iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Alex Kale @kalealex.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Becoming a “clout chasing professionalized neurotic” 😅😂

Reposted by Alex Kale

Danyel Fisher @danyelf.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I combined my love of #datavis with a different passion -- the rich text of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh. The Torahmap places every verse of the Tanakh in a fixed spatial position, then plots overlays over it. You can play with it at torahmap.org

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Alex Kale @kalealex.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I would be embarrassed to push a piece of software that lied to and defamed its users like this.

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Alex Kale @kalealex.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

This year looks like it will be awesome! How about those session names though? lol

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Alex Kale @kalealex.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

We love data physicalization protest art. Also, this is really bleak 😞

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Alex Kale @kalealex.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

What AI scales about science are the parts that are most broken and gameable. With the exception of combinatorial problems like protein folding, we need more thinking and less rote computation.

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Alex Kale @kalealex.bsky.social · 23/10/2025

This paper is being honored with a Best Short Paper Award at IEEE VIS 2025! I'm truly grateful for the recognition and looking forward to discussing this work at the conference. #ieeevis

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Alex Kale @kalealex.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

I'm extremely excited to share this new paper out of the Data Cognition Lab! In it @krisha-mehta.bsky.social, Gordon Kindlmann, and I reframe visualization as a mechanism for data disclosure and develop a vocabulary for how visualization design induces loss on underlying data signals.

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Reposted by Alex Kale

Katie Sandlin @kmsandlin.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

Today, along with 2,000 other NIH employees, I had to clear out my office 😭 It was truly the honor of my life to work with such incredibly passionate people focused on improving human health. I’ve never experienced a more positive culture where *everyone* cared about their job and serving others.

Office desk without any personal items or decor

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Alex Kale @kalealex.bsky.social · 07/02/2025

I wish more HCI research was this careful about measurement. If we do turn the corner, I think we’re gonna find out that a lot of our study results don’t mean what the authors originally said they meant.

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Alex Kale @kalealex.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

Thanks to the wonderful folks at @dsi-uchicago.bsky.social for making this video!

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Reposted by Alex Kale

Mark Riedl @markriedl.bsky.social · 05/02/2025

What tech company will be the first to stand up and say that gutting the NSF is bad actually? The economic argument seems pretty clear Less NSF --> fewer PhD students --> fewer researchers --> smaller AI tech pipeline --> slower progress --> less competitive globally

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Alex Kale @kalealex.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

Most of your life won’t go as planned. Stop placing your happiness, health, and self-actualization on the horizon.

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Alex Kale @kalealex.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

“The executive orders make it quite clear that certain DEI activities are considered to violate current law, and we cannot fund anything that includes activities deemed unlawful.” Okay, but until a few weeks ago, promises about DEI were required. Idk how any of our grants survive this litmus test.

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Reposted by Alex Kale

Dr Craig R McClain @drcraigmc.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

Somewhere in the U.S., there’s a scientist staring at their NSF/NIH grant application wondering why they bother. This post is for you. Science and society both need you. Hang in there and know there is a whole community supporting you.

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Alex Kale @kalealex.bsky.social · 30/01/2025

A great thread if you’re into visualization for model interpretability and Bayesian stats!

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Alex Kale @kalealex.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

Anyone know how to turn off the AI assistance feature in Overleaf? I didn’t want this. I didn’t consent to this. I find the suggestions distracting in a way that basically makes the tool unusable for deep work. Am I alone in feeling this way?

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Alex Kale @kalealex.bsky.social · 28/01/2025

This is so upsetting. I have two grants out for review, basically my whole summer worth of effort scuttled. Multiply this by thousands of scientists whose time and ideas are being thrown away. It’s especially concerning for early career researchers whose futures depend on securing funding.

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Alex Kale @kalealex.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

I’m feeling for the researchers who are losing access to funding.

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Alex Kale @kalealex.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

“Universal fruitstuff magnitudes” is now a term of art

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Reposted by Alex Kale

Dan Goldstein @dggoldst.bsky.social · 11/01/2025

Professors, don't be mean to job candidates, they remember it the rest of their lives. Source: remembered it the rest of my life.

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Reposted by Alex Kale

Michael Friendly @datavisfriendly.bsky.social · 11/01/2025

📊 #dataviz #map Very cool interactive Voronoi diagram tessellation of the globe partitioned by nearest major airport www.jasondavies.com/maps/voronoi...

jasondavies.com

World Airports Voronoi

The major airports of the world and their closest regions.

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Reposted by Alex Kale

Berna Devezer @devezer.bsky.social · 03/01/2025

Just because I keep seeing the "replications show which effects are real" or "effects that didn't replicate once are flukes" heuristics repeatedly showing up on my TL today, I'm re-upping this thread. I beg everyone to please stop searching for quick and conclusive judgments on what's "true".

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Alex Kale @kalealex.bsky.social · 01/01/2025

The distinction @jessicahullman.bsky.social makes between 1st and 2nd order uncertainty is important to understanding prediction vs inference. Conditional predictive performance (1st order) can be checked, but whether we’ve learned the right distribution (2nd order) is what we need to generalize.

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Alex Kale @kalealex.bsky.social · 30/12/2024

How wrongheaded to think that “engagement” without communicative intent will keep actual people on a dying platform. Meta is phoning it in at this point. This bit about appealing to younger audiences is either wishful thinking or a blatant lie to assuage nervous investors.

