Joe Simons
@joesimons.bsky.social
Using computers to better understand people. Social psychologist. Bristol to Singapore via Oxford and UNC.
Pinned
Joe Simons
@joesimons.bsky.social
· Oct 15
From traces to measures: Large language models as a tool for psychological measurement from text
Large language models are increasingly being used to label or rate psychological features in text data. This approach helps address one of the limiting factors of digital trace data - their lack of an...
arxiv.org
Preprint update alert! Happy to share the latest version of this work on large language models (LLMs) for psychological measurement. Internally known as “What Would Thurstone Do (with an OpenAI subscription)?”, it results for an ongoing interdisciplinary collaboration
arxiv.org/abs/2405.07447
arxiv.org/abs/2405.07447
Never Mind the Pollock
TIL the postwar Frankfurt School, in the personage of Friedrich Pollock, produced a book-length analysis of the automation question as it appeared in the mid-1950s. Thanks @cominsitu.bsky.social
cominsitu.wordpress.com
November 12, 2025 at 3:13 PM
Never Mind the Pollock
Reposted by Joe Simons
What you’re witnessing is a populist assault on the BBC.
This is not an institutional scandal in any meaningful sense of the word. It is an attack on public service broadcasting.
iandunt.substack.com/p/extra-edit...
This is not an institutional scandal in any meaningful sense of the word. It is an attack on public service broadcasting.
iandunt.substack.com/p/extra-edit...
November 10, 2025 at 10:52 AM
What you’re witnessing is a populist assault on the BBC.
This is not an institutional scandal in any meaningful sense of the word. It is an attack on public service broadcasting.
iandunt.substack.com/p/extra-edit...
This is not an institutional scandal in any meaningful sense of the word. It is an attack on public service broadcasting.
iandunt.substack.com/p/extra-edit...
![The text "[DAEMONIC PROCESSES ARE NOT ALLOWED TO HAVE CHILDREN]" is highlighted in red.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:7isyoxxqrq2m4kth2amaleqj/bafkreiaamovgvjru75cfqm3ikbsth6hr4nimcw6m4x6qxvmwmpapiawuim@jpeg)
Reposted by Joe Simons
Academics in Assyria in the 7th c BC complain that admin is preventing them from doing research and teaching
November 3, 2025 at 10:04 AM
Academics in Assyria in the 7th c BC complain that admin is preventing them from doing research and teaching
<Converse-laser-eyes.bmp>
The existence of this photograph (which is a real photo of a real person at a Mamdani campaign event) is enough to establish for me that voters writ large have absolutely no grasp of what policy is or how any given policy impacts their lives. It's all vibes.
October 30, 2025 at 1:35 AM
<Converse-laser-eyes.bmp>
Major end-of-Downfall energy on this
October 22, 2025 at 10:36 PM
Major end-of-Downfall energy on this
<Yakov Smirnoff voice> In capitalist America, social media is addicted to you!
October 22, 2025 at 10:22 PM
<Yakov Smirnoff voice> In capitalist America, social media is addicted to you!
A tangential point, but why is he aging into looking like HP Lovecraft?
Former prime minister Rishi Sunak is joining The Sunday Times as a columnist, starting 26 October. He will contribute a weekly column to the Business section on subjects including business, technology, politics and the economy
October 21, 2025 at 10:12 AM
A tangential point, but why is he aging into looking like HP Lovecraft?
We've gone through reality-as-scripted-by-Armando-Iannucci, and have now hit reality-as-written-by-@falsemachine.bsky.social
Red alert, poets! We now have two moons! I repeat: we now have two moons
October 21, 2025 at 9:48 AM
We've gone through reality-as-scripted-by-Armando-Iannucci, and have now hit reality-as-written-by-@falsemachine.bsky.social
The rarely-spotted Divine Acyclic Graph
I have found an EXCELLENT meme for the church history lecture on Wednesday (which includes the Great Schism)
October 21, 2025 at 9:35 AM
The rarely-spotted Divine Acyclic Graph
H. P. Lovecraft: "Huge and inhuman, you say? Might they also be coldly indifferent?"
Most robots will not be humanoid. The future of robots is an automated logistics and distribution system that can bring stuff from a container ship to your house, all with minimal intervention; and the robots involved are often huge and inhuman.
itcanthink.substack.com/p/how-robots...
itcanthink.substack.com/p/how-robots...
How Robots Bring You Your Stuff
Robots in shipping and logistics are basically the opposite of the generalizable robotics that we like to talk about and which capture the imagination
itcanthink.substack.com
October 19, 2025 at 1:00 AM
H. P. Lovecraft: "Huge and inhuman, you say? Might they also be coldly indifferent?"
Calling myself a Technical Expert based on extensive knowledge of the metaphysics of the Eucharist
I find it hard not to admire how committed Bayle was to annoying people and provoking controversy at every point in his life
October 16, 2025 at 9:32 AM
Calling myself a Technical Expert based on extensive knowledge of the metaphysics of the Eucharist
Excuse me, <what> kind of philosopher?!
October 16, 2025 at 9:22 AM
Excuse me, <what> kind of philosopher?!
Bonus points if you can fit the last four lines to Firestarter
Can't believe there were gamers even in the 17th century, history is so fascinating.
October 13, 2025 at 2:12 PM
Bonus points if you can fit the last four lines to Firestarter
Turning undead and also some heads
Of all the clerics they could have popped, those ICE idiots had to hit Hot Priest.
October 10, 2025 at 2:27 AM
Turning undead and also some heads
Cognitive psych, quantitative psych, social psych
quantitative methods, qualitative methods, mixed methods
October 7, 2025 at 1:57 PM
Cognitive psych, quantitative psych, social psych
Anticipate getting ever-more use from this post
The guys who automated petard production: OMG! You're never going to guess what we've been hoisted by!
October 7, 2025 at 9:51 AM
Anticipate getting ever-more use from this post
Reposted by Joe Simons
The view from an ANTIFA landing craft June 6th 1944
October 4, 2025 at 9:49 AM
The view from an ANTIFA landing craft June 6th 1944
The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. Congress has not authorized the use of military force
The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel. Congress has not authorized the use of military force.
In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Congress has not authorized the use of military force.
October 3, 2025 at 3:55 AM
The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. Congress has not authorized the use of military force
Settle down, Angron
Hegseth: "A few months ago I was at the White House when President Trump announced his liberation day for America's trade policy. It was a landmark day. Well, today is another liberation day. The liberation of America's warriors ... you kill people and break things for a living."
September 30, 2025 at 11:39 PM
Settle down, Angron
Who's your favourite Jedi? (wrong answers only)
September 30, 2025 at 1:10 AM
Who's your favourite Jedi? (wrong answers only)
Orpheus:
Hades 2 is like *instantly* better than Hades 1. Right out of the gate it's better. How is it possible. They did it. Those crazy bastards actually did it.
September 28, 2025 at 3:45 PM
Orpheus: