Frank Elavsky (he/him) ⌁
@frank.computer
On the job market!
Presently PhD candidate studying tool-making for vis 📊 @hcii.cmu.edu. Prev: Adobe, Highsoft, Apple, Visa.
Softer-ware (malleability), accessibility, data interaction, node-edge navigation
Disabled & making a ttrpg.
www.frank.computer
Presently PhD candidate studying tool-making for vis 📊 @hcii.cmu.edu. Prev: Adobe, Highsoft, Apple, Visa.
Softer-ware (malleability), accessibility, data interaction, node-edge navigation
Disabled & making a ttrpg.
www.frank.computer
Pinned
Frank Elavsky (he/him) ⌁
@frank.computer
· Sep 25
Open Visualization Academy
openvisualizationacademy.org
I just finished recording my course materials for @albertocairo.com's Open Visualization Academy. 🎉
I'm looking forward to being able to share the first-ever comprehensive online course on Accessibility in Visualization. Stay tuned for this January!
openvisualizationacademy.org
I'm looking forward to being able to share the first-ever comprehensive online course on Accessibility in Visualization. Stay tuned for this January!
openvisualizationacademy.org
Reposted by Frank Elavsky (he/him) ⌁
aaaaaaaa this is one of my most favorite books and i am SO PSYCHED that there's a new edition!!!
The new preface to this great and depressing scholarly book gets into the explosion of sports betting and “prediction markets” since 2012’s 1st edition, plus well-meaning games-for-change types trying to harness dark patterns for good. Everyone within 30 feet of gamedev should read it.
December 27, 2025 at 2:33 AM
aaaaaaaa this is one of my most favorite books and i am SO PSYCHED that there's a new edition!!!
Core idea: what if we had a mechanic, similar to "community notes" on twitter or editorialization on wikipedia, that enabled us to provide comments, edits, and even front-end repair anywhere on the web? What if we had our own social "layer" of interaction above the sewer of the modern-day internet?
December 26, 2025 at 4:42 PM
Core idea: what if we had a mechanic, similar to "community notes" on twitter or editorialization on wikipedia, that enabled us to provide comments, edits, and even front-end repair anywhere on the web? What if we had our own social "layer" of interaction above the sewer of the modern-day internet?
Reposted by Frank Elavsky (he/him) ⌁
“there have been 4.6M+ illnesses, 49k hospitalizations, & 1,900 deaths from flu this season so far.
The bulk…are being linked to the new variant known as subclade K….Of just over 900 flu samples, ~90% were A(H3N2). Of those that had further genetic testing, nearly 90% belonged to subclade K.”🛟🧪
The bulk…are being linked to the new variant known as subclade K….Of just over 900 flu samples, ~90% were A(H3N2). Of those that had further genetic testing, nearly 90% belonged to subclade K.”🛟🧪
December 21, 2025 at 2:13 PM
“there have been 4.6M+ illnesses, 49k hospitalizations, & 1,900 deaths from flu this season so far.
The bulk…are being linked to the new variant known as subclade K….Of just over 900 flu samples, ~90% were A(H3N2). Of those that had further genetic testing, nearly 90% belonged to subclade K.”🛟🧪
The bulk…are being linked to the new variant known as subclade K….Of just over 900 flu samples, ~90% were A(H3N2). Of those that had further genetic testing, nearly 90% belonged to subclade K.”🛟🧪
Reposted by Frank Elavsky (he/him) ⌁
This year's students are amazing. They've already lined up great internships and projects, too!
Co-instructing was a blast. I'm really proud of this cohort and they helped to remind me why academia isn't so bad, after all.
Co-instructing was a blast. I'm really proud of this cohort and they helped to remind me why academia isn't so bad, after all.
A really fun part of teaching visualization at @cmu.edu and @hcii.cmu.edu is to share the final projects from the class. This time, you can learn about redistricting, livability, drug prices, humanity, keyboards, and commuting.
Check out dig.cmu.edu/datavis-fall....
Check out dig.cmu.edu/datavis-fall....
Showcase
CMU Data Vis 2025
dig.cmu.edu
December 17, 2025 at 8:12 PM
This year's students are amazing. They've already lined up great internships and projects, too!
Co-instructing was a blast. I'm really proud of this cohort and they helped to remind me why academia isn't so bad, after all.
