iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Sasha Gusev @sashagusevposts.bsky.social · 16h

An ASHG planner that doesn't suck (Claude): sashagusev.github.io/ashg-2026-pl...

Sasha Gusev @sashagusevposts.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

A searchable mapping between NIH study sections and program officers that doesn't suck. (Claude one-shot) sashagusev.github.io/po-study-sec...

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Sasha Gusev @sashagusevposts.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Yeah it's just making permanent markdowns and csvs in a subdirectory of the project. You can edit them however you like.

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Sasha Gusev @sashagusevposts.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Claude made me an app to keep track of exploratory tasks on agentic projects (which quickly get out of control in the session). Point an agent at the workspace/prompt and it will populate tasks as it goes. Everything is recorded in markdowns/csvs. Code: github.com/sashagusev/f...

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Reposted by Sasha Gusev

Aylwyn Scally @aylwyn-scally.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

This is a thoughtful piece by @ent3c.bsky.social, articulating a view of hereditarianism that I think is shared by many in anthropology, psychology & elsewhere. It's also one that I, as a geneticist working on human evolution, fundamentally disagree with. ericturkheimer.substack.com/p/the-cofnas...

ericturkheimer.substack.com

The Cofnas Manifesto

The social consequences of hereditarianism

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Sasha Gusev @sashagusevposts.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

If the university said "Cofnas has made new, illegal statements and so we are forced to suspend him" they would at least be on a solid legal foundation. But they instead issued a vague set of grievances related to his funding, his use of the university name, etc. that read plainly like retaliation.

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Sasha Gusev @sashagusevposts.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

With respect to Belgium/UGent specifically, I think it is important context that the university hired Cofnas while his writing on race was easily available and did not raise any legal issues at the time (and, in fact, repeatedly assured his freedom of expression).

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Sasha Gusev @sashagusevposts.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

In general, I think the American left should advocate more strongly for 1A and labor protections related to speech. That means advocating on principles that do apply to other countries (though it is not a political *priority*, nor strategic, to try to change the speech laws of other countries).

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Sasha Gusev @sashagusevposts.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Yes, human subjects research is a somewhat different beast because it involves interventions/interactions with others as part of the research. But IMO this is the exception rather than the norm.

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Sasha Gusev @sashagusevposts.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

I also think "blatant infringement" can be easily abused. For instance, we've already seen attempts to use accusations of negationism/denial to restrict speech that is broadly critical of Israel. I could also easily see this administration arguing that affinity groups promote segregation, etc.

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Sasha Gusev @sashagusevposts.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

The sentiment I'm getting from the QT is that upholding standards of academic freedom does not / will not protect fields of study associated with the left. I think that's false, the law has been extremely useful even for progressive causes.

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Sasha Gusev @sashagusevposts.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

I would actually like to see broader labor protection for outside speech in most professions, not just academia. But I do think academia is unique in its focus on open discourse/discussion and so speech protection is unusually important.

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Sasha Gusev @sashagusevposts.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

If US institutions could fire you for offensive outside speech then more left/liberal academics would be fired with no legal recourse.

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Sasha Gusev @sashagusevposts.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

These grant terminations were ultimately overturned in the courts, which is why I think it is important to keep supporting these laws and principles.

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Sasha Gusev @sashagusevposts.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

It is good to keep in mind that Trump & co's attacks on these disciplines have faced their biggest challenge in courts, typically on 1st amendment, academic freedom, and labor law grounds (see examples below). So I would like to see the left move towards, not away, from defending such principles.

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Sasha Gusev @sashagusevposts.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

I don't think it's worth trying to adjudicate whether someone is or is not in a field. The appropriate response is for geneticists to say "this guy has contributed no original research, and he makes claims that are inaccurate at a very basic level, there's no reason to listen to him".

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Sasha Gusev @sashagusevposts.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

I think it's clearly true that if US institutions had the same policies as UGent, then more left/liberal academics would be terminated without recourse in the current climate

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Sasha Gusev @sashagusevposts.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Other countries are entitled to their norms, but I will still disagree with them.

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Sasha Gusev @sashagusevposts.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

I agree that being racist shouldn't be a Get Out Of Jail Free card, but issue here is that he (arguably) broke the rules while exposing academic misconduct, and that *does* mean the university needs to tread carefully.

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Sasha Gusev @sashagusevposts.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

I continue to think that saying "this guy's racist views have no scientific basis" is more effective than saying "this guy was fired for his racist personal views" and the latter interferes with the former.

