iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Professor Nutella

Professor Nutella @jpnudell.bsky.social · 5h

Notes on the grind of the semester, plus links about higher education, college, AI, and culture, and current events and what I'm reading, watching, and listening to. joshuapnudell.com/2026/10/04/w...

joshuapnudell.com

Weekly Varia no. 202, 10/04/26

Notes on the grind of the semester, plus links about higher education, college, AI, and culture, and current events and what I’m reading, watching, and listening to.

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Professor Nutella @jpnudell.bsky.social · 5h

Notes on the grind of the semester, plus links about higher education, college, AI, and culture, and current events and what I'm reading, watching, and listening to. joshuapnudell.com/2026/10/04/w...

joshuapnudell.com

Weekly Varia no. 202, 10/04/26

Notes on the grind of the semester, plus links about higher education, college, AI, and culture, and current events and what I’m reading, watching, and listening to.

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Reposted by Professor Nutella

Gwen C. Katz @gwenckatz.bsky.social · 09/02/2026

Great chance to post my all-time favorite headline

The Radium Water Worked Fine Until His Jaw Came Off

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Professor Nutella @jpnudell.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

I need a few weeks where my most taxing activities are browsing book shops, lingering in cafes, and taking in the odd museum or show. Hiking would also be acceptable.

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Andrew Tobolowsky @andytobo.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

As a descendant of Jewish immigrants this whole discourse has been so weird. You explicitly grow up with "work hard and get a good education so you don't have to break your body."

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Ted McCormick @tedmccormick.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

but my educated (no pun intended) guess is that pretty much every university administration is generating (pun intended) the same statements about putting genAI everywhere to prepare students for the future, making the same confused gurgling noises about its risks, and leaving the fallout to faculty

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Joel @sentantiq.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

the fundamental question I have had for these applications is how can LLM or statistical based methods support the "lectio difficilior?

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Professor Nutella @jpnudell.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Getting disappointing news about a possible publication sucks, always. This was the mildest possible rejection—I had two top choices for placement, chose between them based on one having a hard timeline, and was rejected based on fit—and the email still got my Friday morning off on the wrong foot.

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Eric Rauchway @rauchway.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

If our times have told us nothing else, it’s that the inability to understand a text is diagnostic of something

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Professor Nutella @jpnudell.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

I have gotten *a lot* of review requests from independent authors the last few weeks. Some admit using AI to "write" the book and the inquiry, some don't, but the all use the same pattern that makes me suspect AI publications that want to use human readers to launder their legitimacy.

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Professor Nutella @jpnudell.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Started reading Alan Nolan’s The Iron Brigade today, reliving my high school years with some US Civil War history. I’m struck by how many prominent people in the Wisconsin units were born in Vermont before moving west. Not unusual in this period, but notable.

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Denali @denali.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

"Austerity doesn’t work. Instead, it creates a death spiral, where reduction in services leads to reductions in revenue, which lead to reductions in services, which leads to reduction in revenue, which leads … you get the idea."

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Professor Nutella @jpnudell.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Historians should be specific about the idiocy of the past instead of quoting someone who thinks that future historians will not believe the stupidity of the present.

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Benjamin Dreyer @bcdreyer.social · 01/10/2026

For me, the act of writing is how I learn what I’m writing about. I don’t know why people want to outsource that.*

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Professor Nutella @jpnudell.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

William Rehnquist spent summers in Vermont before he died in 2005. He shopped at the grocery store where I worked in high school and told us to call him Bill. I can only imagine how someone with his political track record and profile would be received there today.

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George Pearkes @peark.es · 01/10/2026

The sort of world view that Hegseth stands for is an inherently unstable equilibrium, a doomed enterprise. It's unable to cope with what even modest levels of abstract reasoning built on basic education can pull off, let alone vastly more powerful social systems.

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Professor Nutella @jpnudell.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

A thought about rigor in education that is applicable more broadly: rather than lowering expectations because everyone is struggling to exist, we need to make it easier to just exist so that students are better able to tackle schoolwork with intellectual rigor.

