Kino Zhao @kinozhao@fediphilosophy.org
- website
- https://kinozhao.com/
- podcast
- https://offcampus.buzzsprout.com
Admin
Assistant Professor at Simon Fraser University (Canada). I specialize in philosophy of social science and philosophy of statistics.
Off Campus: a podcast that interviews people with postgraduate training in the Humanities who work in alt-ac careers.
Wonder Philosophy: an annual workshop and online resource pool for prospective applicants wanting to know more about philosophy graduate school.
Disclaimer: I don't often write on China. Don't follow me for China news.
Joined Nov 2022
Kino Zhao
boosted
When someone disagrees with you online & demands you prove your point to their satisfaction by writing a logically sound defense, u can save a lot of time by not doing that.
Dude, I've known u for ten seconds & enjoyed none of them, I'm not taking homework assignments from you.
Grades! Submitted!
I've officially survived my first year* on the tenure track!
*actually there's still a full summer term. It's a research term for me, but I've got two RAs so will actually have to show up for things.
I asked my current (finishing) students to give some advice to future students of this class.
My favourite:
"Attend all the lectures, I didn't attend one lecture and I was so lost."
I feel like most of my life works like this: other people believe in me -> I have no idea why but I blindly believe them -> they turn out correct somehow.
This makes it very difficult to wrap my mind around common sayings like "trust yourself" or "don't base your self esteem on other people's opinions", because my entire framework is to not trust myself and, instead, base my self esteem on other people's opinions of me.
Kino Zhao
boosted
I've started adding an extra credit question to all my exams that is, in a nutshell, "Describe, in detail, some topic you studied for the exam but that the exam did not cover".
Most of the responses I get are of the form "I found <thing> really interesting and studied it in great detail, but you didn't ask me enough about it and I want to talk about it more."
This is super rewarding.
Kino Zhao
boosted
Okay, so that AI letter signed by lots of AI researchers calling for a "Pause [on] Giant AI Experiments"? It's just dripping with AI hype. Here's a quick rundown.
First, for context, note that URL? The Future of Life Institute is a longtermist operation. You know, the people who are focused on maximizing the happiness of billions of future beings who live in computer simulations.
https://futureoflife.org/open-letter/pause-giant-ai-experiments/
>>
Kino Zhao
boosted
Job alert: my dept at @LeidenPsy is hiring two tenure-track assistant professors! 📢
One Assistant Prof in Cognitive Psych & Neuro link
One Assistant Prof in Cognitive Science & AI link
Come be my colleague!
#GetFediHired #AcademicJobs #Jobs
Kino Zhao
boosted
In a world where a bit of math can pass as human on the internet, we are obliged to be more unpredictable, more chaotic.
Be the language model failure mode you want to see in the taco.
Kino Zhao
boosted
I've tried it on twitter a while ago (was planning a book club with a few friends) and did not get much useful responses, so - can you do better, fediverse?
Recommend me non-fiction books that are:
* not originally written in English
* available in English translation
* not written by men
I'm leaving the topic very open on purpose as I'd love to expand in both voices and topics I read.
Boosts welcome.
Kino Zhao
boosted
Today’s the day! What does it mean to do professional development when you are suspicious of both those words?
@sferna109 and I will be talking about learning and working for yourself and your community (while operating within and around higher ed). It’s part of a #DigitalHumanities professional development series with @ach
Today (March 1) from 2-3et on Zoom.
Excuse this possibly silly question but:
Why is optional stopping in sample collection a problem, given the optional stopping theorem? (Or is it still considered a problem?)
A possible subtoot but a serious inquiry: can someone recommend a good semi-technical intro to causal modeling/causal stats that doesn’t involve a chapter’s worth of commentary on speculative history and how “humans have always wondered, why?”
(By semi-technical, I mean technical but not entirely about theorem proving)
Kino Zhao
boosted
If you drag an emoji family with a string size of 11 into an input with maxlength=10, one of the children will disappear.
This is... so absurd it's funny.
I'm *calling* insurance company *from my cellphone*. The automated system *tells me that it located an account under my phone number*.
Then, it needs to "verify me" by either *text or call this number* to give me a code.
So, I'm on a call from my cellphone, and they want to verify me by calling my cellphone with a code for me to repeat to the machine that I'm already on a call with?
Who designed these systems??
Ah, my paper is finally out, and of course this is when I discovered a place where I said "in these two ways" but only gave one of the ways.
Kino Zhao
boosted
Super frustrated with all the cheerleading over chatbots for search, so here's a thread of presentations of my work with Chirag Shah on why this is a bad idea. Follow threaded replies for:
op-ed
media coverage
original paper
conference presentation
Please boost whichever (if any) speak to you.
I delivered a full presentation, which I've been trying to write, last night in my dream. I think it went over well, too.
Now I just need to remember what I said in that dream.
Kino Zhao
boosted
Even when Twitter’s T&S infrastructure was at its most functional – which I’d say was 2021-mid 2022 – I sometimes saw appeals on content decisions, suspensions, etc. take 2-3 months unless I escalated to personal contacts at the company.
I keep seeing folks expect #moderation and community management decisions on volunteer-run fedi instances to happen in hours – not even days – and jumping to defederation when they don’t get immediate responses. It’s going to burn out so many admins, and makes me sad and worried about the sustainability and scalability of our communities.
#fediverse #fediadmin #contentmoderation #communitymanagement #mastoadmin #mastodon
Kino Zhao
boosted
The newest episode of my podcast is up. Me and @will discuss the oldest story in the world - an Australian aboriginal tale about a volcanic eruption.
Will does a great job laying out why a lot of (prejudiced) assumptions we in Europe have about aboriginal culture is just wrong. Really got me excited to learn more about these unique cultures.
Listen: https://anchor.fm/sttd4
Kino Zhao
boosted
Planning a #conference? Include Mastodon at least as prominently in your materials as you do other social media. If you ask presenters or attendees for handles, ask for their Mastodon handle. This is an important opportunity for the Fediverse to reach, welcome, and engage key global audiences. #academia #event
- website
- https://kinozhao.com/
- podcast
- https://offcampus.buzzsprout.com
Admin
Assistant Professor at Simon Fraser University (Canada). I specialize in philosophy of social science and philosophy of statistics.
Off Campus: a podcast that interviews people with postgraduate training in the Humanities who work in alt-ac careers.
Wonder Philosophy: an annual workshop and online resource pool for prospective applicants wanting to know more about philosophy graduate school.
Disclaimer: I don't often write on China. Don't follow me for China news.
Joined Nov 2022
