iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 11h

The guy sneering at "your precious liberal arts degree" majored in Philosophy at Harvard

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Andrew Alan Johnson @andrewalanjohnson.bsky.social · 8h

The replies and qts to Josh were pretty crazy, but all united by a common demand: "clearly signal 'good' or 'bad.' Do not try to make a complicated point." This I think its a problem when we spend too much time online. We just want to say "agree/disagree" and not think.

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Micah @rincewind.run · 22h

the brazil thing is so depressing because they did the right thing, man they did what we couldn’t, they actually prosecuted their coup and threw bolsonaro’s ass in jail and generally showed the united states what a functional state looks like and now they are gonna elect his dipshit son? really?

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Alan Richardson @alanrichardson.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

University “leaders” in North America spent 3 decades writing “strategic plans” to congratulate themselves on their leadership, agility, commitment to core values etc. and then faced one crisis and were completely unprepared.

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Joshua Barsczewski @joshuabarsczewski.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

I know Obama was talking about world leaders, but when I realized this was also true of administrators in higher ed, I felt liberated. Some of y'all are just not smart, PhDs/JDs/MBAs be damned

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Joshua Foust 🪖🎮 @joshuafoust.com · 03/10/2026

It’s weird to see so many higher education leaders beat their chests about “the decline of trust” from the public while refusing to acknowledge the conservative movement organizing to destroy it. Imagine someone stabbing you repeatedly while you complain about not having enough blood to bleed out.

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Joshua Barsczewski @joshuabarsczewski.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Whelp, I had a dream I was explaining Rosenwasser and Stephen’s Writing Analytically to someone 😭 I may have been a WPA, and at Muhlenberg, for too long. Taking advice on new career paths

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Christopher Hale @christopherjhale.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

“Human beings are called to be co-workers in the work of creation, not merely passive consumers of content generated by artificial technology.” — Pope Leo XIV

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Joshua Barsczewski @joshuabarsczewski.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

We've been fostering a new GSD for two weeks and plan to adopt him, but had to take him back to the shelter for the weekend while we go out of state for a wedding. He seemed happy to see his old friends, but i am already feeling guilty 😭 Doesn't take long for me to get attached to dogs lol

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Joshua Barsczewski @joshuabarsczewski.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

One of the most annoying things about him is that he’s actually very funny. I feel like the left ignored that to our own peril

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Joshua Barsczewski @joshuabarsczewski.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

10/1 starts tutor hiring season at Muhlenberg! Over the next 5 weeks, I'll interview close to 60 students who want to be writing center tutors. It's the busiest, most exciting time of my year. As I said to a group of students on Tuesday: if you need anything from me this month, no you don't.

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Ryan Packer @typewriteralley.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

George Saunders on using AI: "Writing is the most precious way one person can communicate their essence to another person. I’ve spent a lifetime trying to get better at making myself present in my writing. Why would I want to sacrifice even one iota of that?"

Have you spent time trying to write or revise with AI? Is there an experiment that would be interesting enough to try?

I have not. Not for a second. To me, this whole idea of using AI to write is . . . anathema. A thing to be most radically avoided.

Writing is the most precious way one person can communicate their essence to another person. I’ve spent a lifetime trying to get better at making myself present in my writing. Why would I want to sacrifice even one iota of that? Not even in an email and certainly not in a short story or novel.

Who are we ceding our authority to, exactly, when we let AI write for us? And why? Why surrender our agency (that amazing ability we have to reach across time and space, with our strange, idiosyncratic phenomenon, and land within the sensibility of another human being) to something that, by its very design, pushes the individual sensibility aside? And in the name of . . . what, exactly? Ease, I guess? Efficiency? The person who chooses to write with AI has also sacrificed, from the start, the opportunity of experiencing difficulty, of struggling to say what he wants to say, of making himself evident in his prose, of trying to find out what he believes. By this, he sacrifices a chance to know himself and his mind better. To me, that’s a shame. And it’s dangerous, because, as we are now finding out, it affects the brain and lessens our capabilities. Thanks, but no thanks, get thee behind me, etc.

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Scott Galloway @profgalloway.com · 30/09/2026

GOP mid-term strategy: Accuse prosecutor of liking women’s sports. 🏀

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Joshua Barsczewski @joshuabarsczewski.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Academic publishing etiquette question: A while ago, I got an R&R with spectacularly unhelpful reviews and little editorial guidance. I eventually cut the article in half and published the first half elsewhere. Now the original journal has a CFP that is perfect for the unpublished back half. Do I:

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Jess Piper @piperformissouri.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

😂😂😂

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Cethan Leahy @cethanleahy.com · 30/09/2026

I think we underrate that JCO came up in 20th century New York literary circles where everyone said five most devastating insults before breakfast and as one of the last one standing, her competition is guys who get sad if their chatbot isn't sufficiently nice to them.

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Joshua Barsczewski @joshuabarsczewski.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Early in my current job, I joked to a colleague and an admin that I was too lenient and pro-student to be on the Student Conduct Board (or whatever we call it). The admin replied, “You only say that because you don’t know how horrid some of the things they do are.” I think about that a lot.