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The Scamperbeasts @scamperbeasts.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Ask not for whom the Smudge lurks, he lurks for thee

Smudge at the top of the stairs, lurking, face only half visible

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Professor Nutella @jpnudell.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

A recap of my September in books, including a discussion of everything I read in the month. joshuapnudell.com/2026/10/01/s...

joshuapnudell.com

September Book Notes

A recap of my September in books, including a discussion of everything I read in the month.

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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Seriously, unless you're going to call me a "scientist" for helping my son with his class volcano project and call me a "physician" because I applied a band-aid successfully, please please PLEASE stop calling any random crank who shits out a book about the past a "historian"

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John Warner @biblioracle.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

This is a tremendous piece of writing and you could substitute the name of hundreds of institutions in the argument. Let's have the deep conversation about what these institutions are supposed to do, and who they're meant to serve. (Hint: everybody.)

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Professor Nutella @jpnudell.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

TFW the person hell-bent on radicalizing his department asserts lists radicals among the people he's driving from the department.

static.klipy.com

Princess Bride: You Keep Using That Word

Alt: Princess Bride: You Keep Using That Word

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Professor Nutella @jpnudell.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

New AI guidance for National History Day (laudatory).

What is NOT allowed:

Asking ChatGPT or other Gen AI platforms to brainstorm topic ideas
Using Gemini or other platforms to find potential sources, archives, or libraries
Creating text, images, videos, or audio for a project
Using Gen AI tools to revise or rewrite text
Requesting feedback from companion chatbots

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Andrew Riggsby @antiquethought.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

And here, in this glum days, is an actual tenure-track job in our department! careers.historians.org/jobs/rss/226...

careers.historians.org

One moment...

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Ted McCormick @tedmccormick.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

“solution in search of a problem” was meant to be a criticism, not an ethos

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Snitty 🎃 @clofsnitville.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Eric Schmitt's basketball fuckup yesterday is getting all the attention but I think it's really, really important to understand it in the context of the strategy and goals of the hearing as a whole, which was as clear an example as I can find of why the GOP is an existential threat to the Republic.

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Matt Gabriele @profgabriele.com · 30/09/2026

One of the results of killing reading and STEM-ing everything is that we should think and talk about death more

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Will Cooling @willcooling.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

This is undoubtedly true and I think a lot of companies have bet heavily on IP on the mistaken understanding that there are "forever" characters or acts, when they're subject to quite rapid decay.

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Jon Phillips @jowiph.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

One of the most underappreciated unforeseen consequences of the smartphone/streaming/social media era is the elimination of boredom as a key driver of creativity. Without boredom, there just isn't enough impetus for most people do go out and learn and do things.

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Professor Nutella @jpnudell.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Nothing terribly subtle in my Speculative Fiction class today, just why being part of a community when crisis hits is good, actually, and then I return to a digital space where I can see a record of those bonds fraying in real time.

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Rebecca R Helm @rebeccarhelm.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

When I was a kid I wanted to study aliens. That desire has been satisfied 10x over by studying the past. Even more so because, unlike aliens, which are by definition *out there,* studying past life feels almost akin to a spiritual practice. These are, in a strange and surreal sense, our own history

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Professor Nutella @jpnudell.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I don't plan classes with the explicit purpose of critiquing tech billionaires, but I also don't let relevant moments pass without taking a jab. Like today, where the topic merited a discussion of their doomsday bunkers.

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Professor Nutella @jpnudell.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I loathe the push for speed and efficiency in history education. It's bad enough that the norm is you only need to be exposed to history once given that it is an iterative subject that rewards repeated exposure.

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Emile Chabal @emile-chabal.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Crisis, what crisis? www.the-tls.com/regular-feat...

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Professor Nutella @jpnudell.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Back when students had to submit papers in hard copy, how many of those files were titled "Untitled Document-2"? I have been thinking about my own experience with submitting papers in college while grading tonight and I honestly can't remember.

