John Gallagher
@johnrgallagher.bsky.social
Using qualitative & computational methods to study writers on the internet. I study how machine learning experts communicate. I study the interaction between writers & audiences. Professor @ University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign
For the last 36 years, since I was a young child, I have owned these Christmas houses. This evening, we noticed a TREMENDOUS spelling error on the side of the house.
December 22, 2025 at 1:40 AM
For the last 36 years, since I was a young child, I have owned these Christmas houses. This evening, we noticed a TREMENDOUS spelling error on the side of the house.
I have a silly academic question: I have noticed people citing my blog in scholarship (awesome). I tried adding my blog posts to google scholar but they aren’t showing up as indexed. Does anyone have experience with blogs and their Google scholar profile?
December 21, 2025 at 1:22 PM
I have a silly academic question: I have noticed people citing my blog in scholarship (awesome). I tried adding my blog posts to google scholar but they aren’t showing up as indexed. Does anyone have experience with blogs and their Google scholar profile?
I regularly have dinner with an electrical engineer (family member) who designs wafers to put more transistors on. He is in his late 70s, loves his job. That kind of technical expertise is inspiring.
December 20, 2025 at 11:21 PM
I regularly have dinner with an electrical engineer (family member) who designs wafers to put more transistors on. He is in his late 70s, loves his job. That kind of technical expertise is inspiring.
I ate 4.
Grades are in, no emails in inboxes. Kids are still in school for a few more hours.
*turns off computers*
*hums imperial march*
*opens box of chocolate covered pretzels*
*turns off computers*
*hums imperial march*
*opens box of chocolate covered pretzels*
December 20, 2025 at 1:18 PM
I ate 4.
That Texas tech surveillance is the ultimate big brother. a colleague texted me pictures of the forms they have to fill out.
December 20, 2025 at 12:59 AM
That Texas tech surveillance is the ultimate big brother. a colleague texted me pictures of the forms they have to fill out.
wubba lubba dub dub
December 20, 2025 at 12:58 AM
wubba lubba dub dub
Grades are in, no emails in inboxes. Kids are still in school for a few more hours.
*turns off computers*
*hums imperial march*
*opens box of chocolate covered pretzels*
*turns off computers*
*hums imperial march*
*opens box of chocolate covered pretzels*
December 19, 2025 at 5:53 PM
Grades are in, no emails in inboxes. Kids are still in school for a few more hours.
*turns off computers*
*hums imperial march*
*opens box of chocolate covered pretzels*
*turns off computers*
*hums imperial march*
*opens box of chocolate covered pretzels*
the AI hype (not specific to LLMs) is billionaire paranoia about living forever. Listen to Thiel talk. He is petrified of dying. Same with Musk.
"This promise of an AI future, is really just a collective anxiety that wealthy people have about how well they're gonna be able to control us in the future."
- @tressiemcphd.bsky.social with an absolute mic drop moment about AI bullshit.
Incredible words.
Listen to all of it!
- @tressiemcphd.bsky.social with an absolute mic drop moment about AI bullshit.
Incredible words.
Listen to all of it!
December 19, 2025 at 1:33 PM
the AI hype (not specific to LLMs) is billionaire paranoia about living forever. Listen to Thiel talk. He is petrified of dying. Same with Musk.
Today I learned that the school kids have a term for when some in class keeps interrupting and is causing problems: YouTube brain.
I’m telling you, I think social media is going is going to be very uncool for gen alpha.
I’m telling you, I think social media is going is going to be very uncool for gen alpha.
December 19, 2025 at 3:07 AM
Today I learned that the school kids have a term for when some in class keeps interrupting and is causing problems: YouTube brain.
I’m telling you, I think social media is going is going to be very uncool for gen alpha.
I’m telling you, I think social media is going is going to be very uncool for gen alpha.
Reposted by John Gallagher
almost to a student, they reported regular use of AI systems—even the students most loudly and vocally "anti" AI had carved out exceptions—to paint with too broad a brush, students saw their own use of AI as considered, moderate, & defensible while other people’s was lazy, dangerous, condemnable+
December 18, 2025 at 8:25 PM
almost to a student, they reported regular use of AI systems—even the students most loudly and vocally "anti" AI had carved out exceptions—to paint with too broad a brush, students saw their own use of AI as considered, moderate, & defensible while other people’s was lazy, dangerous, condemnable+
LLMs are creating too much code churn, not enough efficiencies.