Co-instructing was a blast. I'm really proud of this cohort and they helped to remind me why academia isn't so bad, after all.
This year's students are amazing. They've already lined up great internships and projects, too!
Co-instructing was a blast. I'm really proud of this cohort and they helped to remind me why academia isn't so bad, after all.
Co-instructing was a blast. I'm really proud of this cohort and they helped to remind me why academia isn't so bad, after all.
A really fun part of teaching visualization at @cmu.edu and @hcii.cmu.edu is to share the final projects from the class. This time, you can learn about redistricting, livability, drug prices, humanity, keyboards, and commuting.
Check out dig.cmu.edu/datavis-fall....
Check out dig.cmu.edu/datavis-fall....
Showcase
CMU Data Vis 2025
dig.cmu.edu
December 17, 2025 at 8:12 PM
This year's students are amazing. They've already lined up great internships and projects, too!
Co-instructing was a blast. I'm really proud of this cohort and they helped to remind me why academia isn't so bad, after all.
Co-instructing was a blast. I'm really proud of this cohort and they helped to remind me why academia isn't so bad, after all.
Reposted by Frank Elavsky (he/him) ⌁
it's not even saying someone is crazy, it's so much more nuanced than that. it's conveying someone who is legitimately on to something, who has descended into a world of madness to find it. it's an affirmation of charlie as something tenacious but misunderstood in all of us. in this essay i will-
December 15, 2025 at 11:21 PM
it's not even saying someone is crazy, it's so much more nuanced than that. it's conveying someone who is legitimately on to something, who has descended into a world of madness to find it. it's an affirmation of charlie as something tenacious but misunderstood in all of us. in this essay i will-
Reposted by Frank Elavsky (he/him) ⌁
One way that the reaction to Rob Reiner's murder mirrors Charlie Kirk's is that the best way to eulogize each of them is to quote their words, and in both cases, doing so pisses off conservatives.
Rob Reiner: “Silence in the face of authoritarianism is complicity. Speaking out is a patriotic act. Democracy doesn’t defend itself. It requires participation, vigilance, and courage from ordinary people."
December 15, 2025 at 8:52 PM
One way that the reaction to Rob Reiner's murder mirrors Charlie Kirk's is that the best way to eulogize each of them is to quote their words, and in both cases, doing so pisses off conservatives.
Reposted by Frank Elavsky (he/him) ⌁
Grading and googling hallucinated citations, as one does nowadays, and now that LLMs have been around for a while, I've discovered new horrors: hallucinated journals are now appearing in Google Scholar with dozens of citations bc so many people are citing these fake things
December 15, 2025 at 8:41 PM
Grading and googling hallucinated citations, as one does nowadays, and now that LLMs have been around for a while, I've discovered new horrors: hallucinated journals are now appearing in Google Scholar with dozens of citations bc so many people are citing these fake things
Reposted by Frank Elavsky (he/him) ⌁
Read the book itself if you want something longer too! www.wiley.com/en-us/Anothe...
Another Science is Possible: A Manifesto for Slow Science
Like fast food, fast science is quickly prepared, not particularly good, and it clogs up the system. Efforts to tackle our most pressing issues have been stymied by conflict within the scientific comm...
www.wiley.com
December 14, 2025 at 7:56 AM
Read the book itself if you want something longer too! www.wiley.com/en-us/Anothe...
Going on a holiday break soon, looking for some reading? Not a bad piece to bookmark for whenever you can find free time over the next couple weeks.
Slow science contains, in particular, an important set of ideas to reconcile with the failures of applying "move fast and break things" to research.
Slow science contains, in particular, an important set of ideas to reconcile with the failures of applying "move fast and break things" to research.
New preprint! @marentierra.bsky.social @irisvanrooij.bsky.social & I have been working on what CAIL means to showcase & propagate the idea of thinking very differently to tech industry norms on "artificial intelligence"
Towards Critical Artificial Intelligence Literacies doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
1/
Towards Critical Artificial Intelligence Literacies doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
1/
December 14, 2025 at 7:53 AM
Going on a holiday break soon, looking for some reading? Not a bad piece to bookmark for whenever you can find free time over the next couple weeks.
Slow science contains, in particular, an important set of ideas to reconcile with the failures of applying "move fast and break things" to research.
