Oleg Sobchuk 🇺🇦
@sobchuk.bsky.social
I use big data to research the cultural evolution of arts @ Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
More: https://www.sobch.uk/
More: https://www.sobch.uk/
Pinned
I got wonderful news: I was granted a position of Max Planck independent group leader at the MPI for Empirical Aesthetics ⬇️ (@ae.mpg.de) in Frankfurt, which I'll join in early 2026. It's a huge honor: being trusted with academic freedom offered by MPG. My group will study the evolution of arts. 1/3
Reposted by Oleg Sobchuk 🇺🇦
father: how do you spell 'elegy'
me: e-l-e-g-y, but .. are you sure that's the word you're after?
him: of course I'm sure. You sure that's how it's spelled? Looks wrong
me: it was the major focus of my PhD, I am 💯 sure.
him: OK. Well I have SMS'd the restaurant about my friend's seafood elegy.
me: 🤦
me: e-l-e-g-y, but .. are you sure that's the word you're after?
him: of course I'm sure. You sure that's how it's spelled? Looks wrong
me: it was the major focus of my PhD, I am 💯 sure.
him: OK. Well I have SMS'd the restaurant about my friend's seafood elegy.
me: 🤦
December 28, 2025 at 4:23 AM
father: how do you spell 'elegy'
me: e-l-e-g-y, but .. are you sure that's the word you're after?
him: of course I'm sure. You sure that's how it's spelled? Looks wrong
me: it was the major focus of my PhD, I am 💯 sure.
him: OK. Well I have SMS'd the restaurant about my friend's seafood elegy.
me: 🤦
me: e-l-e-g-y, but .. are you sure that's the word you're after?
him: of course I'm sure. You sure that's how it's spelled? Looks wrong
me: it was the major focus of my PhD, I am 💯 sure.
him: OK. Well I have SMS'd the restaurant about my friend's seafood elegy.
me: 🤦
Reposted by Oleg Sobchuk 🇺🇦
Wow! My author copies arrived early for my new book from @bloomsburyling.bsky.social, Speaking in Pictures, about language, cognition, comics, and visual communication. It looks beautiful, and after working on it for 7 years I’m so glad it’s out in the world soon! www.visuallanguagelab.com/sip
December 24, 2025 at 2:29 PM
Wow! My author copies arrived early for my new book from @bloomsburyling.bsky.social, Speaking in Pictures, about language, cognition, comics, and visual communication. It looks beautiful, and after working on it for 7 years I’m so glad it’s out in the world soon! www.visuallanguagelab.com/sip
Reposted by Oleg Sobchuk 🇺🇦
🎉🍾 very excited to see this out before 2025 ends doi.org/10.1111/2041... with Will Hoppitt in @methodsinecoevol.bsky.social. This paper is an overview of our new R package STbayes, a user-friendly toolkit for performing Bayesian NBDA analyses. @cbehav.bsky.social @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social
STbayes: An R package for creating, fitting and understanding Bayesian models of social transmission
A critical consequence of joining social groups is the possibility of social transmission of information related to novel behaviours or resources. Network-based diffusion analysis (NBDA) has emerg...
doi.org
December 20, 2025 at 8:55 AM
🎉🍾 very excited to see this out before 2025 ends doi.org/10.1111/2041... with Will Hoppitt in @methodsinecoevol.bsky.social. This paper is an overview of our new R package STbayes, a user-friendly toolkit for performing Bayesian NBDA analyses. @cbehav.bsky.social @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social
I got wonderful news: I was granted a position of Max Planck independent group leader at the MPI for Empirical Aesthetics ⬇️ (@ae.mpg.de) in Frankfurt, which I'll join in early 2026. It's a huge honor: being trusted with academic freedom offered by MPG. My group will study the evolution of arts. 1/3
December 18, 2025 at 2:15 PM
I got wonderful news: I was granted a position of Max Planck independent group leader at the MPI for Empirical Aesthetics ⬇️ (@ae.mpg.de) in Frankfurt, which I'll join in early 2026. It's a huge honor: being trusted with academic freedom offered by MPG. My group will study the evolution of arts. 1/3
Reposted by Oleg Sobchuk 🇺🇦
A curated global dataset of social contact between diverse language communities
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
December 11, 2025 at 7:34 PM
A curated global dataset of social contact between diverse language communities
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Oleg Sobchuk 🇺🇦
I'm teaching Statistical Rethinking again starting Jan 2026. This time with live lectures, divided into Beginner and Experienced sections. Will be a lot more work for me, but I hope much better for students.
