Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Michael Maffie @maffie.bsky.social · 5d

"Every aspect of it seeks to dictate decisions that have traditionally been left to each university — a degree of control over higher education that is characteristic of authoritarian countries."

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/o...

Opinion | Trump’s ‘Compact’ With Universities Is Just Extortion

www.nytimes.com

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Michael Maffie @maffie.bsky.social · Sep 4

For example, making a digital platform increasingly awful for gig workers.

#labor

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

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Michael Maffie @maffie.bsky.social · Sep 4

My lab is crowdsourcing journal review times to increase transparency in academic publishing. If this journal is on Manuscript Central, would you upload it to the Coauthor project website? coauthor.fly.dev Thanks!

Coauthor

Web site created using Vite

coauthor.fly.dev

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Michael Maffie @maffie.bsky.social · Aug 25

Opening day! Here we go, Big Red!
@scjohnsoncollege.bsky.social

A statue of Touchdown the bear, Cornell University’s mascot, wearing a red scarf.

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Michael Maffie @maffie.bsky.social · Aug 24

I think this is right. Tech elites have largely insulated themselves from the economic consequences of their actions. Yet they are deeply bothered by social pressure, criticism, or isolation. So they use money to shape culture (eg influence elections, buy social media platforms, etc.).

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Michael Maffie @maffie.bsky.social · Aug 14

My lab built the Coauthor plugin to help people make informed decisions about how long they will wait for a manuscript decision.

Would you be willing to upload your manuscript data from this journal?

coauthor.fly.dev

Coauthor

Web site created using Vite

coauthor.fly.dev

Michael Maffie @maffie.bsky.social · Aug 13

I agree this is an important issue -- and the Coauthor dashboard will soon display the average number of rounds before a paper is accepted.

If you have suggestions for other metrics that may be useful, let me know. We are always looking for new ways to improve the dashboard.

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Michael Maffie @maffie.bsky.social · Aug 13

Thanks!

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Reposted by Michael Maffie

Joshua Goodman @joshua-goodman.com · Aug 13

Promising way to crowdsource data on academic journal decision timelines. I'm uploading my data. You can too!

Michael Maffie @maffie.bsky.social · Aug 13

Stories like this are why my lab started the Coauthor Project. If this was a manuscript central submission, can you upload it to the dashboard?

coauthor.fly.dev

Coauthor

Web site created using Vite

coauthor.fly.dev

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Michael Maffie @maffie.bsky.social · Aug 13

Stories like this are why my lab started the Coauthor Project. If this was a manuscript central submission, can you upload it to the dashboard?

coauthor.fly.dev

Coauthor

Web site created using Vite

coauthor.fly.dev

1 2 6

Michael Maffie @maffie.bsky.social · Aug 6

My memory on this is a bit fuzzy, I remember hearing that today, independent voters are more likely to vote for the same party in consecutive elections than those who identified with a party 40-ish years ago.

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Reposted by Michael Maffie

Michael Maffie @maffie.bsky.social · Aug 5

🚨 I’m excited to announce that, “The Enshittification of Work: Platform Decay and Labour Conditions in the Gig Economy” is now available online !

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

The Enshittification of Work: Platform Decay and Labour Conditions in the Gig Economy

This study investigates the mechanisms by which gig platforms degrade labour conditions over time, building on the concept of platform decay, or ‘enshittification’, initially developed in the context...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

8 18

Reposted by Michael Maffie

Niels van Doorn @nielsvdoorn.bsky.social · Aug 5

This is an important “long view” contribution to the gig economy/platform work scholarship. Congrats @maffie.bsky.social!

I recognize many of the decay/degradation mechanisms you describe. They’re why so many seasoned gig workers have left these platforms, when possible.

Michael Maffie @maffie.bsky.social · Aug 5

🚨 I’m excited to announce that, “The Enshittification of Work: Platform Decay and Labour Conditions in the Gig Economy” is now available online !