Slow science contains, in particular, an important set of ideas to reconcile with the failures of applying "move fast and break things" to research.
Reposted by Frank Elavsky (he/him) ⌁
This is actually a good example of why the customer model is wrong.
I wouldn't have chosen poetry writing, but UNC made me take a class. And it absolutely made me become a much better writer, with an eye to concision and an ear now trained to the rhythm of words. I'm a better historian as a result.
I wouldn't have chosen poetry writing, but UNC made me take a class. And it absolutely made me become a much better writer, with an eye to concision and an ear now trained to the rhythm of words. I'm a better historian as a result.
If you are providing me with an education that is low utility in the world then it’s a disservice. My composition class spent four weeks on poetry. I’m sorry, but that only would’ve been useful if I wanted to be a poet. I don’t need to know iambic pentameter in order to be a victim advocate.
December 9, 2025 at 7:17 PM
This is actually a good example of why the customer model is wrong.
I wouldn't have chosen poetry writing, but UNC made me take a class. And it absolutely made me become a much better writer, with an eye to concision and an ear now trained to the rhythm of words. I'm a better historian as a result.
I wouldn't have chosen poetry writing, but UNC made me take a class. And it absolutely made me become a much better writer, with an eye to concision and an ear now trained to the rhythm of words. I'm a better historian as a result.
Hell yeah
Slow Science is a disposition towards preferring psychologically, techno-socially, and epistemically healthy
practices.
See section 6 here: doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
7/
practices.
See section 6 here: doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
7/
December 9, 2025 at 12:51 PM
Hell yeah
Reposted by Frank Elavsky (he/him) ⌁
New preprint! @marentierra.bsky.social @irisvanrooij.bsky.social & I have been working on what CAIL means to showcase & propagate the idea of thinking very differently to tech industry norms on "artificial intelligence"
Towards Critical Artificial Intelligence Literacies doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
1/
Towards Critical Artificial Intelligence Literacies doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
1/
December 2, 2025 at 6:58 AM
New preprint! @marentierra.bsky.social @irisvanrooij.bsky.social & I have been working on what CAIL means to showcase & propagate the idea of thinking very differently to tech industry norms on "artificial intelligence"
Towards Critical Artificial Intelligence Literacies doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
1/
Towards Critical Artificial Intelligence Literacies doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
1/
It's me!!
Watching @frank.computer talk about testing and designing accessible data visualisations #yow25
December 5, 2025 at 3:45 AM
It's me!!
Reposted by Frank Elavsky (he/him) ⌁
Already getting some laughs. @kevlin.bsky.social is giving the perfect talk for this part of day. #YOW25
December 4, 2025 at 4:42 AM
Already getting some laughs. @kevlin.bsky.social is giving the perfect talk for this part of day. #YOW25
Reposted by Frank Elavsky (he/him) ⌁
I'm at the combination
December 4, 2025 at 3:17 AM
I'm at the combination
Giving the locknote at DDD Brisbane on the 5th of December titled "Tool-making, good and evil" - really looking forward to this one.
If you happen to be in Brisbane for this, I hope to see you there.
If you happen to be in Brisbane for this, I hope to see you there.
DDD BrisbaneAgenda - DDD Brisbane 2025
Event agenda for DDD Brisbane 2025 on December 6th, 2025
www.dddbrisbane.com
November 30, 2025 at 3:37 PM
Giving the locknote at DDD Brisbane on the 5th of December titled "Tool-making, good and evil" - really looking forward to this one.
If you happen to be in Brisbane for this, I hope to see you there.
If you happen to be in Brisbane for this, I hope to see you there.
I said it in conversation months ago, and I still think it is worth looking into, but I think if we did a study on people who don't know how to do their own laundry and people who use AI, the correlation would be strong.
Shit flows downhill. When you're an executive, your outputs become someone else's problem. When you're doing the implementation, the gap in every half-assed idea and slipshod assumption becomes visible & it's your responsibility to fix it.
A new global study shows that AI adoption varies by seniority, with 87% of executives using it on the job, compared with 57% of managers and 27% of employees. It also finds that executives are 45% more likely to use the technology on the job than Gen Zers …
November 29, 2025 at 11:36 PM
I said it in conversation months ago, and I still think it is worth looking into, but I think if we did a study on people who don't know how to do their own laundry and people who use AI, the correlation would be strong.