I will record lectures & all will be found at this link: github.com/rmcelreath/s...
I will record lectures & all will be found at this link: github.com/rmcelreath/s...
December 9, 2025 at 1:58 PM
I'm teaching Statistical Rethinking again starting Jan 2026. This time with live lectures, divided into Beginner and Experienced sections. Will be a lot more work for me, but I hope much better for students.
I will record lectures & all will be found at this link: github.com/rmcelreath/s...
I will record lectures & all will be found at this link: github.com/rmcelreath/s...
I was kindly invited to talk about my research at @cudanlab.bsky.social, and here's a video of that talk. And no, it's not about Steve Jobs 😄, but about evolution of the arts – 🎸📚🎨
Oleg Sobchuk @sobchuk.bsky.social
@cudanlab.bsky.social
"Evolution of Literature and the Arts."
www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLnZ...
@cudanlab.bsky.social
"Evolution of Literature and the Arts."
www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLnZ...
Oleg Sobchuk: Evolution of Literature and the Arts.
YouTube video by CUDANLab
www.youtube.com
December 8, 2025 at 11:31 PM
I was kindly invited to talk about my research at @cudanlab.bsky.social, and here's a video of that talk. And no, it's not about Steve Jobs 😄, but about evolution of the arts – 🎸📚🎨
I'm a big fan of these workshops organized by Dariia. They offer a chance 1️⃣ to learn useful skills fast (usually, practical & hands-on) & 2️⃣ to help Ukraine (all the payments, at least 20 eur/person, go to well-established charities). I attended many times, planning to attend this one too.
❗️Our next workshop will be on Dec 11 6 pm CET titled A Gentle Introduction to Mathematical Simulation in R by
@damiepak.bsky.social
Register or sponsor a student by donating to support Ukraine!
Details: bit.ly/3wBeY4S
Please share!
#AcademicSky #EconSky #RStats
@damiepak.bsky.social
Register or sponsor a student by donating to support Ukraine!
Details: bit.ly/3wBeY4S
Please share!
#AcademicSky #EconSky #RStats
December 7, 2025 at 5:19 PM
I'm a big fan of these workshops organized by Dariia. They offer a chance 1️⃣ to learn useful skills fast (usually, practical & hands-on) & 2️⃣ to help Ukraine (all the payments, at least 20 eur/person, go to well-established charities). I attended many times, planning to attend this one too.
Reposted by Oleg Sobchuk 🇺🇦
Today sees the publication of the Theme Issue featuring the CES Transformation Fund grant scheme. Enjoy! royalsocietypublishing.org/rstb/issue/3...
@durhamdcerc.bsky.social @durhamanthropology.bsky.social @cultevolfunding.bsky.social @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social
@durhamdcerc.bsky.social @durhamanthropology.bsky.social @cultevolfunding.bsky.social @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social
December 4, 2025 at 11:07 AM
Today sees the publication of the Theme Issue featuring the CES Transformation Fund grant scheme. Enjoy! royalsocietypublishing.org/rstb/issue/3...
@durhamdcerc.bsky.social @durhamanthropology.bsky.social @cultevolfunding.bsky.social @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social
@durhamdcerc.bsky.social @durhamanthropology.bsky.social @cultevolfunding.bsky.social @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social
Reposted by Oleg Sobchuk 🇺🇦
More images in a scientific paper that can be described as low quality, of questionable accuracy, environmentally damaging, job stealing and copyright infringing.