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Joshua Barsczewski @joshuabarsczewski.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

The stranglehold Julia Stiles still has over me should be studied. I would watch her reading the phone book #DWTS

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Joshua Barsczewski @joshuabarsczewski.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Reposting this bc that dumbass nyt column has made its way to Facebook

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Joshua Barsczewski @joshuabarsczewski.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I think we need to consider that the Ivy League has been a net negative for society

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Joshua Barsczewski @joshuabarsczewski.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Lowkey would rather someone just steal my work accounts and data than have to do two-factor authorization

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Manisha Sinha @profmsinha.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Academic here, yeah I know it’s September still!

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Ian Bogost @ibogost.com · 29/09/2026

The point of the decades we spent with Derrida wasn’t that writing was just as close to thought as speech, but that simple accounts of any such closeness were inherently doomed to break down. The point was that the immediacy was a fantasy.

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Joshua Barsczewski @joshuabarsczewski.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

New rule: No one is allowed to talk about writing and its relationship to thought until they’ve read Dennis Baron’s A Better Pencil, which traces the relationship between writing and technology.

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Michael Ian Black @michaelianblack.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Welcome to the Resistance, Jonathan Taylor Thomas!

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Joshua Barsczewski @joshuabarsczewski.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Did we not already learn our lesson about giving Cinnamon Toast Crunch human features???

A box of Loaded Cinnamon Toast Crunch, the box of which features a bisected piece of cereal with exposed vanilla cream filling. A cartoon cereal mascot with a very long tongue is excitedly licking the creamy cereal.

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Joshua Barsczewski @joshuabarsczewski.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

We all need to get less comfortable with projecting our own lives onto other people. (Also maybe cameras at ballpark can stop focusing on the crowd?)

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Chaucer Doth Tweet @levostregc.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Bene Gesserit: "Put your righte hande yn the box" Me [figuringe out wher to put my iced coffee]

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Joshua Barsczewski @joshuabarsczewski.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

reminder to not ask people who aren't educators about what kids should or should not know ("I don't know my own address" is pathetic. I bet his secretary and assistant and lawyer do, though...)

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Joshua Barsczewski @joshuabarsczewski.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Today in FYS, I had students write anonymous questions they have about Muhlenberg. Anonymous so that they would feel comfortable asking something they might not want to attach their name to One student wrote: “can we bedazzle your bald head on the last day of class?”

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Jacqueline Antonovich @jackiantonovich.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

AS I WAS SAYING!

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Leah McElrath @leahmcelrath.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

AP Stylebook warns against anthropomorphizing AI systems: “Avoid language that gives them human characteristics… Instead, explain what a system does, how well it performs, who built it and who could be affected by it.”

APStylebook @APStylebook
X.com
Artificial intelligence systems do not think, feel, want or understand. Avoid language that gives them human characteristics. This is called anthropomorphizing, when we ascribe human traits, emotions or behaviors to non-human things, such as animals or inanimate objects.
Instead, explain what a system does, how well it performs, who built it and who could be affected by it.

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Joshua Barsczewski @joshuabarsczewski.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

forgot to pack my lunch today so I had to brave the dining hall. Impossible to go into the dining hall at my SLAC without minimum 5 students wanting to talk. (Which, for the record, I love. But I'm hungry 😆)

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Joshua Barsczewski @joshuabarsczewski.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Exactly! What do they think I’m going to use to pay them? My $150 in royalties? Lol.

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Joshua Barsczewski @joshuabarsczewski.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Registered for an RSA institute seminar! Excited. I’ve never done one. And I’ve never been to Louisville even though I almost went there for grad school.

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D. A. Powell @dapowell.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

My favorite place to go is back to bed

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Joshua Barsczewski @joshuabarsczewski.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Giada de Laurentis dancing to "Bella Ciao" on Dancing With the Stars was not on my bingo card but 2026 is wildin

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Keith W. Mathias @kwmathias.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Shredding every "reason" NCTE gave to support its decision to de-charter CCCC, this is a clear call for writing studies to find a different path forward. Sign on and let's build the future of the field together.

theorganizationformerlyknownascccc.com

The Organization Formerly Known as CCCC

Visit the post for more.

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Joshua Barsczewski @joshuabarsczewski.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

whelp, this was a flop. Just got the proofs back and they are all horrible. I'm just going to be one of those professors whose headshots are 20 years out of date. (Note: I'm not especially insecure about how I look. I just don't think my hotness is photogenic. You gotta experience it in person)

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Clancy Ratliff @culturecat.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Some people in academia have impostor syndrome, but IMO the people who use generative AI in their research and writing really are impostors.

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Joshua Barsczewski @joshuabarsczewski.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Fall weather is here, so it’s time for my emotional support cardigan to make it reappearance

A lumpy, thick gray knitted cardigan hanging on a hanger

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Joshua Barsczewski @joshuabarsczewski.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

after MANY days of panicking about this assignment, I decided on "Heads Will Roll" by Yeah Yeah Yeahs. The assignment asked for a fall playlist song and that's a perfect spooky season song that's not a novelty piece

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Dmitry Grozoubinski @explaintrade.com · 22/09/2026

Me, when my plate is empty but partner still has fries left.

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Joshua Barsczewski @joshuabarsczewski.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Happy birthday to Stephen King, my proof to students that no matter how talented, successful, and powerful you are, your writing would benefit from a good editor.

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Joshua Barsczewski @joshuabarsczewski.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

A reporter at our student newspaper asked me to name a song I think all Muhlenberg students should listen to. And suddenly, I can’t think of a single song I have listened to ever.

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