iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Henry Ngo

Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 30/09/2026

One of the most harrowing things about academia, when you're a grad student, is how vulnerable you are to how you're perceived by more senior researchers. Your career advancement depends on confidential letters of reference & private discussions amongst faculty. You have no information or control.

14893147

Reposted by Henry Ngo

Justin McElroy 🇨🇦 @jmcelroy.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Municipally, I’ve seen a couple of cities and towns that turned things around without changes in leadership. It usually involves explicitly hiring outside advisors, and a leader accepting that their power is severely curtailed. But most of the time, it’s almost pointless to strategize.

1392

Henry Ngo @astrodino.planetngo.ca · 02/09/2026

At bedtime, me: did you have a good day? Anything you want to share? 5yo: why the hell.... no, I mean why the FUCK did Ash use Pikachu against a Sandshrew

120

Reposted by Henry Ngo

Celeste Labedz @celestelabedz.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

I wouldn't call myself a cartoonist, but I had the vision and just needed it to be on paper to the best of my ability.

A hand drawn eight panel cartoon. First two panels are a colander sitting frowning on a shelf. Then the colander is frowning straining pasta, then three more panels of frowning sitting on a shelf. Then a big panel where it's projecting a bunch of crescent eclipse shapes and smiling with speech bubbles around saying "Wow! Look! Amazing! Beautiful!" And then one final panel where it's sitting on a shelf smiling.

653559954

Reposted by Henry Ngo

Joshua Bowman @thalesdisciple.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

Working on an A.I. policy for my calculus classes. Decided to be upfront about the current situation with LLMs and to give a heartfelt explanation for why the course still matters.

Al policy

Context

Artificial Intelligence, or "A.l.," Is a broad term used to refer to several different kinds of technologies. The kind most relevant to this class are Large Language Models (LLMs), which use mathematics to analyze large amounts of human-produced text and then generate new text that simulates what a human might write in response to prompts or questions. Some examples of LLMs are OpenAl's ChatGPT, Anthropic's Claude, and Google's Gemini.

Current LLMs can provide a solution to any calculus problem I give you. So why should we work on them, you might ask? Here's the thing: for the most part, the problems were already solved anyway. Calculus as a subject is nearly 400 years old. It has reached into virtually every modern scientific and economic field. And while I would like to believe that I have crafted a few new problems with some small amount of originality tailored to this class, for the most part I have curated a collection of exercises drawn from my years of teaching calculus. Those exercises come from textbooks, workshops, friends, and other fields of study, as well as my own invention.
And they nearly all have known solutions, often with fairly standard approaches.
Before A.I. became widely available, you could find those solutions in another textbook, or from a friend's notes, or through a repository on the internet.

The point of this class is not necessarily to solve problems that have never been solved before. It is for you to develop habits of thinking that are used by mathematicians, scientists, and policymakers-to develop a sort of mental toolbox that can be applied to new problems. If along the way you happen to find a new way of solving one of the class exercises, that's great! I am constantly learning new things from my students. But you will be bereft of discovery if you rely on a LLM for solutions to the calculus problems before you. Here I mean the discovery of having your own realizations, crystallizing your own internal understanding, claiming the knowledge in a way that cannot be taken away from you.
That ownership is what I want for you, and that is what the course is built around.

441924546

Henry Ngo @astrodino.planetngo.ca · 01/08/2026

Some days our parenting experience can be rated "Bluey and Bingo". Other days, it is "Muffins and Socks". And occasionally, it's "Malcolm, Dewey, Reese and Jamie".

020

Henry Ngo @astrodino.planetngo.ca · 27/07/2026

Older kid at bedtime: can I leave my light on to read? Younger kid at bedtime: do you want to hear all about Pokemon? [*goes on a 10 minute monologue*] Lol, the two biggest parts of my personality as a kid

030

Reposted by Henry Ngo

Justin McElroy 🇨🇦 @jmcelroy.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

doing important journalism

1338953

Henry Ngo @astrodino.planetngo.ca · 06/05/2026

Another census year, another short form :( 0/3 now for years I was in Canada and the census form filler outer.

