13 Provocative Questions CTOs Don’t Ask - Yaniv Preiss

Former Reddit CEO: Content Moderation Teams Don’t Care About Your Politics, They Just Want You To Stop Being A Jerk

Last week, about the same time I posted by giant post on all the things that Elon Musk didn’t understand about content moderation, former Reddit CEO Yishan Wong posted a really long, but comp…

Three Questions on Questions: On Asking, Knowing and Noticing

This was Kristen DiCerbo, Khan Academy’s Chief Learning Officer, in a recent Chalkbeat article. She was offering her explanation for why Khanmigo hadn’t lived up to its promise. I was reminded of a…

Deconstructing the algorithmic sublime

This special theme contextualizes, examines, and ultimately works to dispel the feelings of “sublime”—of awe and terror that overrides rational thought—that much of the contemporary public discourse on algorithms encourages. Employing critical, reflexive, and ethnographic techniques, these authors show that while algorithms can take on a multiplicity of different cultural meanings, they ultimately remain closely connected to the people who define and deploy them, and the institutions and power relations in which they are embedded. Building on a conversation we began at the Algorithms in Culture conference at U.C. Berkeley in December 2016, we collectively study algorithms as culture (Seaver, this special theme), fetish (Thomas et al.), imaginary (Christin), bureaucratic logic (Caplan and boyd), method of governance (Coletta and Kitchin; Lee; Geiger), mode of inquiry (Baumer), and mode of power (Kubler). [Box: see text]

Being a curious leader

Being a curious leader, by Emma Wilson, explores how curiosity can reshape leadership in research environments. Drawing on personal experience, this piece highlights the value of listening, asking questions, and embracing uncertainty as strengths rather than weaknesses. It reflects on how curiosity, reflexivity, and openness to different perspectives can foster more inclusive, collaborative, and supportive research cultures.

Peter Gostev on Twitter / X

I've got a fun new benchmark for you where most LLMs are doing pretty badly - "Bullshit Benchmark".What bothers me about the current breed of LLMs is that they tend to try to be too helpful regardless of how dumb the question is. So I've built 55 'bullshit' questions that don't… pic.twitter.com/4o4quN5EFR— Peter Gostev (@petergostev) February 24, 2026

Stack Overflow Culture

This blog post was most directly provoked by this tweet from my friend Rob Conery, explaining why he’s giving up contributing on Stack Overflow. However, it’s been a long time coming. A…

Questions for the Chair

A good meeting, and five questions the press conference left open.

Make AI Boring Again (xpost)

On the ethics of engagement, the problem with purity politics, and a world worth fighting for Crossposted from here.    I am a contrarian who likes to argue and complain a lot. Because of this…

Pluralistic: With Great Power Came No Responsibility (26 Feb 2025) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow

Last night, I traveled to Toronto to deliver the annual Ursula Franklin Lecture at the University of Toronto's Innis College:

Ask don't tell: Reducing sycophancy in large language models

Sycophancy, the tendency of large language models to favour user-affirming responses over critical engagement, has been identified as an alignment failure, particularly in high-stakes advisory and...

CEA's response to sexual harassment

In this piece, I discuss the sexual harassment I experienced at the Centre for Effective Altruism, the organisation’s response, the outcomes of two i…