Reposted by Frank Elavsky (he/him) ⌁
AI is a great tool for people who assume anything they don’t understand or know how to do must be easy and can be easily replaced by bullshit.
A new global study shows that AI adoption varies by seniority, with 87% of executives using it on the job, compared with 57% of managers and 27% of employees. It also finds that executives are 45% more likely to use the technology on the job than Gen Zers …
Execs are embracing AI more than their employees are, new research suggests
Research from HR software company Dayforce suggests that executives are leaning into AI far more than their employees.
www.businessinsider.com
November 29, 2025 at 3:54 PM
AI is a great tool for people who assume anything they don’t understand or know how to do must be easy and can be easily replaced by bullshit.
Reposted by Frank Elavsky (he/him) ⌁
Shit flows downhill. When you're an executive, your outputs become someone else's problem. When you're doing the implementation, the gap in every half-assed idea and slipshod assumption becomes visible & it's your responsibility to fix it.
A new global study shows that AI adoption varies by seniority, with 87% of executives using it on the job, compared with 57% of managers and 27% of employees. It also finds that executives are 45% more likely to use the technology on the job than Gen Zers …
Execs are embracing AI more than their employees are, new research suggests
Research from HR software company Dayforce suggests that executives are leaning into AI far more than their employees.
www.businessinsider.com
November 29, 2025 at 3:56 PM
Shit flows downhill. When you're an executive, your outputs become someone else's problem. When you're doing the implementation, the gap in every half-assed idea and slipshod assumption becomes visible & it's your responsibility to fix it.
Reposted by Frank Elavsky (he/him) ⌁
See also quote from Rua Williams' Disabling Intelligences book - it's a distraction (as Birhane et al write, a "smoke screen") bsky.app/profile/cgsu...
November 26, 2025 at 3:02 AM
See also quote from Rua Williams' Disabling Intelligences book - it's a distraction (as Birhane et al write, a "smoke screen") bsky.app/profile/cgsu...
Reposted by Frank Elavsky (he/him) ⌁
Right… because the real problem was that big tobacco wasn’t “clear about risks” — not that they were selling an addictive product that harmed the health of both users and non-users.
AI firms must be clear on risks or repeat tobacco’s mistakes, says Anthropic chief
AI firms must be clear on risks or repeat tobacco’s mistakes, says Anthropic chief
Artificial intelligence will become smarter than ‘most or all humans in most or all ways’, says Dario Amodei
*
Business live – latest updates
Artificial intelligence companies must be transparent about the risks posed by their products or risk repeating the mistakes of tobacco and opioid companies, according to the chief executive of the AI startup Anthropic.
Dario Amodei, who runs the US company behind the Claude chatbot, said he believed AI will become smarter than “most or all humans in most or all ways” and urged his peers to “call it as you see it”. Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
November 17, 2025 at 12:49 PM
Right… because the real problem was that big tobacco wasn’t “clear about risks” — not that they were selling an addictive product that harmed the health of both users and non-users.
Hard to put even into words how important Alice was to me, helping me to feel comfortable in my own skin. Alice was one of *my* great teachers.
The message on IG from Alice (posted by her friend Sandy Ho). As always, Alice blazes a path for the rest of us, fearlessly & with humor: "I'm honored to be your ancestor & believe disabled oracles like us will light the way to the future. Don't let the bastards grind you down. I love you all."
November 15, 2025 at 2:38 PM
Hard to put even into words how important Alice was to me, helping me to feel comfortable in my own skin. Alice was one of *my* great teachers.
Reposted by Frank Elavsky (he/him) ⌁
Alice Wong was one of the most effective people challenging the Whiteness of disability communities and its many flaws, but who believed fiercely in us as a community, in disabled people as oracles.
Alice brought so much to so many of us, it’s hard to measure the kind of gratitude I have for that.
Alice brought so much to so many of us, it’s hard to measure the kind of gratitude I have for that.
November 15, 2025 at 1:34 PM
Alice Wong was one of the most effective people challenging the Whiteness of disability communities and its many flaws, but who believed fiercely in us as a community, in disabled people as oracles.
Alice brought so much to so many of us, it’s hard to measure the kind of gratitude I have for that.
Alice brought so much to so many of us, it’s hard to measure the kind of gratitude I have for that.