Hey, maybe it's time for scientific journals to just stop accepting AI-generated images?
Hey, maybe it's time for scientific journals to just stop accepting AI-generated images?
e.g. to produce these two – which are still problematic – took at least 80 batches of DALL-E 2 generation (each batch making multiple images), and on top of that, required direct editing of the #AI images themselves.
Paper: Magnani & Clindaniel 2023
🏺🧪
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Paper: Magnani & Clindaniel 2023
🏺🧪
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
December 3, 2025 at 10:46 AM
More images in a scientific paper that can be described as low quality, of questionable accuracy, environmentally damaging, job stealing and copyright infringing.
Hey, maybe it's time for scientific journals to just stop accepting AI-generated images?
Hey, maybe it's time for scientific journals to just stop accepting AI-generated images?
Reposted by Oleg Sobchuk 🇺🇦
Join us today @cudanlab.bsky.social
for a lecture and discussion
feat. Oleg Sobchuk @sobchuk.bsky.social,
of @mpi-eva-leipzig.bsky.social
on "Evolution of Literature and the Arts"
16:00-18:00 Tallinn time (UTC+2)
i.e. 60 minutes from this post.
Details & zoom:
cudan.tlu.ee/events/2025-...
for a lecture and discussion
feat. Oleg Sobchuk @sobchuk.bsky.social,
of @mpi-eva-leipzig.bsky.social
on "Evolution of Literature and the Arts"
16:00-18:00 Tallinn time (UTC+2)
i.e. 60 minutes from this post.
Details & zoom:
cudan.tlu.ee/events/2025-...
December 1, 2025 at 1:00 PM
Join us today @cudanlab.bsky.social
for a lecture and discussion
feat. Oleg Sobchuk @sobchuk.bsky.social,
of @mpi-eva-leipzig.bsky.social
on "Evolution of Literature and the Arts"
16:00-18:00 Tallinn time (UTC+2)
i.e. 60 minutes from this post.
Details & zoom:
cudan.tlu.ee/events/2025-...
for a lecture and discussion
feat. Oleg Sobchuk @sobchuk.bsky.social,
of @mpi-eva-leipzig.bsky.social
on "Evolution of Literature and the Arts"
16:00-18:00 Tallinn time (UTC+2)
i.e. 60 minutes from this post.
Details & zoom:
cudan.tlu.ee/events/2025-...
AI was so close to getting it right...
November 25, 2025 at 11:26 PM
AI was so close to getting it right...
Before the monstrous transformation of Twitter to X, it was considered normal to be active on academic Twitter. Now, even though we've migrated to Bluesky ("safe space"), I feel that many ppl (including myself) are less active in posting anything. Have you noticed this trend? Or am I imagining this?
November 25, 2025 at 12:20 PM
Before the monstrous transformation of Twitter to X, it was considered normal to be active on academic Twitter. Now, even though we've migrated to Bluesky ("safe space"), I feel that many ppl (including myself) are less active in posting anything. Have you noticed this trend? Or am I imagining this?
Reposted by Oleg Sobchuk 🇺🇦
After a long time in development, {traktok} #rstats is now finally on CRAN!
Whether you have access to the Research API or just want to scrape some pages, traktok has you covered
jbgruber.github.io/traktok/
Whether you have access to the Research API or just want to scrape some pages, traktok has you covered
jbgruber.github.io/traktok/
November 24, 2025 at 8:50 PM
After a long time in development, {traktok} #rstats is now finally on CRAN!
Whether you have access to the Research API or just want to scrape some pages, traktok has you covered
jbgruber.github.io/traktok/
Whether you have access to the Research API or just want to scrape some pages, traktok has you covered
jbgruber.github.io/traktok/
Reposted by Oleg Sobchuk 🇺🇦
it's interesting to project the chatgpt's style into the past -- read historical texts with an LLM detector.
