Nick Fleisher
@nickfleisher.bsky.social
Linguist at UW-Milwaukee. Syntax & semantics, higher ed, Wisconsin politics &c.
Pinned
okay, time for a prompt post to distract us all from the horrors. quote this post with your areas of expertise, interest, hyperfixation and/or obsession and invite your audience to ask you questions about them.
Grammar/syntax/semantics
Wisconsin politics
Academic freedom and shared governance
Philadelphia and Philadelphia sports
Modular synthesizers
Open source software
Stockholm, Sweden
All things Donald Fagen
Wisconsin politics
Academic freedom and shared governance
Philadelphia and Philadelphia sports
Modular synthesizers
Open source software
Stockholm, Sweden
All things Donald Fagen
Inspired by Anthology 4, some Bluesky holiday engagement bait: George Martin said that not including Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields on Sgt. Pepper was his greatest regret. Would definitely like to have that one back, as Troy Aikman might say. Where on the album would you put them?
November 26, 2025 at 2:49 AM
Inspired by Anthology 4, some Bluesky holiday engagement bait: George Martin said that not including Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields on Sgt. Pepper was his greatest regret. Would definitely like to have that one back, as Troy Aikman might say. Where on the album would you put them?
I think we are pretty cleared owed a Rian Johnson-directed Walter Becker biopic
If you were a despotic president, what movie would you force Hollywood to make? I want to see Quentin's Star Trek movie or maybe Kill Bill Vol 3.
November 26, 2025 at 2:24 AM
I think we are pretty cleared owed a Rian Johnson-directed Walter Becker biopic
The idea that the limitations of language-based AI models—relative to their purely business-driven hype—should somehow provide a line of attack on generative linguistics is maybe the most bitterly ironic development of my professional lifetime
Is language the same as intelligence? The AI industry desperately needs it to be
The AI boom is based on a fundamental mistake.
www.theverge.com
November 26, 2025 at 12:53 AM
The idea that the limitations of language-based AI models—relative to their purely business-driven hype—should somehow provide a line of attack on generative linguistics is maybe the most bitterly ironic development of my professional lifetime
Reposted by Nick Fleisher
I once asked a bookseller at a large indie store how many people would have to buy a book for it to get the attention of the store buyer and cause an additional order and they said: Three.
I see some book piracy discourse, and, to make a positive argument in favor of buying books, your marginal ability to influence what books get published and support the careers of writers you like is massive compared to most other forms of media.
November 25, 2025 at 11:07 PM
I once asked a bookseller at a large indie store how many people would have to buy a book for it to get the attention of the store buyer and cause an additional order and they said: Three.
"as ubiquitous and useful as Microsoft 365" is a very funny phrase
To bear out this rosy projection, HSBC assumes that OpenAI will become "as ubiquitous [...] as Microsoft 365" (345mm users worldwide) while bringing in 10x the number of users (3bn).
November 25, 2025 at 11:39 PM
"as ubiquitous and useful as Microsoft 365" is a very funny phrase
A pseudonymous snacks blog, call that Nom Nom Nom De Plume
November 25, 2025 at 11:15 PM
A pseudonymous snacks blog, call that Nom Nom Nom De Plume
I am no expert here but it seems like you need a *lot* of internal dissension and infighting to produce leaks on the level of the Witkoff thing
November 25, 2025 at 10:37 PM
I am no expert here but it seems like you need a *lot* of internal dissension and infighting to produce leaks on the level of the Witkoff thing
Fun fact: Ziegler won her current 10-year term on the court running unopposed for reelection in spring 2017, at the height of Trump 1 backlash, when literally any opponent would have beaten her by double digits
Question about the dissent by (the far-right) Justice Ziegler: Does this quote actually appear in Moore v. Harper? Did Moore say that state courts' role in congressional redistricting is "exceedingly limited"? I don't think it did! vhdshf2oms2wcnsvk7sdv3so.blob.core.windows.net/thearp-media...
November 25, 2025 at 9:23 PM
Fun fact: Ziegler won her current 10-year term on the court running unopposed for reelection in spring 2017, at the height of Trump 1 backlash, when literally any opponent would have beaten her by double digits
CBS News aka Chilmark Library Reject Bin
"elevate charismatic figures such as Alan Dershowitz"
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November 25, 2025 at 4:49 PM
CBS News aka Chilmark Library Reject Bin
Reposted by Nick Fleisher
First Secretary of Defense you could defeat by painting a tunnel on the side of a boulder.
November 25, 2025 at 1:55 PM
First Secretary of Defense you could defeat by painting a tunnel on the side of a boulder.
Of all the explanations for why Pete Hegseth would perceive things being in reverse order, them actually being in reverse order is like the least plausible one
November 25, 2025 at 2:34 PM
Of all the explanations for why Pete Hegseth would perceive things being in reverse order, them actually being in reverse order is like the least plausible one
Reposted by Nick Fleisher
The real generational divide is people who refuse to watch a video if it could be an article versus people who refuse to read an article if it could be a video
September 29, 2025 at 1:45 PM
The real generational divide is people who refuse to watch a video if it could be an article versus people who refuse to read an article if it could be a video
Reposted by Nick Fleisher
Google at its peak was basically the best information retrieval system in human history and they and every competitor decided going from there to “you didn’t want answers you wanted half-assed auto-complete 80%-wrong hallucinations” in a few years was the right idea
November 25, 2025 at 1:57 AM
Google at its peak was basically the best information retrieval system in human history and they and every competitor decided going from there to “you didn’t want answers you wanted half-assed auto-complete 80%-wrong hallucinations” in a few years was the right idea
Please wear your suit and bowler hat when queuing at the Southwest stanchion
Sean Duffy puts the peasant serfs on notice: "A pair of jeans, a decent shirt, dress a little better, which encourages us all to behave better, let's not wear slippers and pajamas at the airport."
November 25, 2025 at 12:42 AM
Please wear your suit and bowler hat when queuing at the Southwest stanchion
Reposted by Nick Fleisher
I will add the following: our students lack the research skills required to audit an LLM essay for errors. They don’t arrive on campus with these skills; we teach it to them over four long years. So throwing freshmen in the deep end and saying “swim your way to a shore of rectitude” is folly.
November 24, 2025 at 1:23 PM
I will add the following: our students lack the research skills required to audit an LLM essay for errors. They don’t arrive on campus with these skills; we teach it to them over four long years. So throwing freshmen in the deep end and saying “swim your way to a shore of rectitude” is folly.
Reposted by Nick Fleisher
My controversial take about Solo is that Donald Glover should have played Han, not Lando
November 24, 2025 at 9:53 PM
My controversial take about Solo is that Donald Glover should have played Han, not Lando
Kelly et al. made no allegation that any presidential order was unlawful. They just didn't. There's no there there.
Pete Hegseth, on the other hand, appears to be very afraid for his own job.
Pete Hegseth, on the other hand, appears to be very afraid for his own job.
Utterly ludicrous framing from @nytimes.com here, treating Pete Hegseth's arguments as if they're legitimate. The casual reader will be left with no inkling whatsoever of how unusual and corrupt an abuse of the process this truly is:
November 24, 2025 at 9:50 PM
Kelly et al. made no allegation that any presidential order was unlawful. They just didn't. There's no there there.
Pete Hegseth, on the other hand, appears to be very afraid for his own job.
Pete Hegseth, on the other hand, appears to be very afraid for his own job.
Reposted by Nick Fleisher
Congrats, Rand Paul, you’ve invented health insurance companies.
Rand Paul: "What is the Republican plan for healthcare? My plan would allow for people to buy their insurance through a collective. Basically to buy their insurance through Costco or Sam's Club or Amazon."
November 24, 2025 at 9:22 PM
Congrats, Rand Paul, you’ve invented health insurance companies.
My controversial (for this site) Star Wars opinions are that I like The Force Awakens and I think The Last Jedi is overrated. Less controversially: any list that doesn't put all three prequels at the bottom is doing it wrong
haven’t seen ROS or Solo but this seems like a pretty ball-knowing list from Pritzker, particularly if he volunteered the name “Star Wars” rather than “A New Hope”
November 24, 2025 at 9:41 PM
My controversial (for this site) Star Wars opinions are that I like The Force Awakens and I think The Last Jedi is overrated. Less controversially: any list that doesn't put all three prequels at the bottom is doing it wrong
Quintessential bad Eagles game
November 24, 2025 at 12:52 AM
Quintessential bad Eagles game
Reposted by Nick Fleisher
It’s blowing my mind that schools, universities, public services would run headlong into this. We spent 15 years documenting black boxes. This is a black box in a black hole!
I don't understand how anyone can watch how blatantly Grok is manipulated to answer the way ownership desires it to and then act like the other LLM chatbots couldn't possibly be similarly but less obviously compromised to produce responses in whatever way corporate interests and priorities dictate.
November 23, 2025 at 11:16 PM
It’s blowing my mind that schools, universities, public services would run headlong into this. We spent 15 years documenting black boxes. This is a black box in a black hole!
"a comedy of mistakes" —Tom Brady
November 23, 2025 at 10:46 PM
"a comedy of mistakes" —Tom Brady
Public university administrators and trustees with half a brain will be the ones who work to safeguard their inherited, irreplaceable humanities infrastructure while the AI wave washes over and just as quickly recedes
My hot take is that over the next 10 years, we're going to see more emphasis on and investment in the humanities at Ivy League and other fancy schools just as state schools and small privates continue to decimate and even eliminate the humanities.
"While other universities report that the humanities are shrinking, at Berkeley, the opposite is true. The music major is the fastest-growing major on campus. We are finding bigger classrooms because film is exploding. English is back to the numbers we saw 15 years ago. We are hiring" bit.ly/4ohKuOe
November 23, 2025 at 5:40 PM
Public university administrators and trustees with half a brain will be the ones who work to safeguard their inherited, irreplaceable humanities infrastructure while the AI wave washes over and just as quickly recedes
Many happily overrepresented groups on this site but perhaps none more so, proportionally speaking, than "former Dwinelle Hall graduate student"
November 23, 2025 at 4:41 PM
Many happily overrepresented groups on this site but perhaps none more so, proportionally speaking, than "former Dwinelle Hall graduate student"