010

Reposted by Henry Ngo

Dr. Jessie Christiansen @aussiastronomer.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

In an alarming new development, several interactions with users across multiple of my responsibilities have turned out to be AI bots that people set up to argue for them. They're not willing to spend their time composing an email, but I'm supposed to spend my time reading and replying? Get out.

1217919

Henry Ngo @astrodino.planetngo.ca · 05/03/2026

Conversation with my youngest (almost 5): Do you want to play a game? Flip a coin. If heads, you have diarrhea in your pants. What happens if it's tails? Both sides are heads!! :D

010

Henry Ngo @astrodino.planetngo.ca · 13/02/2026

So....it turns out the box of valentine cards with the giant number "25" on it was not actually indicating it contained 25 cards. It was in fact 12 cards + 12 envelopes + 1 sheet of decorative stickers. :(

010

Henry Ngo @astrodino.planetngo.ca · 07/10/2025

It's the start of postdoc job application season again. I see quite a few #astro fellowship postdocs posting the same salary this year as they offered when I was applying in 2016, almost 9 years ago :O For those who are applying, this was the hardest part of my career! Take care of yourselves <3

0403

Henry Ngo @astrodino.planetngo.ca · 27/09/2025

New 4yo exclamation: Whoa! That scared me out of the fuck 🤣🤣🤣

140

Henry Ngo @astrodino.planetngo.ca · 28/08/2025

Saying goodnight to 4yo: "Okay, last hug of the night, let's make it count!" *starts to hug* 4yo: "1, 2, 3, 4...."

030

Reposted by Henry Ngo

Justin McElroy 🇨🇦 @jmcelroy.bsky.social · 17/07/2025

TOMORROW: the final day of first round voting in the Search for B.C.'s Best Symbol! featuring: debates over culture! highway stuff! the okanagan! mascots! also if mr. pg can't beat expo ernie then prince george is BANNED from complaining about the roadside attraction bracket

5474

Henry Ngo @astrodino.planetngo.ca · 19/06/2025

My perspective was that I put in as much effort into preparing for these "pass or fail out" exams/comps/quals/orals as I was willing for the rest of my PhD (and career). If that wasn't enough then I would have been content moving onto something else.

020

Reposted by Henry Ngo

ceej @ceej.online · 17/06/2025

Contrary to a lot of opinion on this, I think generative AI actually does have some useful applications! Sometimes you do just need a crane! But these people are deluding themselves into thinking they've exercised and the mismatch between what they know and what they think they know is dangerous

2190239

Reposted by Henry Ngo

ceej @ceej.online · 17/06/2025

I am surrounded by people who are outsourcing their own thinking to ChatGPT and they are quickly and obviously becoming dependent on it for even the most banal tasks. Once again, the "figuring it out" is the important part. Yes, you can use a crane to lift weights but you will not get stronger

12971801437

Henry Ngo @astrodino.planetngo.ca · 15/06/2025

Apparently when the doctor says "no solid foods for today and tomorrow", he isn't talking about states of matter. When he continued to list examples of acceptable foods such as soups, yogurt, applesauce, my brain was stuck on processing why yogurt isn't a solid that I almost missed the list.

3350

Reposted by Henry Ngo

Josh Zingher @zingherpolisci.bsky.social · 09/06/2025

Everything that’s happened over the past six months has been a response to an imaginary crisis. There is no immigrant invasion. No trade crisis. No scientific or governance crisis. Just people completely high off their own supply trying to fundamentally reorder society. None of this had to happen.

8795586516974

Reposted by Henry Ngo

Wajahat Ali @wajali.bsky.social · 09/06/2025

Bravo, Glendale. Bravo. More, please. And it's time for Democrats to loudly say, "Abolish ICE." Someone please stand up and have a spine.

