking points. There is no "migrant crisis", there is only migrant hysteria, which the British media is feeding into instead of countering.

Spot-on.

I still can't quite believe that the very first attacks from Labour on Farage's bonkers idea to kick millions of people with INDEFINITE right to remain out of the UK were to argue that it's infeasible and wouldn't save anything like the amount he claimed.

How about:
- It's WRONG
- It's IMMORAL
?

I should log onto Mastodon more often. I'm two weeks late posting this correction!

A bit late, but @davidallengreen.bsky.social said on Mastodon that this was just an attempt at mild irony. And now I have to reset my counter for "Successful corrections to DAG's blog" back to zero. <heaves lever, loud sounds of sparks and clunks, in the distance dogs bark>

Reform plans to scrap indefinite leave to remain for migrants The party says scrapping the scheme and restricting migrant access to benefits will save hundreds of billions of pounds.

I don't say this lightly, but this Reform policy is genuinely evil. People voting for this are voting to tear apart families and destroy lives, including those of close friends of mine. "Farage said he accepted the policy would split families" www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

What’s the prospect of the makers of Tylenol suing the administration for vast, astronomical sums?

So Reform / Farage want to deport hundreds of thousands, possibly millions of UK residents, turning the country into an effective police state, breaking treaties, and impoverishing the economy and health service?

Just focus on all that. The moral gutter of politics.

Your reminder that legislation to curb the rights of trans people to use restrooms or do anything else means everyone's behaviour, clothing etc will be opened up to intrusive and unwanted scrutiny and potential challenge in our daily lives. This is not a 'them' issue. Trans rights are human rights.

How about Nicola Walker as Doctor Who? She played Liv Chenka in the audio plays but that’s much less of an obstacle. And she is such a brilliant, thoughtful actor. Maybe such a celebrated actor would command stronger scripts than JW had?

Holy 💩. In that situation they should be paying YOU!

I'm glad to read this. About time. Also I don't understand why he was made FRS in the first place. He's not a scientist and he's not an engineer. He's a business leader who pontificates wildly on scientific subjects in which he knows next to nothing and his DOGE has actively damaged US science. 🔭🧪

Proof, if proof were needed, that current climate is the result of organised, sustained disinformation.

"Official figures indicate net migration is falling, yet concern among Britons is close to the highest it has been since polling began in 1974." ~AA

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Good point. I have naive hope that such a well decorated actor could command better scripts

Olivia Colman playing a scary alien with sharp fangs in Doctor Who

Oh you are right, I had forgotten! Well spotted. Didn’t stop Peter Capaldi’s casting when he’d been Caecilius but yes it could be an obstacle. Drat, she’d be wonderful

I find it odd too. Slightly off topic, but wouldn’t it be marvellous to have Olivia Colman cast as Doctor Who?

I recommend everyone watches this

“But they speak with total civility in debating your right to exist! That’s how democracy is *supposed* to work!”

No. No it isn’t.

I can't stress enough that this is how is exactly how genocides are incited. They always use language to couch it in self defense to justify violence against their targets.

Same thugs we've been dealing with all my life. Utterly shameful and frankly dumb that one or both of the PM or his main advisor think you appease these people.

Good thread. My approach is to explain to students the different views on how the law should be interpreted, how it was interpreted, and whether the law should be changed. But this is based on an accurate understanding of what the law is, not conspiracy theories and partisan nonsense (from any side)