What are its precursors? What are the linguistic registers on which it depends?
Back-cover publisher texts seems like one good candidate to me
What are its precursors? What are the linguistic registers on which it depends?
Back-cover publisher texts seems like one good candidate to me
November 24, 2025 at 5:10 PM
it's interesting to project the chatgpt's style into the past -- read historical texts with an LLM detector.
What are its precursors? What are the linguistic registers on which it depends?
Back-cover publisher texts seems like one good candidate to me
What are its precursors? What are the linguistic registers on which it depends?
Back-cover publisher texts seems like one good candidate to me
📚 MajinBook: an impressive new dataset by Antoine Mazières & @tpoibeau.bsky.social. Metadata for 500,000 books from Library Genesis & GoodReads. Mostly books from the last 100 years or so, see the plot ⬇️ arxiv.org/abs/2511.11412
November 21, 2025 at 5:24 PM
📚 MajinBook: an impressive new dataset by Antoine Mazières & @tpoibeau.bsky.social. Metadata for 500,000 books from Library Genesis & GoodReads. Mostly books from the last 100 years or so, see the plot ⬇️ arxiv.org/abs/2511.11412
Reposted by Oleg Sobchuk 🇺🇦
What happens when we model the detective archetype at scale? 🕵️♂️📚
Our new paper, accepted for #CHR2025 combines literary history and computational modeling to trace how the figure of the detective evolves across 150 years of French fiction.
arxiv.org/pdf/2511.00627
Our new paper, accepted for #CHR2025 combines literary history and computational modeling to trace how the figure of the detective evolves across 150 years of French fiction.
arxiv.org/pdf/2511.00627
November 4, 2025 at 5:36 PM
What happens when we model the detective archetype at scale? 🕵️♂️📚
Our new paper, accepted for #CHR2025 combines literary history and computational modeling to trace how the figure of the detective evolves across 150 years of French fiction.
arxiv.org/pdf/2511.00627
Our new paper, accepted for #CHR2025 combines literary history and computational modeling to trace how the figure of the detective evolves across 150 years of French fiction.
arxiv.org/pdf/2511.00627
Reposted by Oleg Sobchuk 🇺🇦
I have just discovered that Apple brought back the C/AC button in the calculator app in iOS 26, an act I take full credit for.
A Calculator’s Most Important Button Has Been Removed
This is clearly a mistake.
www.theatlantic.com
October 22, 2025 at 8:30 PM
I have just discovered that Apple brought back the C/AC button in the calculator app in iOS 26, an act I take full credit for.
Reposted by Oleg Sobchuk 🇺🇦
A reminder that we are accepting submissions for a themed issue at Computational Humanities Research journal 📙
Deadline is end of February 2026!
Deadline is end of February 2026!
⚡ CFP: a themed issue in Computational Humanities Research!
Meaning, Form, and History in Computational Poetics: if you work on all things verse, all things form, in any language, consider submitting!
for questions reach out to me or @nmhouston.bsky.social !
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Meaning, Form, and History in Computational Poetics: if you work on all things verse, all things form, in any language, consider submitting!
for questions reach out to me or @nmhouston.bsky.social !
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
October 14, 2025 at 2:43 PM
A reminder that we are accepting submissions for a themed issue at Computational Humanities Research journal 📙
Deadline is end of February 2026!
Deadline is end of February 2026!
Reposted by Oleg Sobchuk 🇺🇦
How do humans keep inventing tools and technologies that no single person could create alone?
Our new preprint, led by
@anilyaman.bsky.social & @ts-brain.bsky.social
shows that semantic knowledge guides innovation and drives cultural evolution. 🧠📘 arxiv.org/abs/2510.12837
Our new preprint, led by
@anilyaman.bsky.social & @ts-brain.bsky.social
shows that semantic knowledge guides innovation and drives cultural evolution. 🧠📘 arxiv.org/abs/2510.12837
October 16, 2025 at 1:49 PM
How do humans keep inventing tools and technologies that no single person could create alone?
