Julia Wester, PhD

every time somebody asks me for help with an LLM problem at work, the checklist starts with "do you understand what you are trying to do well enough to explain it to me, a human with way more preexisting context about your problem than the LLM has?". most fail.

ruh roh

Don’t try to tell me when something should be a table google sheets. I decide when things should be tables.

A lot of education discourse is at root an inability to decide whether the purpose of our education system is to 1) teach material and measure learning 2) reward students who work hard 3) separate the smart kids (destined for smart guy jobs) from the dumb kids (destined to serve the smart guys)

the way basic human decency hits these days is crazy

DESPITE ALL MY RAGE
LET'S CIRCLE BACK
AND GET ON THE SAME PAGE

DESPITE ALL MY RAGE THERE ARE STILL SEVERAL METRICS TO GAUGE

SOMEONE WILL SAY
TURN THIS IN
BY THE END OF THE DAY

DESPITE ALL MY RAGE
YOU DON'T NEED MY SIGN-OFF
AT THIS STAGE

If we were really going to "run the government like a business," Costco is the actual model we'd want to follow.

THIS IS AMAZING. ALSO WHAT, IF ANYTHING, DID WE FORGET TO RUIN?

Mark your calendar for a huge December election (sorry, sorry, I know):

Democrat Eileen Higgins & Republican Emilio Gonzalez moved on to the runoff for mayor of Miami.

This is the most minor of points possible. But the theme for Halloween parties is “Halloween”. Why are you trying to narrow the field of possible costume choices? Anyways, unsurprisingly joyless crap here.

Yeah the Hobbits big virtue is that they're indomitable. They aren't wise or clever or strong, but that turns out to be less important than the will to pick up and carry your friend to the end of the world

I’ve gone through cycles. I mostly enjoy this app & can be normal about it. Then at times I’m clearly stressed/anxious and it goes from being fun/informative to an anxious impulse. I have the freedom app and use that block it for 24 hours when that happens to reset and that has helped.

Environmental activism that only focuses on “raising awareness” without a broader theory of change, are not helping and can potentially harm progress.

Great turn out and energy in Miami today 💙

"Organizing" is just "Did I do anything to help out with organizing efforts today?" And it, like most of the categories, isn't binary—I give myself more points for that day if what I did was more significant, or took more time.

Would also love to know what breaking down “organizing” looks like for you in terms of regular achievable tasks on a daily-weekly scale to-do list. I’ve added stuff on the month scale like “attend meetings” and “check off that thing I promised to contribute at the last meeting”

Any Miami folks, especially near the Coral Way/Shenandoah area: we’re meeting up to travel together to the protest if anyone wants to join this Saturday @coralwaydems.bsky.social

hot damn!

oh is this every trader joe's?? I just assumed it was Miami's fun the little twist on the experience.

And did you get what you wanted from this life, even so? I did. And what did you want? To call myself beloved, to feel myself beloved on the earth. by Raymond Carver

Interestingly I found this action to be a real beautiful example of solidarity across orgs, movements and causes. Too often things are structured in ways that keep us fighting for “our issue” in silos, but all our fates are intertwined. Always have been, but now could not be more obvious.

Hard agree.

been dealing with some brain fog more lately and as someone with a parent with early onset dementia I can't determine if this is just HOW IT STARTS or if its my mind reacting to everything being too much right now.

CHATGPT: I understand where you're coming from. You worked really hard to get here, and now it's time to enjoy the fruit of your labors.

ISILDUR: So I should keep it? Elrond says I shouldn't

CHATGPT: The ring is precious. Sometimes friends don't have your best interests at heart.

ISILDUR: true

I went to a conference in Portland a couple years ago and got a similar response from FL fox-viewing step sister: (worried, serious) “omg what was it like?” Me (breezy, oblivious) “oh Portland rules, the food was so good. Loved just walking around!” She looked genuinely baffled and disconcerted.

"We're going to create superintelligence" How about making outlook search work first. How about that

feels like we're living through some kind of cultural gas leak

I think my favorite part of this is when the toddler gets on the golden retriever like injured Aragorn getting on his horse in that one part of Two Towers

Fit for Purpose? How Today’s Commercial Digital Platforms Subvert Key Goals of Public Education Digital educational platforms have become ubiquitous in American classrooms, with tools like Google Workspace for Education, Kahoot!, Zearn, Khan Academy, and many others now structuring curriculum, i...

Say it often, say it loud:

"Overall, research has not supported the common-sense presumption that digital approaches to schooling are better than non-digital alternatives. At the broadest level, widespread computer use in education has been found to be associated with lower student achievement."