Kit Noussis
@kitnoussis.bsky.social
Data Analyst, Shanghai
I explore how meaning emerges when humans shape the world through language, symbols, and thought—from ancient Chinese characters to data visuals to cognitive models of mind and machine.
I explore how meaning emerges when humans shape the world through language, symbols, and thought—from ancient Chinese characters to data visuals to cognitive models of mind and machine.
I was one of the kids who grew up on por-... podcasts, and now I'm a lonely man. Coincidence? #selfhelp #masculinity #addiction
open.substack.com/pub/kitnouss...
open.substack.com/pub/kitnouss...
Do we need a NoFap for podcasts?
Parasocial friendships are not getting the job done anymore.
open.substack.com
June 8, 2025 at 4:46 AM
I was one of the kids who grew up on por-... podcasts, and now I'm a lonely man. Coincidence? #selfhelp #masculinity #addiction
open.substack.com/pub/kitnouss...
open.substack.com/pub/kitnouss...
Chinese readers when I translate the meaning of my Christian name into Chinese characters: "hmm, a bit macho, a bit too 'red'"
Chinese readers when they see the characters for 'soup nanny': oh that's Tom Cruise! so handsome!
Chinese readers when they see the characters for 'soup nanny': oh that's Tom Cruise! so handsome!
June 7, 2025 at 9:57 AM
Chinese readers when I translate the meaning of my Christian name into Chinese characters: "hmm, a bit macho, a bit too 'red'"
Chinese readers when they see the characters for 'soup nanny': oh that's Tom Cruise! so handsome!
Chinese readers when they see the characters for 'soup nanny': oh that's Tom Cruise! so handsome!
I wrote about blaming your parents for your woes and the days of wacky 19th C shrinks:
open.substack.com/pub/kitnouss...
#trauma
open.substack.com/pub/kitnouss...
#trauma
We Will Soon Speak of Microtraumas
Little cuts will also make the jump from the body to the mind
open.substack.com
May 31, 2025 at 9:33 AM
I wrote about blaming your parents for your woes and the days of wacky 19th C shrinks:
open.substack.com/pub/kitnouss...
#trauma
open.substack.com/pub/kitnouss...
#trauma
I don't know if any western apps do this, but on WeChat short vids there is a heart button (visible to your followers) and a like button (only visible to you). In the early days, we wanted everyone to see our likes. Now we want the option.
May 31, 2025 at 4:47 AM
I don't know if any western apps do this, but on WeChat short vids there is a heart button (visible to your followers) and a like button (only visible to you). In the early days, we wanted everyone to see our likes. Now we want the option.
I like this Yiddish expression you say after something good so you don't jinx it. It's like when we were kids and we said we wanted to sit in the front seat: "called it, locked it, no black magic"
May 31, 2025 at 3:34 AM
I like this Yiddish expression you say after something good so you don't jinx it. It's like when we were kids and we said we wanted to sit in the front seat: "called it, locked it, no black magic"
"noting that in the 1980s and 90s, computer adoption gave the world all kinds of tools that reshaped the labor market. But labor productivity grew just 2% to 3%."
I'm shocked that the introduction of e-mail and spreadsheets only had a single-digit effect.
edition.cnn.com/2025/05/30/b...
I'm shocked that the introduction of e-mail and spreadsheets only had a single-digit effect.
edition.cnn.com/2025/05/30/b...
The ‘white-collar bloodbath’ is all part of the AI hype machine | CNN Business
If the CEO of a soda company declared that soda-making technology is getting so good it’s going to ruin the global economy, you’d be forgiven for thinking that person is either lying or fully detached...
edition.cnn.com
May 31, 2025 at 3:17 AM
"noting that in the 1980s and 90s, computer adoption gave the world all kinds of tools that reshaped the labor market. But labor productivity grew just 2% to 3%."
I'm shocked that the introduction of e-mail and spreadsheets only had a single-digit effect.
edition.cnn.com/2025/05/30/b...
I'm shocked that the introduction of e-mail and spreadsheets only had a single-digit effect.
edition.cnn.com/2025/05/30/b...
He also remarked on the logistical feat of designing a study protocol deemed acceptable by its feline participants.
“I really commend this group of scientists for being successful in engaging 30 cats in doing this stuff,” “Most cats want nothing to do with your research.”