472984748

Reposted by Henry Ngo

Justin McElroy 🇨🇦 @jmcelroy.bsky.social · 05/06/2025

Planners: to connect British Columbians living next to the ocean, we'll have a fleet of publicly owned ferries People: cool Planners: the main terminals will be in greater vancouver, greater victoria, nanaimo and gibsons People: makes sense Planners: every terminal will be called something else

1324222

Reposted by Henry Ngo

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 30/05/2025

Time for our scientific society leadership to take the case to the people by getting on national news and putting op eds in national publications, rather than just sending letters to members of congress who feel no pressure by that whatsoever

318348

Reposted by Henry Ngo

Luke Ontario @coolhand.bsky.social · 27/05/2025

I don’t know who is ready to hear this but people don’t have to add value Like people should also be allowed to exist for free

352318631

Henry Ngo @astrodino.planetngo.ca · 26/05/2025

Definitely a first world problem: dishwasher leaking/malfunction on a Saturday and all the "24/7" appliance repair places just take messages and will return calls on Monday.

000

Reposted by Henry Ngo

Dr. Damien P. Williams, dread portent down from a mountain cave @wolven.blacksky.app · 11/05/2025

Again, @ft.com reporters or whoever else needs to hear this: "Hallucinations" are not the result of "flaws," they are literally inherent in & inextricable from what LLM systems do & are. Whether an "AI" tells you something that matches reality or something that doesn't, *it is working as designed*

Companies have rushed to adopt AI to boost efficiency but some tools, including customer service bots, have faced embarrassing and costly mistakes. Such mistakes can occur, for example, because of flaws which cause AI language models to “hallucinate” or make things up.

131130376

Henry Ngo @astrodino.planetngo.ca · 03/05/2025

The people of Battle River --- Crowfoot have the chance to do funniest thing ever. Not really since the CPC winner there had well over 50% of all eligible voters. But would love to see the margin decrease when PP gets involved.

020

Reposted by Henry Ngo

Astrobites @astrobites.bsky.social · 29/04/2025

For Pride month this year, Astrobites is looking to highlight transgender astronomers and we want YOU! We are planning to interview four astronomers about their experience being transgender in science, how they've dealt with barriers throughout their career . . . (1/4)

3208113

Henry Ngo @astrodino.planetngo.ca · 30/04/2025

One clear way to see how Canada votes people out, not in: Four out of seven party leaders lost their own seat. And two of those were from the top 3 parties.

000

Reposted by Henry Ngo

Brooke Yam @yamyamyam.bsky.social · 29/04/2025

I'm very relieved Poilievre didn't win, but it is so, so weird seeing US / UK peeps celebrating this on Canada's behalf as a win for the left. We just elected a centrist banker and our actual-left party was crushed and may lose official status. This is a move to the right for us, by the numbers.

5336

Reposted by Henry Ngo

Kate Heartfield @kateheartfield.com · 29/04/2025

All the Americans in my feed: Phew, good job Canada! Rest easy! All the Canadians in my feed: many stressful things are happening on several fronts

171194155

Reposted by Henry Ngo

Justin McElroy 🇨🇦 @jmcelroy.bsky.social · 29/04/2025

we're seeing what we saw out of Atlantic Canada — as advanced polls come in, what goes from a very nervous moment for Liberal supports eases, as more seats flip their way Liberals were up by 2 seats just 20 minutes ago. Now it's 17 seats. It's why that government call was made so early.

520726

Reposted by Henry Ngo

Mika McKinnon @mikamckinnon.bsky.social · 29/04/2025

Depends. BC Liberals are conservatives. Federal Liberals are the center progressives. NDP are socialist progressives. Conservatives are an amalgamation of all non-progressives. Green are inconsistently environmental progressives & social conservatives, maybe? Bloc are provincial advocates.

3415

Reposted by Henry Ngo

Gord Randall @garandall.bsky.social · 29/04/2025

Also pour one out for the NDP, who died so Canada could live.

39020

Reposted by Henry Ngo

Justin McElroy 🇨🇦 @jmcelroy.bsky.social · 29/04/2025

he should have done the hip flip

833368

Reposted by Henry Ngo

The Internet's Favourite Avery™ @malplum.cc · 26/04/2025

"Peace, order, and good government" is Canada's version of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Where the U.S. bets on individualism, Canada bets on collective well-being. Not perfect—but the promise still matters. #ElbowsUp #StrongandFree #🇨🇦

022

Reposted by Henry Ngo

Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · 25/04/2025

PhD Timeline xkcd.com/3081

5865978020438

Henry Ngo @astrodino.planetngo.ca · 26/04/2025

7yo, fully into Pokemon hyper focus now, looking thru their "Pokedex". "Hey, this one is weird. Doduo flying type but how does it fly? Does it use its head?" *bobs head around* Asking the classic questions lol

000

Henry Ngo @astrodino.planetngo.ca · 21/04/2025

Voted in the advance polls this weekend! So very well run, a constant stream of people in and out of the polling place but each station was at most 1 person in line in front of you. Had two little kids with me they didn't have a chance to even get bored before we were already out

150

Reposted by Henry Ngo

Polling Canada @canadianpolling.bsky.social · 19/04/2025

Elections Canada says they estimate that 2 million people voted on Friday, a new record

662455383

Henry Ngo @astrodino.planetngo.ca · 20/04/2025

Introduced our kids to the Pokemon TV show for the first time! (Indigo League of course). That first episode is so intense. We have a chat before and after each episode.

020

Henry Ngo @astrodino.planetngo.ca · 19/04/2025

Cars. People. People with pets who don't understand boundaries. We do supervised outdoor play in vetted spaces. Why is the "street" needed?? Our goal is 1000 hours per year and we do get pretty close. It's at least 2 hours per day even in winter and often 5-6 hours per day in summer.

030

Reposted by Henry Ngo

Chris Lintott @chrislintott.bsky.social · 17/04/2025

At some point we need to have a discussion about the ethics of participation in press releases as scientists. From today’s K2-18b saga, Nikku Madhusudhan in the press release says ‘The signal came through loud and clear’ (1/n)

1623068

Reposted by Henry Ngo

Jess Graves @jessgraves.bsky.social · 15/04/2025

Sick of being taken advantage of by OTHER PACKAGES?! Use python package {tariff} to show those packages WHO IS BOSS. Make Reinventing The Wheel Great Again! pypi.org/project/tari...

109931

Reposted by Henry Ngo

Joseph Rezek @rezekjoe.bsky.social · 15/04/2025

I’m sorry but if your students use AI to write papers and you use AI to grade them zero school is happening. You are running together on a hamster wheel

175136373865

Reposted by Henry Ngo

Sam Halpert @samhalpert.bsky.social · 15/04/2025

Even accepting the premise that AI produces useful writing (which no one should), using AI in education is like using a forklift at the gym. The weights do not actually need to be moved from place to place. That is not the work. The work is what happens within you.

103105053372

Reposted by Henry Ngo

Eoin Brodie @elbrodie.bsky.social · 11/04/2025

US students. Looking to apply to graduate school? Had an offer rescinded recently? The University of British Columbia in Canada will re-open the application portal in some departments for US students from April 14-18. Details: www.grad.ubc.ca/us-applicant... #ubc #AcademicSky #PhDSky #ScienceSky

grad.ubc.ca

US Applicant Week

141063660

Reposted by Henry Ngo

Angelo Iulianella @aineurolab.bsky.social · 09/04/2025

Poilievre threatens to replicate the purge on academic research as is happening in the US. This should shake most reasonable Canadians from complacency.

0124