Ben Balas

DeepReads #1: Prove Your Move Wrong A new series where I dig into a book, study or article for insights on decision making, writing & happiness

Many thanks to @jenshahade.bsky.social for linking to my lichess blog in her most recent substack post! Check out her piece about the role of falsification in #chess here.

Kids These Days Don't Care About Living Deliciously Anymore Hi all and welcome back to week two of the 2025 So Desensitized Spooky Season Spooktacular! Wrapping up this week we’ve got Robert Eggers’ The Witch, and...

Another new post from the kiddo at So Desensitized - this time about THE WITCH. If you love #horror and like reading critical takes on #horrormovies, go check it out! #FilmSky #HorrorSky buttondown.com/blaisebalas/...

It gave me some useful talking points about LLMs that I either didn't know before or didn't understand fully that I think will inform conversations with students. In terms of classroom practice, it strengthened my feeling that offering (and modeling) positive alternatives to LLM use is critical.

The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech's Hype and Create the Future We Want by Emily M. Bender, Alex Hanna A smart, incisive look at the technologies sold as artificial intelligence, the drawbacks and pit...

Weekend reading: Just finished @emilymbender.bsky.social and @alexhanna.bsky.social's THE AI CON. Got me thinking a lot about my approach to promoting real thinking and discussion in my class this semester.

I spent a lot of time roaming the Monroeville Mall as a teenager: Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter at Tilt, free pop refills in the food court, but mostly a place to just hang out with your friends and walk around. My mom always talked about the skating rink that used to be there. Sad to see it go.

Friends: A question for those with writing/publishing experience. If one's ms (a novel) was requested by a publisher after a pitch, is it appropriate to ask about its status after some amount of time or is that not done? If so, is there a ballpark interval that's reasonable for a check-in? Thanks!

a close up of a statue of yoda with the words `` learning you are '' written above him . ALT: a close up of a statue of yoda with the words `` learning you are '' written above him .

...but there are also still students who are curious and excited about learning. I don't have any deep insights to share about this, but I want to make sure I balance the pessimism with the occasional Ws.

Folks, there are times I feel awfully cynical about higher ed and post here to vent. That said, I had a student stop by office hours today just b/c they wanted to talk about some neat neuroscience Qs they've been thinking through. There's lots of stuff to be frustrated about... <1/n>

This last point has become one of my main goals for my Neuropsychology course: Get students comfortable having their own ideas and following through on them. They need scaffolding and feedback for this! Higher Ed is NOT just "knowledge transfer."

I just spent 10 minutes looking to see what kind of #visionscience stuff there is about visual potato grading. The answer turns out to be plenty! Re-orienting current lab projects potato-ward NOW. 😀

Man flying on a giant fish with background motion lines in a woodblock print from an illustrated picture story from Hokusai

A fun find: Hokusai used background motion lines about 200 years ago in this page from one of his books of picture stories. This is the oldest example of these that I know of, and interestingly manga tend to use these more than other types of comics (See corpus in: www.visuallanguagelab.com/poc)

Kids These Days Don't Go To Class Anymore Hi all and welcome to week two of the 2025 So Desensitized Spooky Season Spooktacular! We’re talking about some modern witches this week with Zach Cregger’s...

Another new blog post from the Kiddo at So Desensitized! This time she's taking a look at Zach Cregger's WEAPONS. This was a #Horror movie I definitely enjoyed seeing w/her in theaters and she's got some neat insights here - enjoy! #FilmSky #HorrorSky #HorrorMovies

a man in a suit and tie is standing in front of a sign that says sunkist . ALT: a man in a suit and tie is standing in front of a sign that says sunkist .

Great evening at the Fargo Theatre for Silent Movie Night! Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Laurel & Hardy, Neely Edwards and The Mighty Wurlitzer make for a lot of laughs.

Kids These Days Don't Wander Around the Woods Like Idiots Anymore Hi all, welcome back to week one of the 2025 So Desensitized Spooky Season Spooktacular! Today we are covering my least favorite movie of all time, The Blair...

Kiddo just published her latest #Horror essay over at So Desensitized. This time she's taking on THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT in her article "Kids These Days Don't Wander Around the Woods Like Idiots Anymore." Spoiler alert: She's not the biggest fan. Enjoy, share, and subscribe! #HorrorSky #FilmSky

Arise all ye of MIT! This alum feels better today for seeing this.

Letter Regarding Compact MIT Chapter of the American Association of University Professors October 6, 2025 Statement on the “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” MIT has been invited by the federal governmen...

I am proud of MIT, where our branch of AAUP has voted unanimously to endorse this statement urging MIT leadership and the MIT Corporation to reject the Compact wholesale
docs.google.com/document/d/1...

The Dangers of using AI to Grade Nobody Learns, Nobody Gains

I strongly urge everyone to not just read this warning from @marcwatkins.bsky.social, but heed it, and be vocal and forceful pushing back against using AI to grade student writing. This must be anathema if we're going to have a world where learning means something. substack.com/inbox/post/1...

It's that first "What?" that I love best of all.

Let’s talk about AI art.

theoatmeal.com/comics/ai_art

Today is a day when arts degrees are worthless, but the product of those degrees is so valuable it would kill an entire industry if they were made to pay for it.

Is it fun, though? I couldn't tell if it was fun from the box.

Whenever I see a monarch in Fargo, I call out "Go!" to speed 'em on their way. It's amazing that they travel so far and so cool that we can follow along.

done!

I didn't know that there was a "Water Tower of the Year" competition until just a moment ago, but now that I know there is one and Fargo is in 2nd place I am INVESTED. Get in there and vote for our 2.5 million gallons of water-holding majesty, people! #workwasfrustratingwhydoyouask

This takes me back! When I was a kid in SW Pennsylvania, we pretty reliably had groundhogs hanging around near our school bus stop and I always liked seeing them sort of ambling around munching on stuff.

Kids These Days Don't Join Covens Anymore Hi all, and welcome to the first week of the 2025 So Desensitized Spooky Season Spooktacular! Posts will be out on Mondays and Fridays all the way up until...

New post from the kiddo over at So Desensitized! This is the beginning of her October series focusing on witches, starting with THE CRAFT. Go subscribe if you like #Horror and great writing about pop culture! #HorrorSky #HorrorMovies #FilmSky

Book giveaway for The Suicidal Thoughts Guided Journal: CBT Practices to Soothe Emotional Pain, Build Coping Skills, and Find Hope by Kathryn Hope Gordon Oct 04-Oct 16, 2025 Enter to win one of 10 free copies available. Giveaway dates from Oct 04-Oct 16, 2025. A compassionate guided journal to help you to manage suicidal thou...

Hi! My publisher is giving away 10 copies of The Suicidal Thoughts Guided Journal through Goodreads. If you’d like to enter, you can here:

www.goodreads.com/giveaway/sho...

Thanks for your support! ❤️

A black-and-white scratch-art drawing of Krypto the Superdog. Krypto looks ready to do something super but would probably look better if drawn by someone with more talent.

I've got a little bit of #Artober drawing this evening. I'm not worrying about the drawing-a-day routine this year, but just trying to make time to draw something I'm excited about more regularly. For tonight, a scratch-art Krypto the Superdog from @jamesgunn.bsky.social's SUPERMAN.

I love it when awardees lean into the weirdness of the Ig Nobels.

The bedtime story example stands out to me - people CAN make up stories like that on the spot and it's fun. If you get stuck, ask your kid what happens next. They'll know. They'll know and then you'll both laugh.