They herded cats! NYT
“I really commend this group of scientists for being successful in engaging 30 cats in doing this stuff,” “Most cats want nothing to do with your research.”
They herded cats! NYT
May 31, 2025 at 12:28 AM
He also remarked on the logistical feat of designing a study protocol deemed acceptable by its feline participants.
“I really commend this group of scientists for being successful in engaging 30 cats in doing this stuff,” “Most cats want nothing to do with your research.”
They herded cats! NYT
“I really commend this group of scientists for being successful in engaging 30 cats in doing this stuff,” “Most cats want nothing to do with your research.”
They herded cats! NYT
I reviewed a self-help book called Tiny Experiments. Thanks for the inspiration @ashleyafrawley.bsky.social @oliverburkeman.com
open.substack.com/pub/kitnouss...
open.substack.com/pub/kitnouss...
The Shifty Promise of Tiny Experiments
Self-help cannot be good philosophy and good business at the same time.
open.substack.com
May 28, 2025 at 6:30 AM
I reviewed a self-help book called Tiny Experiments. Thanks for the inspiration @ashleyafrawley.bsky.social @oliverburkeman.com
open.substack.com/pub/kitnouss...
open.substack.com/pub/kitnouss...
Got this creepy ad from twitch to try and entice me back. It's a totally fabricated conversation where all my friends are wondering where I am during non-descript 'fire' moment.
Twitch themselves should know from my real chat logs that I have no friends there.
Twitch themselves should know from my real chat logs that I have no friends there.
May 28, 2025 at 4:40 AM
Got this creepy ad from twitch to try and entice me back. It's a totally fabricated conversation where all my friends are wondering where I am during non-descript 'fire' moment.
Twitch themselves should know from my real chat logs that I have no friends there.
Twitch themselves should know from my real chat logs that I have no friends there.
Reposted by Kit Noussis
This much cool should be illegal
May 27, 2025 at 12:14 AM
This much cool should be illegal
What asymptote are we approaching for verifications and captchas online? Eventually, I think we will spend 50% of our time posting and 50% of our time logging in.
May 27, 2025 at 1:29 AM
What asymptote are we approaching for verifications and captchas online? Eventually, I think we will spend 50% of our time posting and 50% of our time logging in.
Video games are weird. To be in the Steam top 100 is a huge accomplishment, and yet many of those games I've never played and never even heard of. It takes hundreds of thousands of players to make a game a hit, but you can write a best seller book on a few thousand sales.
May 26, 2025 at 2:07 AM
Video games are weird. To be in the Steam top 100 is a huge accomplishment, and yet many of those games I've never played and never even heard of. It takes hundreds of thousands of players to make a game a hit, but you can write a best seller book on a few thousand sales.
Reposted by Kit Noussis
Data are not any more objective than words, and data analysts need to stop dining out on the cred of pure mathematics
open.substack.com/pub/kitnouss...
open.substack.com/pub/kitnouss...
Data is not a fish that you cook, and insights are not gems that you mine.
We need more numeracy and literacy to understand when the 'data storytellers' are telling tall tales.
open.substack.com
May 25, 2025 at 3:54 AM
Data are not any more objective than words, and data analysts need to stop dining out on the cred of pure mathematics
open.substack.com/pub/kitnouss...
open.substack.com/pub/kitnouss...
People getting murked by early railway accidents (and later getting quasi-hysterical 'railway spine' injuries) are where we get our modern definition of the 'accident' to begin with. There have always been misfortunes and calamities, but after trains we had a new kind that needed a language.
When a train crashes, there's a process to learn lessons so it doesn't happen again. Cars crash every day and the official response is 🤷
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Man arrested after train and tractor collision in Herefordshire
Two people hospitalised and services halted between Manchester and Cardiff after crash near Leominster
www.theguardian.com
May 23, 2025 at 6:53 AM
People getting murked by early railway accidents (and later getting quasi-hysterical 'railway spine' injuries) are where we get our modern definition of the 'accident' to begin with. There have always been misfortunes and calamities, but after trains we had a new kind that needed a language.
One problem with self-help and advice columns, and I'm only paraphrasing (I think) @oliverburkeman.com here, is that you have to use the wisdom you already have to discern between the stars in the galaxy of new media. Self-persuasion and rationalization have a lot of room to do the curating.