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Sasha Gusev @sashagusevposts.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

No, because he's being booted by admins at a time that is clearly a PR mess for the university and just after he exposed genuine fraud (for obviously motivated reasons)

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Sasha Gusev @sashagusevposts.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

I think you can actually do quite a lot with labor protections (and there are now many examples of liberal US academics successfully suing their institutions for 1A violations related to e.g. Israel-Palestine or Charlie Kirk)

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Sasha Gusev @sashagusevposts.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

I don't think this is about hindering him. If Cofnas wasn't at UGent he would be at some made up institute publishing in Mankind Quarterly and DM'ing it to Elon Musk for re-tweets. I think this is about reiterating to the public that his views have no credible scientific support.

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Sasha Gusev @sashagusevposts.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

And they are literally turned in the screenshot, which is Cofnas arguing that academics he thinks are "pseudoscholars" should be fired and stripped of tenure.

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Sasha Gusev @sashagusevposts.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

... in part because the academic freedom aspect of this now makes it more complicated than it needs to be.

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Sasha Gusev @sashagusevposts.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

... "his university is suspending him for funding irregularities (oh and there's a widely signed open letter against that too)". I will also not that there is not exactly a deafening chorus of respected geneticists saying he's a complete pseudoscientist (though they have in the past) ...

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Sasha Gusev @sashagusevposts.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

From a practical perspective, I think this also gives Cofnas exactly the attention that he is looking for and makes his claims harder to rebut. It would have been much more effective to say "XYZ respected geneticists think he's a complete pseudoscientist" than to say ...

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Sasha Gusev @sashagusevposts.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

:) don't worry about it, I've gotten pretty used to tuning out the venting. I agree the university is, indeed, in clean up mode, but the way to address that is to make clear prospective policies, not to try to come up with pretextual reasons to un-shit the bed.

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Sasha Gusev @sashagusevposts.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

3) Even with a clear code of ethics, Cofnas' statements about racial segregation came nearly two years ago and should have been investigated at the time or since. Investigating them now is clearly pre-textual because he is now bad for PR.

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Sasha Gusev @sashagusevposts.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

A couple things going on here: 1) A code of ethics that says you are entitled to express your opinion unless it is e.g. negationist is unethical. 2) A code of ethics that makes one statement about expression and then contradicts itself several sentences later is unenforceable.

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Sasha Gusev @sashagusevposts.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

The vile gutter racists will disseminate this work regardless of their affiliations. But a rebuttal from experts saying the work is garbage is more effective than a letter from the university saying he is fired for funding irregularities.

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Sasha Gusev @sashagusevposts.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

It's more like the rule book says: "you can eat anything you want", and then later on says "freedom to consume is not unlimited ..."

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Sasha Gusev @sashagusevposts.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Yes, the full passage contradicts itself if the bullet points are intended to supersede the right to a personal opinion.

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Sasha Gusev @sashagusevposts.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

This is what I'm referring to. If the code is internally contradictory, then it should be clarified.

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Sasha Gusev @sashagusevposts.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Thanks. Disagreement is good, though, and it's not hard to tune out people venting.

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Sasha Gusev @sashagusevposts.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

The code of ethics also states that everyone has the freedom to express their personal opinions. If there is confusion about Cofnas' outside speech, the university can simply issue a clarifying statement that he speaks for himself (or ask him to do so).

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Sasha Gusev @sashagusevposts.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

I think the university needs more evidence for suspension than an off-hand remark about one's research in a podcast, especially for a part-time FTE and blog writing that is clearly not affiliated with the university.

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Sasha Gusev @sashagusevposts.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

I see people mirroring Cofnas' own argument against academic freedom, and I disagree with it.

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Sasha Gusev @sashagusevposts.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

That's correct, quality evaluations are done by the academic faculty at specific milestones.

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Sasha Gusev @sashagusevposts.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

No, these decisions are made by faculty and scientific peers and then, once hired, there are contractual expectations of research freedom.

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Sasha Gusev @sashagusevposts.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

I think what you're describing would be illegal.

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Sasha Gusev @sashagusevposts.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

I think the quoted section is fairly representative of many arguments I've seen online and also UGent's letter does not meet the standards for suspension I outline in the thread.

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Sasha Gusev @sashagusevposts.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

I've read his suspension letter and it does not present credible evidence that justifies suspension.

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