Our new preprint, led by
@anilyaman.bsky.social & @ts-brain.bsky.social
shows that semantic knowledge guides innovation and drives cultural evolution. 🧠📘 arxiv.org/abs/2510.12837
Our new preprint, led by
@anilyaman.bsky.social & @ts-brain.bsky.social
shows that semantic knowledge guides innovation and drives cultural evolution. 🧠📘 arxiv.org/abs/2510.12837
Joel Mokyr received a Nobel! It's a wonderful signal for cultural evolution scholars. Mokyr was defending an evolutionary approach to economic history for 40 years. Check out A Culture of Growth, The Gifts of Athena, or The Lever of Riches: some of the books that inspired me the most. I interpret...
Breaking News: The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics was awarded to Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt for their work on how technology drives growth.
Three Share Nobel in Economics for Work on How Technology Drives Growth
Joel Mokyr was awarded half of the prize, and Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt shared the other half.
nyti.ms
October 13, 2025 at 1:59 PM
Joel Mokyr received a Nobel! It's a wonderful signal for cultural evolution scholars. Mokyr was defending an evolutionary approach to economic history for 40 years. Check out A Culture of Growth, The Gifts of Athena, or The Lever of Riches: some of the books that inspired me the most. I interpret...
Reposted by Oleg Sobchuk 🇺🇦
Happy to share our new paper introducing the Animal Culture Database in Scientific Data: We’re putting together a resource consolidating primary research on cultural behaviors in wild animal populations and how they’re affected by human activity (1/5) www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Mapping nonhuman cultures with the Animal Culture Database - Scientific Data
Scientific Data - Mapping nonhuman cultures with the Animal Culture Database
www.nature.com
June 22, 2025 at 11:16 PM
Happy to share our new paper introducing the Animal Culture Database in Scientific Data: We’re putting together a resource consolidating primary research on cultural behaviors in wild animal populations and how they’re affected by human activity (1/5) www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Oleg Sobchuk 🇺🇦
Why does Western Paleolithic cave art strongly prefer animal side views and often use abbreviations? Our new paper in Topics in Cognitive Science challenges long-held assumptions about these artistic choices using cognitive science experiments. A thread 1/n
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
September 15, 2025 at 2:41 PM
Why does Western Paleolithic cave art strongly prefer animal side views and often use abbreviations? Our new paper in Topics in Cognitive Science challenges long-held assumptions about these artistic choices using cognitive science experiments. A thread 1/n
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Reposted by Oleg Sobchuk 🇺🇦
The UC Berkeley School of Information is hiring an assistant professor in the broad field of Information--including areas of info seeking/retrieval, digital humanities, cultural analytics, info viz, & philosophy of information (among others). Deadline Nov 1! aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05014
Assistant Professor - Information - School of Information
University of California, Berkeley is hiring. Apply now!
aprecruit.berkeley.edu
September 23, 2025 at 2:43 PM
The UC Berkeley School of Information is hiring an assistant professor in the broad field of Information--including areas of info seeking/retrieval, digital humanities, cultural analytics, info viz, & philosophy of information (among others). Deadline Nov 1! aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05014
Reposted by Oleg Sobchuk 🇺🇦
Delighted to announce the publication of 'From Questions to Knowledge', my new and updated statistics and data analysis handbook.
www.danielnettle.eu/2025/09/14/f...
www.danielnettle.eu/2025/09/14/f...
From Questions to Knowledge
I am delighted to announce the publications of my statistics and data analysis book, ‘From Questions to Knowledge: Data Analysis for Psychology and Behavioural Science Using R’. This b…
www.danielnettle.eu
September 14, 2025 at 5:41 PM
Delighted to announce the publication of 'From Questions to Knowledge', my new and updated statistics and data analysis handbook.
www.danielnettle.eu/2025/09/14/f...
www.danielnettle.eu/2025/09/14/f...