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Professor Nutella @jpnudell.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

New (to me) tofu preparation tonight: sliced, spiced like a gyro or Doner, and baked in oven. Served on flatbreads with a dill-greek yogurt sauce and veggies. Will definitely make again.

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Professor Nutella @jpnudell.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I wanted to see what the talking points were with Meta Muse, and, "Consumers who gave the AI access to banking and credit card statements found it to be a great budgeting coach, leading them to cancel unnecessary subscriptions." Oh. www.cnbc.com/2026/09/27/m...

cnbc.com

Meta's Muse agent is attacking one of the economy's most profitable weak spots

Meta's Muse AI personal agent will work over your credit card spending if you don't mind the invasion. How big a threat is it to the subscription economy?

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CyberOtters @cyberotters.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Every technology before 2020 or so was considered economic value positive: this tech will result in new avenues for jobs and growth. Since 2020 the messaging has been something like, "feed money into the maw of this emerging tech that produces nothing but will one day kill your job."

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Annie Abrams @annieabrams.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

the people looking for job training will either find more efficient means or distort the study of history beyond recognition

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Professor Nutella @jpnudell.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

There has to be some evidence that the way to cut through the noise created by all the emails we receive is to send a greater number of reminder emails, but I hate it. The more you send them, the more your reminder emails look like all the other spam. There has to be a better way.

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cmrn knzlmn @ckunzelman.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

If you are a graduate student in the humanities (construed as broadly as possible), what is the MOST EXCITING book published in the last five years to you? Please repost if you’re not a graduate student!

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Melissa Johnson, PhD @ladyhistorian.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Do we teach skills that are useful in the workplace? Fuck yes we do. Did I become a history professor because I'm passionate about vocational training? Fuck no i did not

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Melissa Johnson, PhD @ladyhistorian.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

This makes me think about all the ways online classes undermine our work. The idea that people can learn on their own is so pernicious. Education and learning are social activities! If they didn't need me, they wouldn't need college!

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Professor Nutella @jpnudell.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

This is one of the challenges in drawing students to humanities majors. Either the subjects are frivolous so why take them, or students are shocked that the teachers expect them to do work so they seek easier pathways that promise greater material rewards.

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David M. Perry @lollardfish.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I want to pull this out. For many students, graduating early is a problem, or at least a set of trade offs that aren’t discussed explicitly.

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Professor Nutella @jpnudell.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

A brief discussion of the Manhattan Short Film Festival, plus this week's roundup of links, essays, stories, and analysis, as well as what I'm watching, reading, and listening to. joshuapnudell.com/2026/09/27/w...

joshuapnudell.com

Weekly Varia no. 201, 09/27/26

A brief discussion of the Manhattan Short Film Festival, plus this week’s roundup of links, essays, stories, and analysis, as well as what I’m watching, reading, and listening to.

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Professor Nutella @jpnudell.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

joshuapnudell.com

Weekly Varia no. 201, 09/27/26

A brief discussion of the Manhattan Short Film Festival, plus this week’s roundup of links, essays, stories, and analysis, as well as what I’m watching, reading, and listening to.

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Reposted by Professor Nutella

Charlotte Canning @cmcanning.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I want actual research and evidence that a shortened time to degree has a positive impact on student development and preparation. So far the arguments seem to be students take too long so let’s just ask less of them. The argument seems to be it will be cheaper. Where is the data about what works?

thecollegeinvestor.com

Nearly 60 Colleges Are Now Pursuing 3-Year Bachelor's Degrees — Here's What's Driving the Movement

Nearly 60 colleges now offer or are developing 3-year bachelor’s degrees. Learn which schools, how the programs work, and what the tradeoffs are.

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Professor Nutella @jpnudell.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

The tech overlord type is more interesting as a cultural phenomenon and exploration of the cascading failures rippling through society than any of these guys are on their own.

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