Jessica Winck
@jessicawinck.bsky.social
English professor in Bangor, Maine. Reader, writer, teacher. Save the clocktower!
Reposted by Jessica Winck
The death of browsing is part of the reason art is the way it is now. Our opinions are largely fed to us by algorithms. Spending a spare 15 minutes wandering around a bookstore or comic shop or video rental place was how you found stuff you wouldn't ordinarily pick up and thereby expanded your taste
Bookselling is like the most "people go to the store and buy what looks cool to them without a particular agenda" type business left, and your purchases have a huge influence on what is ordered, what is displayed, and what is recommended.
November 29, 2025 at 6:44 PM
The death of browsing is part of the reason art is the way it is now. Our opinions are largely fed to us by algorithms. Spending a spare 15 minutes wandering around a bookstore or comic shop or video rental place was how you found stuff you wouldn't ordinarily pick up and thereby expanded your taste
Reposted by Jessica Winck
Sometimes I wonder if our many years of jokes about writers hating writing and doing anything but writing, etc, have convinced people that the writing part is the hurdle and the goal is just to have a thing in hand. But I am here to tell you: the writing is the best part. The act is the thing.
November 9, 2025 at 5:40 PM
Sometimes I wonder if our many years of jokes about writers hating writing and doing anything but writing, etc, have convinced people that the writing part is the hurdle and the goal is just to have a thing in hand. But I am here to tell you: the writing is the best part. The act is the thing.
Reposted by Jessica Winck
Technically, this is a book of spells.
October 24, 2025 at 3:08 PM
Technically, this is a book of spells.
Reposted by Jessica Winck
I've updated my document that tackles four of the common arguments used to encourage teachers to use AI.
I hope this will be helpful to those educators wanting to push back on AI mania.
I hope this will be helpful to those educators wanting to push back on AI mania.
Resisting School AI Mania Help Sheet
Help Sheet: Resisting AI Mania in Schools K-12 educators are under increasing pressure to use—and have students use—a wide range of AI tools. (The term “AI” is used loosely here, just as it is by man...
docs.google.com
October 14, 2025 at 7:23 PM
I've updated my document that tackles four of the common arguments used to encourage teachers to use AI.
I hope this will be helpful to those educators wanting to push back on AI mania.
I hope this will be helpful to those educators wanting to push back on AI mania.
Reposted by Jessica Winck
Today is a day when arts degrees are worthless, but the product of those degrees is so valuable it would kill an entire industry if they were made to pay for it.
Nick Clegg says asking artists for use permission would ‘kill’ the AI industry
Nick Clegg says asking artists for use permission would ‘kill’ the AI industry
Paul McCartne, Elton John and others signed an open letter.
buff.ly
October 8, 2025 at 10:29 AM
Today is a day when arts degrees are worthless, but the product of those degrees is so valuable it would kill an entire industry if they were made to pay for it.
Reposted by Jessica Winck
Your monthly reminder:
Keep writing. When no one cares, persist. When things appear to be crumbling, keep at it. When it's difficult, push through. When you feel alone, listen to the stories in your blood. Just write. The world needs your stories.
Keep writing. When no one cares, persist. When things appear to be crumbling, keep at it. When it's difficult, push through. When you feel alone, listen to the stories in your blood. Just write. The world needs your stories.
October 7, 2025 at 1:03 PM
Your monthly reminder:
Keep writing. When no one cares, persist. When things appear to be crumbling, keep at it. When it's difficult, push through. When you feel alone, listen to the stories in your blood. Just write. The world needs your stories.
Keep writing. When no one cares, persist. When things appear to be crumbling, keep at it. When it's difficult, push through. When you feel alone, listen to the stories in your blood. Just write. The world needs your stories.
Reposted by Jessica Winck
Can we stop calling an artificial representation of a person by a human-coded name? "She" does not exist. "She" is a reflection of someone's ingenue dreams, but "she" is pixels and code.
Tilly Norwood raises the question of who will be the first to win an Oscar for best AI in a leading role
Tilly Norwood Is Expensive, Even for Hollywood
The “synthetic actress” may be cheaper to cast than Leonardo DiCaprio, but AI’s footprint carries major economic and environmental costs.
bloom.bg
October 3, 2025 at 11:39 AM
Can we stop calling an artificial representation of a person by a human-coded name? "She" does not exist. "She" is a reflection of someone's ingenue dreams, but "she" is pixels and code.
Reposted by Jessica Winck
Monthly reminder: Many people have a book in them, but it takes a special kind of freak to leave the Land of Laziness, cross the Plains of Procrastination and Insecurity Mountain, find the Blade of No One Made You Do This, and use it to cut your chest open and yank that book out.
October 1, 2025 at 1:27 PM
Monthly reminder: Many people have a book in them, but it takes a special kind of freak to leave the Land of Laziness, cross the Plains of Procrastination and Insecurity Mountain, find the Blade of No One Made You Do This, and use it to cut your chest open and yank that book out.
Reposted by Jessica Winck
Dear writers:
Write that story. Edit mercilessly. Send that email. Ignore the haters. Stay humble, but be confident. Get paid. Read a lot. Write despite your insecurities. Support others. Accept helpful criticism. Celebrate everything. Don't panic. Never quit. You got this.
Write that story. Edit mercilessly. Send that email. Ignore the haters. Stay humble, but be confident. Get paid. Read a lot. Write despite your insecurities. Support others. Accept helpful criticism. Celebrate everything. Don't panic. Never quit. You got this.
September 30, 2025 at 2:50 PM
Dear writers:
Write that story. Edit mercilessly. Send that email. Ignore the haters. Stay humble, but be confident. Get paid. Read a lot. Write despite your insecurities. Support others. Accept helpful criticism. Celebrate everything. Don't panic. Never quit. You got this.
Write that story. Edit mercilessly. Send that email. Ignore the haters. Stay humble, but be confident. Get paid. Read a lot. Write despite your insecurities. Support others. Accept helpful criticism. Celebrate everything. Don't panic. Never quit. You got this.
Reposted by Jessica Winck
Look at this posh skrunkleton. Postcard from my collection, 1912. 🎩
September 30, 2025 at 1:06 AM
Look at this posh skrunkleton. Postcard from my collection, 1912. 🎩
Reposted by Jessica Winck
Everyone should have the right to go to University. Not because it's superior. Not because a degree should be required for every job. But because everyone should have the opportunity to spend a few years learning how to think critically about a subject they are really interested in.
September 30, 2025 at 1:43 PM
Everyone should have the right to go to University. Not because it's superior. Not because a degree should be required for every job. But because everyone should have the opportunity to spend a few years learning how to think critically about a subject they are really interested in.
Reposted by Jessica Winck
My latest column for the Chronicle of Higher Ed is now live. It's an argument for including AI-critical voices in campus conversations and policymaking workgroups, and I'm proud to get this dissenting piece into the mainstream genAI/higher ed discourse. Please read and share if you're so inclined 🙂
Advice | Sometimes We Resist AI for Good Reasons
Why higher ed needs to listen to the contrarians in setting policies on using tools like ChatGPT in faculty work.
www.chronicle.com
September 24, 2025 at 5:47 PM
My latest column for the Chronicle of Higher Ed is now live. It's an argument for including AI-critical voices in campus conversations and policymaking workgroups, and I'm proud to get this dissenting piece into the mainstream genAI/higher ed discourse. Please read and share if you're so inclined 🙂
Reposted by Jessica Winck
All writing advice is an author going, “Hey, this worked for me, so I’m sharing it in case it works for you.” That’s cool. That could be useful to someone. On the other hand, advice presented as a “rule” or as something you “must” do is stuff I think you can ignore.
September 23, 2025 at 2:52 AM
All writing advice is an author going, “Hey, this worked for me, so I’m sharing it in case it works for you.” That’s cool. That could be useful to someone. On the other hand, advice presented as a “rule” or as something you “must” do is stuff I think you can ignore.
Reposted by Jessica Winck
Whatever you do, please don’t stop reading.
Read for joy. Read for education. Read for resistance. Read banned books. Read books by marginalized authors. Read about experiences that differ from your own.
Just. Keep. Reading.
Read for joy. Read for education. Read for resistance. Read banned books. Read books by marginalized authors. Read about experiences that differ from your own.
Just. Keep. Reading.
September 18, 2025 at 6:20 PM
Whatever you do, please don’t stop reading.
Read for joy. Read for education. Read for resistance. Read banned books. Read books by marginalized authors. Read about experiences that differ from your own.
Just. Keep. Reading.
Read for joy. Read for education. Read for resistance. Read banned books. Read books by marginalized authors. Read about experiences that differ from your own.
Just. Keep. Reading.
Reposted by Jessica Winck
Unsolicited writing advice, no. 1777:
Everything you experience informs your work. In summer, write about the heat; the vegetation; the scent of the sea. In winter, write about the cold; the darkening sky; the onset of snow. Use everything you feel: grief, anxiety, joy, love, pain. It's all good.
Everything you experience informs your work. In summer, write about the heat; the vegetation; the scent of the sea. In winter, write about the cold; the darkening sky; the onset of snow. Use everything you feel: grief, anxiety, joy, love, pain. It's all good.
September 12, 2025 at 10:25 AM
Unsolicited writing advice, no. 1777:
Everything you experience informs your work. In summer, write about the heat; the vegetation; the scent of the sea. In winter, write about the cold; the darkening sky; the onset of snow. Use everything you feel: grief, anxiety, joy, love, pain. It's all good.
Everything you experience informs your work. In summer, write about the heat; the vegetation; the scent of the sea. In winter, write about the cold; the darkening sky; the onset of snow. Use everything you feel: grief, anxiety, joy, love, pain. It's all good.
Reposted by Jessica Winck
Readers have long been frustrated by Robert Frost's poem "The Road Not Taken". Thanks to AI, it is now possible to explore BOTH of the paths described by the speaker
September 9, 2025 at 8:10 PM
Readers have long been frustrated by Robert Frost's poem "The Road Not Taken". Thanks to AI, it is now possible to explore BOTH of the paths described by the speaker
Reposted by Jessica Winck
Linguistics lesson for the day: Accountability is crucial to interpreting language. We make sense of something based on who we believe said it. Synthetic text extruded by LLMs was not said by anyone -- so a crucial step in the chain is broken.
>>
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LLMs are not a suitable technology for information access. Here is a quick summary of why not:
buttondown.com/maiht3k/arch...
But to take the SIFT framework, LLMs cannot be a source. They are synthetic text extruding machines, that's all. Text without accountability.
buttondown.com/maiht3k/arch...
But to take the SIFT framework, LLMs cannot be a source. They are synthetic text extruding machines, that's all. Text without accountability.
Information literacy and chatbots as search
By Emily This post started off as a thread I wrote and posted across social media on Sunday evening. I'm reproducing the thread (lightly edited) first and...
buttondown.com
September 7, 2025 at 5:57 PM
Linguistics lesson for the day: Accountability is crucial to interpreting language. We make sense of something based on who we believe said it. Synthetic text extruded by LLMs was not said by anyone -- so a crucial step in the chain is broken.
>>
>>
Reposted by Jessica Winck
Hear me out: a dark academia murder book that opens at a department beginning-of-the-year celebration on a boat (I know a department that does this) and a professor goes overboard. The intrepid department chair must figure out who did it. Everyone is a suspect, including the chair herself.
August 29, 2025 at 8:24 PM
Hear me out: a dark academia murder book that opens at a department beginning-of-the-year celebration on a boat (I know a department that does this) and a professor goes overboard. The intrepid department chair must figure out who did it. Everyone is a suspect, including the chair herself.
Reposted by Jessica Winck
These are all in play, but for the moment, it is the "demoralizing" that is at the top of the list, at least in the area in which I'm most involved (education/teaching writing). The LLM is almost purpose built for alienating the writer from their own thoughts via a soothing simulation. I fear that.
And finally the best evidence that AI is truly a revolutionary general purpose technology isn’t its midness but it’s politics. It is very good at undercutting, demoralizing and casualizing labor across a variety of fields, known & as-yet known.
I wouldn’t dismiss that. “Mid” is a political tactic.
I wouldn’t dismiss that. “Mid” is a political tactic.
August 23, 2025 at 2:56 PM
These are all in play, but for the moment, it is the "demoralizing" that is at the top of the list, at least in the area in which I'm most involved (education/teaching writing). The LLM is almost purpose built for alienating the writer from their own thoughts via a soothing simulation. I fear that.
Reposted by Jessica Winck
Tried out Grammarly's AI grade predictor. Didn't want to use actual student work, so I had ChatGPT write a paper for one of my assignments and gave that to Grammarly. Grammarly promises to use publicly available info about your instructor to predict what they will say. The advice was *not* what I /1
August 20, 2025 at 11:49 PM
Tried out Grammarly's AI grade predictor. Didn't want to use actual student work, so I had ChatGPT write a paper for one of my assignments and gave that to Grammarly. Grammarly promises to use publicly available info about your instructor to predict what they will say. The advice was *not* what I /1
Reposted by Jessica Winck
Reposted by Jessica Winck
It's far more important for a reader (and especially writers) to discover their own personal canons than the ones handed down from above. Anybody wanting to get into any genre should start by reading the books that sound cool to them. One weird trick, I know.
Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein should be required for anyone getting into sci-fi
August 11, 2025 at 1:20 PM
It's far more important for a reader (and especially writers) to discover their own personal canons than the ones handed down from above. Anybody wanting to get into any genre should start by reading the books that sound cool to them. One weird trick, I know.
Reposted by Jessica Winck
We're going to need journalists to stop talking about synthetic text extruding machines as if they have *thoughts* or *stances* that they are *trying* to *communicate*. ChatGPT can't *admit* anything, nor *self-report*. Gah.
www.wsj.com/tech/ai/chat...
www.wsj.com/tech/ai/chat...
August 7, 2025 at 1:46 PM
We're going to need journalists to stop talking about synthetic text extruding machines as if they have *thoughts* or *stances* that they are *trying* to *communicate*. ChatGPT can't *admit* anything, nor *self-report*. Gah.
www.wsj.com/tech/ai/chat...
www.wsj.com/tech/ai/chat...
Reposted by Jessica Winck
Reading is for everyone 💓 And indie bookshops and public libraries play an essential role in making sure everyone can see themselves represented in a story!
August 7, 2025 at 4:59 PM
Reading is for everyone 💓 And indie bookshops and public libraries play an essential role in making sure everyone can see themselves represented in a story!
Reposted by Jessica Winck
Maybe the conclusion I've written myself to, because writing IS thinking, is: if LLMs are part of the writing process, their productive use - so as not to potentially outsource thinking - must reject efficiency as a goal of using the technology. That sounds right to me, particularly for education.
Today's complaint about the AI in education discourse: Too much of it is framed around a future that is going to happen to us, as opposed to seeing the future as something we may have some agency to shape. I reject the deterministic view of AI, particularly genAI. It's a tool, not our master.
June 18, 2025 at 1:46 PM
Maybe the conclusion I've written myself to, because writing IS thinking, is: if LLMs are part of the writing process, their productive use - so as not to potentially outsource thinking - must reject efficiency as a goal of using the technology. That sounds right to me, particularly for education.