December 18, 2025 at 9:15 PM
LLMs are creating too much code churn, not enough efficiencies.
I am sincerely, adamantly against GenAI use in K-12 schooling. Catastrophic for cognitive development.
I continue to think LLMs are absurdly powerful for learning, and I'm using them more often for it.
The problem is that a lot of people don't have solid metacognitive skills around epistemics and autodidactism.
You've got to have a handle on what you know, how you learn, and if you're learning.
The problem is that a lot of people don't have solid metacognitive skills around epistemics and autodidactism.
You've got to have a handle on what you know, how you learn, and if you're learning.
December 18, 2025 at 1:06 PM
I am sincerely, adamantly against GenAI use in K-12 schooling. Catastrophic for cognitive development.
Reposted by John Gallagher
Overall, the usage of "reading" in literary studies articles in 2010s (74/1000 words) is 2x what it was in 1920s (34/1000).
Within "reading", the use of "[adjective] reading" in the 2010s is 1.4x in the 2010s (310 "reading"'s) what it was in 1920s (220).
Within "[adjective] reading" = quoted plot.
Within "reading", the use of "[adjective] reading" in the 2010s is 1.4x in the 2010s (310 "reading"'s) what it was in 1920s (220).
Within "[adjective] reading" = quoted plot.
![Title: History of "reading" in Anglophone literary studies, 1920-2020
X-axis: Publication decade of research articles across seven leading literary studies journals.
Y-axis: The relative usage of particular "[adjective] reading" in a given decade (moving average for clarity).
Labels: "Reading"'s highest usage decade as a ratio to its lowest-usage decade
Sources: Literary studies journal data from Andrew Goldstone and Ted Underwood, 'The Quiet Transformations of Literary Studies: What Thirteen Thousand Scholars Could Tell Us', New Literary History, 45.3 (2014). Journals included: PMLA, Critical Inquiry, New Literary History, ELH, Modern Language Review, Review of English Studies, Modern Philology. Data sourced from JSTOR Data for Research request.
Annotation:
"reading"
2010s (74 FPK)
= ~2.2x of 1920s and 1960s (34 FPK)](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:llsfba2zryavs4uunglknwie/bafkreib6pj4vlys5yzhr245qfb4eto6oepbwwou4tv4ldnz7fr2jmo3g7e@jpeg)
![Title: Part of speech distribution in "[word] reading" in Anglophone literary studies, 1920-2020X-axis: Publication decade of research articles across seven leading literary studies journals.Y-axis: The relative usage of particular "[part-of-speech] reading" in a given decade.Labels: Highest-usage decade as a ratio to its lowest-usage decadeSources: Literary studies journal data from Andrew Goldstone and Ted Underwood, 'The Quiet Transformations of Literary Studies: What Thirteen Thousand Scholars Could Tell Us', New Literary History, 45.3 (2014). Journals included: PMLA, Critical Inquiry, New Literary History, ELH, Modern Language Review, Review of English Studies, Modern Philology. Data sourced from JSTOR Data for Research request.Legend
Annotations on chart:"[article] reading"
(e.g. the reading, her reading, ...)
1920s (262/1000)
= ~2x of 2010s (133/1000)"[adjective] reading"
(e.g. correct reading, close reading, ...)
2010s (310/1000)
= ~1.4x of 1920s (220/1000)"[verb] reading"
(e.g. was reading, rejected reading, ...)
1960s (92/1000)
= ~1.9x of 1920s (49/1000)"[preposition] reading"
(e.g. of reading, in reading, ...)
2010s (206/1000)
= ~1.7x of 1920s (121/1000)](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:llsfba2zryavs4uunglknwie/bafkreicaiei65cr3pl5eg2yybcsc2ybbga6lrqiyfcmnsm4c2qonwrisui@jpeg)
December 18, 2025 at 12:43 PM
Overall, the usage of "reading" in literary studies articles in 2010s (74/1000 words) is 2x what it was in 1920s (34/1000).