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Reposted by Alex Kale

Joe Davies @joewdavies.bsky.social · 23/12/2024

Check out the earthquakes over the past year with this interactive globe: observablehq.com/@joewdavies/... You can toggle between country borders and tectonic plates. I quite like being able to gauge the depth of them. #earthquakes #seismology #cartography #globe #dataviz

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Reposted by Alex Kale

Mark Rubin @markrubin.bsky.social · 18/12/2024

“Where are the findings? You only provide quotes.” New article considers qualitative researchers’ experiences of methodologically incongruent peer review feedback Open Access: dx.doi.org/10.1037/qup0... Few quotes follow 🧵

Although peer review is one of the central pillars of academic publishing, qualitative researchers’ experiences of this process have been largely overlooked. Existing research and commentary have focused on peer reviewers’ comments on qualitative articles, which are often described as indicative of a quantitative mindset or hostility to nonpositivist qualitative research. We extend this literature by focusing on qualitative researchers’ experiences of methodologically incongruent reviewer and editor comments—comments that are incommensurate with the conceptual foundations of the reviewed research. Qualitative researchers (N = 163) from a range of health and social science disciplines, including psychology, responded to a brief qualitative survey. Most contributors reported that peer reviewers and editors universalized the assumptions and expectations of postpositivist research and reporting. Some also reported that peer reviewers and editors universalized the norms and values particular to specific qualitative approaches. Contributors were concerned that peer reviewers often accept review invitations when they lack relevant methodological expertise and editors often select peer reviewers without such expertise. In response to methodologically incongruent comments, many contributors described a process of initially “pushing back” and explaining why these comments were incongruent with their research. When this educative approach was unsuccessful, some knowingly compromised the methodological integrity of their research and acquiesced to reviewer and editor requests. Earlier career researchers especially highlighted the powerlessness they felt in the peer review process in the context of a “publish or perish” academic climate. We end by outlining contributors’ recommendations for improving the methodological integrity of the peer review of qualitative research.

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Alex Kale @kalealex.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

This guy chased me off of the psych methods Facebook group about 10 years ago. I’m not surprised to hear others had issues with him. You really don’t want to be remembered by your colleagues primarily for verbal abuse. What an unfortunate way to live.

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Reposted by Alex Kale

Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 12/12/2024

Writing is thinking. It’s not a part of the process that can be skipped; it’s the entire point.

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Alex Kale @kalealex.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

I imagine this is how most statistical consulting turns out. There’s only so much you can do with “garbage in.”

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Alex Kale @kalealex.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

Super cool way to move between aggregate and discrete distributional representations! Reminds me of Steve Drucker’s work.

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Alex Kale @kalealex.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

My colleague Rana Hanocka does exciting work on the frontier for 3D graphics and AI/ML, and she’s recruiting PhD students this cycle!

Tweet advertising that Rana Hanocka at UChicago CS is recruiting PhD students.

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Alex Kale @kalealex.bsky.social · 08/12/2024

Has anyone written about the privacy externalities of the decision to use a service like 23andMe? Users are sharing data not only about their own genome but also anyone related to them. This seems a little tricky from the perspective of consent and data governance 🤔

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Alex Kale @kalealex.bsky.social · 08/12/2024

I’m on a real Paramore kick right now 🎸

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Reposted by Alex Kale

Anton Strezhnev @astrezh.bsky.social · 07/12/2024

UChicago also probably inflated by MAs here. The Chetty et. al. results for undergrad admissions show much less preference for top 1% parental income.

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Alex Kale @kalealex.bsky.social · 07/12/2024

This panel today was great! It’s nice to have candid conversations with students about growing as a researcher. Thanks to @tengshanyuan.info and @krisha-mehta.bsky.social for organizing!

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Alex Kale @kalealex.bsky.social · 06/12/2024

I already weighed in, but do others have recommendations?

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Alex Kale @kalealex.bsky.social · 29/11/2024

Please volunteer for the VIS 2025 PC!

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Reposted by Alex Kale

Berna Devezer @devezer.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

I don't agree that the second option is the solution unless we correctly diagnose what the problem is. Replicability is a red herring. We can fix that artificially without making any real progress toward better knowledge/explanations/understanding. You can have very robust false results.

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Alex Kale @kalealex.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

I am recruiting a postdoc! The research emphasis is participatory design for decision-making interfaces. Check out the two project descriptions on my website. people.cs.uchicago.edu/~kalea/prosp... The position is through UChicago’s Data Science Institute. datascience.uchicago.edu/research/pos...

people.cs.uchicago.edu

DCL

These are active projects in the lab where we are seeking to recruit help.

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Alex Kale @kalealex.bsky.social · 17/11/2024

My best friend put out an album this weekend after at 10+ year hiatus. It’s a vulnerable and beautiful account of breaking through self-doubt, social isolation, and alcohol abuse. Give it a listen if you like indie and R&B, or if you’re longing for something hopeful open.spotify.com/album/7c6kRv...

open.spotify.com

Silhouette

Pom's Cafe · Album · 2024 · 11 songs

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Reposted by Alex Kale

Berna Devezer @devezer.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

A statement I made in the talk, with a hat tip to a well known quote/title: The Difference Between Reproducible and Not Reproducible is not Itself Reproducible. I'd like to think Gelman and Stern wouldn't mind the rephrasing

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Reposted by Alex Kale

Rafe Meager (they/them) @economeager.bsky.social · 09/11/2024

cope with uncertainty by becoming one with uncertainty 🌟

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Reposted by Alex Kale

Matthew Kay @mjskay.com · 08/11/2024

I like this way of presenting ordinal data! I think people are sometimes too quick to use stacked bar charts for ordinal data when histograms can be simpler and easier to read #datavis #rstats

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