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

The Enshittification of Work: Platform Decay and Labour Conditions in the Gig Economy

This study investigates the mechanisms by which gig platforms degrade labour conditions over time, building on the concept of platform decay, or ‘enshittification’, initially developed in the context...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Michael Maffie @maffie.bsky.social · Aug 5

🚨 I’m excited to announce that, “The Enshittification of Work: Platform Decay and Labour Conditions in the Gig Economy” is now available online !

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

The Enshittification of Work: Platform Decay and Labour Conditions in the Gig Economy

This study investigates the mechanisms by which gig platforms degrade labour conditions over time, building on the concept of platform decay, or ‘enshittification’, initially developed in the context...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

8 18

Reposted by Michael Maffie

Reuben Binns @rdbinns.bsky.social · Jun 24

Len Sherman and team from Columbia business school have just released this excellent report on Uber's pricing and pay which reflects many of the same trends we observed: len-sherman.medium.com/how-uber-bec...

How Uber Became A Cash-Generating Machine

Uber has achieved one of the most impressive turnarounds in recent corporate history — a $12 billion swing in free cash flow over the past…

len-sherman.medium.com

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Reposted by Michael Maffie

Steve Herman @w7voa.journa.host.ap.brid.gy · Aug 3

The US could see a 30-40% decline in new international student enrollment, resulting in nearly $7 billion in lost revenue and more than 60,000 fewer American jobs. https://www.nafsa.org/fall-2025-international-student-enrollment-outlook-and-economic-impact

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Reposted by Michael Maffie

Catherine Rampell @crampell.bsky.social · Jan 31

A new era of government censorship has begun.
It started with the silencing of scientific speech, when the admin blocked release of research on bird flu. But MAGA has also cracked down on other wrongthink—on race, geography (!), and of course Trump himself
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

Opinion | A new era of government censorship has dawned

Donald Trump fancies himself a champion of free speech. Oh, really?

www.washingtonpost.com

440 3.4K 9.8K

Reposted by Michael Maffie

derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · Jul 25

You should never follow any of these color charts. They are all stupid.

I'll show you why. 🧵

Someone on Twitter posted a color chart for how to combine different shirts and pants.

89 730 5.6K

Reposted by Michael Maffie

Isabella M. Weber @isabellamweber.bsky.social · Jun 17

NEW PAPER

Oil, shipping, tariffs: We are back in a world of cost shocks.

Our AI/LLM analysis of 138,962 corporate earnings calls shows how economy-wide cost shocks let large firms raise prices & increase profits—triggering sellers' inflation. 🧵

Open access: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

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Reposted by Michael Maffie

Clara Murray @claradoodle.bsky.social · Jul 24

An AI slop factory apparently tried to rewrite our article about AI not replacing workers en masse, but hit the paywall... so just summarised the paywall. If this is the robot that takes my job I'll be v embarrassed

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Michael Maffie @maffie.bsky.social · Jul 23

Dodge? No way. Gommage.

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Michael Maffie @maffie.bsky.social · Jul 23

I’m curious how the trend changes in unionized universities in which there are clear standards for tenure and promotion. Seems that is likely to reduce the spike before a tenure vote but could reduce burnout immediately after.

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Michael Maffie @maffie.bsky.social · Jul 22

Editing an article about the enshittification of online services in Wiley's online proofing system is strangely validating.

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Michael Maffie @maffie.bsky.social · Jul 16

Tell me you’ve never attended a faculty meeting without telling me you’ve never attended a faculty meeting.

An excerpt from a New York Times article where the author claims that contrarianism is unnatural to human beings

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Michael Maffie @maffie.bsky.social · Jun 22

“These brass hats have one great advantage in their favor,” President Kennedy sardonically remarked to his aide Dave Powers: “If we listen to them and do what they want us to do, none of us will be alive later to tell them that they were wrong.”

time.com/5899754/jfk-...

Inside JFK's Key Decisions During the Cuban Missile Crisis

No other event offers as relevant lessons about presidential leadership in the nuclear age as those thirteen days in October.

time.com

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