Within "reading", the use of "[adjective] reading" in the 2010s is 1.4x in the 2010s (310 "reading"'s) what it was in 1920s (220).
Within "[adjective] reading" = quoted plot.
Within "reading", the use of "[adjective] reading" in the 2010s is 1.4x in the 2010s (310 "reading"'s) what it was in 1920s (220).
Within "[adjective] reading" = quoted plot.
It’s sad because the “history repeats itself” cycle is getting shorter
December 18, 2025 at 12:47 AM
It’s sad because the “history repeats itself” cycle is getting shorter
It’s 40 degrees today in my town, which is unremarkable unless you consider that is 50 degrees warmer than yesterday morning.
December 16, 2025 at 7:36 PM
It’s 40 degrees today in my town, which is unremarkable unless you consider that is 50 degrees warmer than yesterday morning.
Have you used anaconda navigator? taught with it? How does it hold up?
December 16, 2025 at 4:08 PM
Have you used anaconda navigator? taught with it? How does it hold up?
This story goes hard.
December 16, 2025 at 12:17 AM
This story goes hard.
Letter writing/admissions/final grades all in the same day.
*inhales chocolate covered pretzels*
*inhales chocolate covered pretzels*
December 15, 2025 at 11:44 PM
Letter writing/admissions/final grades all in the same day.
*inhales chocolate covered pretzels*
*inhales chocolate covered pretzels*
it’s like drinking salt water
Grading and googling hallucinated citations, as one does nowadays, and now that LLMs have been around for a while, I've discovered new horrors: hallucinated journals are now appearing in Google Scholar with dozens of citations bc so many people are citing these fake things
December 15, 2025 at 11:42 PM
it’s like drinking salt water
I yearn for the early 2000s place where peope had their own weird websites.
December 15, 2025 at 11:41 PM
I yearn for the early 2000s place where peope had their own weird websites.
Reposted by John Gallagher
Fantastic! A program that goes over your BibTeX file and adds DOI fields (and other fields). Works very well!
github.com/dlesbre/bibt...
github.com/dlesbre/bibt...
GitHub - dlesbre/bibtex-autocomplete: Python package to autocomplete bibtex bibliographies
Python package to autocomplete bibtex bibliographies - dlesbre/bibtex-autocomplete
github.com
December 15, 2025 at 7:31 AM
Fantastic! A program that goes over your BibTeX file and adds DOI fields (and other fields). Works very well!
github.com/dlesbre/bibt...
github.com/dlesbre/bibt...
I believe college students should learn calculus because it makes you think with a level of precision. I think students should take the introduction to physics and engineering. The point of college is to learn stuff, be challenged by that stuff. Maybe that makes a person a better worker, maybe not.
December 15, 2025 at 2:10 AM
I believe college students should learn calculus because it makes you think with a level of precision. I think students should take the introduction to physics and engineering. The point of college is to learn stuff, be challenged by that stuff. Maybe that makes a person a better worker, maybe not.
Reposted by John Gallagher
I agree that we don’t already know how to teach “AI literacy” well. But I also think literacy is too modest a goal. College students should graduate knowing how ML works; it’s liberal knowledge analogous to RNA or trig, not search-engine skills or Excel. And we do know how to teach it in that way.
Opinion | Stop Pretending You Know How to Teach AI
Colleges are racing to make students ‘fluent.’ One problem: No one knows what that means.
www.chronicle.com
December 14, 2025 at 4:05 PM
I agree that we don’t already know how to teach “AI literacy” well. But I also think literacy is too modest a goal. College students should graduate knowing how ML works; it’s liberal knowledge analogous to RNA or trig, not search-engine skills or Excel. And we do know how to teach it in that way.
There are at least three in my town, one is that weird burnt orange color.
I resent the one cyber truck that lives in chapel hill. I specifically live here because I have chosen what flavor of foolishness I will accept. People’s Republic needs to get on running this fool out to Cary.
December 15, 2025 at 12:23 AM
There are at least three in my town, one is that weird burnt orange color.