May 23, 2025 at 6:39 AM
One problem with self-help and advice columns, and I'm only paraphrasing (I think) @oliverburkeman.com here, is that you have to use the wisdom you already have to discern between the stars in the galaxy of new media. Self-persuasion and rationalization have a lot of room to do the curating.
Oh, Lenovo has updated their privacy policy? You know what, I'm going to opt out of this round. Let me just throw my laptop in the trash.
May 23, 2025 at 5:45 AM
Oh, Lenovo has updated their privacy policy? You know what, I'm going to opt out of this round. Let me just throw my laptop in the trash.
I wrote about the NYT op-ed that informatively begs the bosses not to replace all their entry-level jobs with AI:
kitnoussis.substack.com/p/ceos-can-b...
kitnoussis.substack.com/p/ceos-can-b...
CEOs can be automated, too; they barely do any work.
Crying and begging the capitalists to stop eating their seed corn has never worked before
kitnoussis.substack.com
May 21, 2025 at 3:02 AM
I wrote about the NYT op-ed that informatively begs the bosses not to replace all their entry-level jobs with AI:
kitnoussis.substack.com/p/ceos-can-b...
kitnoussis.substack.com/p/ceos-can-b...
Reposted by Kit Noussis
similarly, in the US there are *far* more people working in museums than in coal mining. there are some industries that have salience as 'working people' and 'hearts of the community' (often after decades of intentional managed decline) and some that do not.
A reminder that more people are employed in the yoga industry than there are registered fishers working in the UK.
May 19, 2025 at 9:28 AM
similarly, in the US there are *far* more people working in museums than in coal mining. there are some industries that have salience as 'working people' and 'hearts of the community' (often after decades of intentional managed decline) and some that do not.
How come Reddit can't keep bots of their platform, but me, a real person, can't even post or comment because my 'karma' is not good enough, and my secret trust score is too low because I use a VPN? We need better captchas. I'm thinking piss sensors like they had in Vietnam.
May 20, 2025 at 2:04 AM
How come Reddit can't keep bots of their platform, but me, a real person, can't even post or comment because my 'karma' is not good enough, and my secret trust score is too low because I use a VPN? We need better captchas. I'm thinking piss sensors like they had in Vietnam.
"...took Facebook nearly two years to overcome the staunch resistance by CEO Mark Zuckerberg before finally introducing the [like button]"
Everything good about facebook is from employees, everything bad is Zuck's. From the AP book review of "Like"
Everything good about facebook is from employees, everything bad is Zuck's. From the AP book review of "Like"
May 20, 2025 at 1:56 AM
"...took Facebook nearly two years to overcome the staunch resistance by CEO Mark Zuckerberg before finally introducing the [like button]"
Everything good about facebook is from employees, everything bad is Zuck's. From the AP book review of "Like"
Everything good about facebook is from employees, everything bad is Zuck's. From the AP book review of "Like"
Vox article about dry texting has some good anecdotes. Will be interested to see what novels the young zoomers write about IM culture. It's not categorically different than a meatspace mailbox, but it's still weird for your lover and your landlord to come through the same portal, with the same hat.
May 19, 2025 at 6:59 AM
Vox article about dry texting has some good anecdotes. Will be interested to see what novels the young zoomers write about IM culture. It's not categorically different than a meatspace mailbox, but it's still weird for your lover and your landlord to come through the same portal, with the same hat.
First off, bring back album covers. I never see them anymore. Secondly, when was the last time a band was one Big Guy and five Lil Guys?
May 16, 2025 at 8:05 AM
First off, bring back album covers. I never see them anymore. Secondly, when was the last time a band was one Big Guy and five Lil Guys?
Reposted by Kit Noussis
A new evidence review asks what speed limits should be if we started with the goal of reducing death and injury. Safe to say that despite being rooted in evidence, there'll be a lot of motivated reasoning trying to make these conclusions go away downloads.roadsafetyfoundation.org/Determining_...
May 15, 2025 at 7:22 PM
A new evidence review asks what speed limits should be if we started with the goal of reducing death and injury. Safe to say that despite being rooted in evidence, there'll be a lot of motivated reasoning trying to make these conclusions go away downloads.roadsafetyfoundation.org/Determining_...