Connor Leshner
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leshner.bsky.social
Connor Leshner
@leshner.bsky.social
PhD candidate. #socialpsyc. Digital identity. Student at Trent University, and explicitly not endorsed by it. Pfp by Yan nucleose.bsky.social. he/him
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For any academics following me, here’s some of my research. Focusing primarily on human-computer interaction and the interpersonal relationships contained therein.

scholar.google.com/citations?hl...
Connor Leshner
‪Trent University‬ - ‪‪Cited by 67‬‬ - ‪Close Relationships‬ - ‪Virtual Reality‬ - ‪Self and Identity‬ - ‪Cosplay‬
scholar.google.com
Oh no I accidentally gave myself existentialism by playing and reading the wrong combination of video game and book, respectively.
January 4, 2026 at 6:13 AM
www.nytimes.com/live/2025/12...

Is it me or does this all just read like bad time travel fiction
Live Updates: Suspect in Brown University Shooting Is Found Dead in New Hampshire
www.nytimes.com
December 19, 2025 at 5:02 AM
I just received a review that was really really mean but had a great info in it about how to improve my paper. It’s really hard to keep going back to that review to pull the important insights when I have to read between the lines. It’s an interesting dichotomy that academia can be so (un)helpful.
December 15, 2025 at 4:59 PM
Got a paper reject where reviewer 1 said I overlooked a chapter in a handbook I should’ve included, and when I went to get the book from my uni library, the librarian told me not a single library in the entirety of Canada has this ($200) book. Kinda betrays anonymity/definition of expertise.
December 11, 2025 at 8:18 PM
Reposted by Connor Leshner
Every academic conference in the US is now fucked-fucked, lol.
This is INSANE www.nytimes.com/2025/12/09/t...

and these are our closest allies!
December 10, 2025 at 2:38 AM
November 8, 2025 at 3:23 AM
I follow some conservatives who do polling and data analysis because I’m fascinated with how they interpret their numbers and the only thing more fascinating than their policy positions is how all the data interpretations they use to justify their positions are wrong.
November 8, 2025 at 2:43 AM
Financial decision of “video game where the main selling point is ‘player makes decisions’ is now immutable tv show” shows how amazing the media market is at this time.
BioWare shares details on the live-action ‘Mass Effect’ series at Amazon

• Will be an original story

• Takes place after the game trilogy

• Now being written
November 7, 2025 at 5:36 PM
Reposted by Connor Leshner
I spoke extensively with the Crimson reporter. She understood the strength of the evidence, and it shows.

Odds ratios can be eye-glazing, but let's just say that when 2.5 million kids are studied, and it's still not possible to detect added risk from taking acetaminophen...there's no added risk.
September 25, 2025 at 2:51 AM
Reposted by Connor Leshner
The eye exam is the perfect game design. That big E is a great tutorial that teaches you the basic mechanic. But it doesn't baby you and quickly gets hard as they introduce the small and blurry enemies.
September 7, 2025 at 7:12 PM
Why, because it’s lame and overwritten?
This is some PhD level trolling
August 23, 2025 at 2:22 PM
Reposted by Connor Leshner
When the dust settles, and if universities have meaningfully survived, it will be worth asking how institutions usually so resistant to thoroughgoing change chose to leap with both feet into an untested technology they didn't understand and didn't know how to use.
Universities doubling down as public sentiment shifts away from dependence upon AI. This is the problem with the buy-in.
The University of Michigan is now claiming that students have an ‘ethical responsibility’ to use AI.
August 21, 2025 at 6:51 AM
Does anyone know how to use index match in excel
July 17, 2025 at 5:26 PM
The creation of Adam
July 15, 2025 at 10:38 PM
Reposted by Connor Leshner
I get this question a lot. I don't have strong views on how transmasc people should dress, but since I often get the question, I've thought about it a bit. Will share some thoughts in this thread. 🧵
May 20, 2025 at 11:49 PM
Reposted by Connor Leshner
Really incredible story unraveling in this thread, where Amazon and other sites have seemingly been able to sell an academic textbook that was withdrawn in 2021 and never actually printed or published, without the knowledge of the press, editors or contributors. Something has gone deeply wrong!
Hi Chloe,
This is news to me (and to my editor at Routledge.) I'm shocked to find this out. I assume that this is somehow a pirated edition. Does it include the section on Neurodiversity? Part VIII?
May 12, 2025 at 9:17 PM
won sshrc :)
April 30, 2025 at 10:39 PM
Surely we’ll hear something from sshrc doctoral tomorrow… right???
April 29, 2025 at 9:53 PM
Reposted by Connor Leshner
hits a little different this morning
April 29, 2025 at 12:55 PM
Reposted by Connor Leshner
A key difference here is that while either can be incorrect, the structure of Wikipedia *creates context* and the structure of LLMs *destroys context*

Wikipedia has linked sources and an edit history showing where information came from and who added it when

An LLM just generates text
Some of the anti-AI stuff feels a bit like when people would say "don't use Wikipedia as a source." It's just like anything else, a piece of information that you weigh against multiple sources and your own understanding of its likely failure modes
April 26, 2025 at 6:39 PM
The next pope needs to reply to every email like Chomsky used to.
April 23, 2025 at 3:23 PM
The Wikipedia for papabile (candidates for the next pope) has betting odds for who will become the next pope on it. All I can say is JFC.
April 21, 2025 at 8:05 PM
Reposted by Connor Leshner
I’m sorry but if your students use AI to write papers and you use AI to grade them zero school is happening. You are running together on a hamster wheel
Why even have a brain, any ideas, any ability to express them, any kind of communication with other people, any desire to solve problems or invent anything, any reason to learn, any use for your eyes or your heart, or any reason to teach or create
April 15, 2025 at 12:15 AM
Reposted by Connor Leshner
+alt because this is A M A Z I N G
April 11, 2025 at 1:15 PM
This one is stressing me out.
March 31, 2025 at 4:04 PM