Lal Dhillon
@laldhillon.bsky.social
Stories make sense of chaos. https://laldhillon.substack.com/
I remember learning from Mike *years* ago when I was just a kid, and clicking towards the end of the lesson just how talented he was. I think the sign of a real generational talent is that you get so caught up listening to how good it is that you forget how impressive it is.
Sleep Token on one guitar sounds HUGE
YouTube video by mikedawesofficial
youtu.be
May 31, 2025 at 7:18 PM
I remember learning from Mike *years* ago when I was just a kid, and clicking towards the end of the lesson just how talented he was. I think the sign of a real generational talent is that you get so caught up listening to how good it is that you forget how impressive it is.
New substack - some thoughts on the things we think keep us safe, the things that actually do, and how everything falls apart if we don't believe we have a shared life.
open.substack.com/pub/laldhill...
open.substack.com/pub/laldhill...
Paper for Contracts
And the desert on our doorstep
open.substack.com
May 13, 2025 at 8:31 AM
New substack - some thoughts on the things we think keep us safe, the things that actually do, and how everything falls apart if we don't believe we have a shared life.
open.substack.com/pub/laldhill...
open.substack.com/pub/laldhill...
Deeply encouraged to see the appointment of a Pope who believes in empathy and loving the other. The Pope isn't a political appointee, but governments that build their foundations out of cruelty, hatred and violence make politics theological, and therefore something we need to speak into.
May 8, 2025 at 8:18 PM
Deeply encouraged to see the appointment of a Pope who believes in empathy and loving the other. The Pope isn't a political appointee, but governments that build their foundations out of cruelty, hatred and violence make politics theological, and therefore something we need to speak into.
Reposted by Lal Dhillon
A Chicago Pope implies the existence of an MLA Pope and APA Pope
May 8, 2025 at 5:36 PM
A Chicago Pope implies the existence of an MLA Pope and APA Pope
Reposted by Lal Dhillon
filling time on air until the new pope is announced is known as "pontiffication"
May 8, 2025 at 4:18 PM
filling time on air until the new pope is announced is known as "pontiffication"
Reposted by Lal Dhillon
Being considered a legend of a parent is worth way more than dignity or a few other old people's sneering giggles. Embrace it all, the louder the better!!
April 30, 2025 at 6:59 PM
Being considered a legend of a parent is worth way more than dignity or a few other old people's sneering giggles. Embrace it all, the louder the better!!
"When the new Pope took on his role it was seen as a foretaste of the world to come, but now at the time of his death it feels as though he was fighting against a raging tide which has welled up on our shores."
Some thoughts a week on from the passing of Pope Francis.
Some thoughts a week on from the passing of Pope Francis.
What we mean when we say 'progress'
And what it means to move against the times
laldhillon.substack.com
April 28, 2025 at 4:35 PM
"When the new Pope took on his role it was seen as a foretaste of the world to come, but now at the time of his death it feels as though he was fighting against a raging tide which has welled up on our shores."
Some thoughts a week on from the passing of Pope Francis.
Some thoughts a week on from the passing of Pope Francis.
Some thoughts for the quiet of #holysaturday, about the moment where our idea of God collides with the real thing.
#easter
#easter
The Quiet Day
Some thoughts on the day when God lies dead
open.substack.com
April 19, 2025 at 10:38 AM
Some thoughts for the quiet of #holysaturday, about the moment where our idea of God collides with the real thing.
#easter
#easter
Reposted by Lal Dhillon
Even accepting the premise that AI produces useful writing (which no one should), using AI in education is like using a forklift at the gym. The weights do not actually need to be moved from place to place. That is not the work. The work is what happens within you.
April 15, 2025 at 2:56 AM
Even accepting the premise that AI produces useful writing (which no one should), using AI in education is like using a forklift at the gym. The weights do not actually need to be moved from place to place. That is not the work. The work is what happens within you.
Records like this are illuminating. Words like this could role off the tongue of twenty or more politicians in any western democracy. They normalise depravity in an artistic and subtle way that we aren't really inoculated against.
While the Nazi extermination program was not openly advertised, the existence of concentration camps and mass incarceration of political enemies were very public and touted by the Nazis as a humane solution to national problems. Here an interview given by Himmler to a sympathetic American in 1940:
April 15, 2025 at 11:23 AM
Records like this are illuminating. Words like this could role off the tongue of twenty or more politicians in any western democracy. They normalise depravity in an artistic and subtle way that we aren't really inoculated against.
New substack is live! Some thoughts on desperation, and the place where we find God.
In among the reeds
Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, ‘Every boy that is born to the Hebrews you shall throw into the Nile, but you shall let every girl live.’
open.substack.com
April 14, 2025 at 10:16 AM
New substack is live! Some thoughts on desperation, and the place where we find God.
Reposted by Lal Dhillon
A tricky thing about modern society is that no one has any idea when they don’t die.
Like, the number of lives saved by controlling air pollution in America is probably over 200,000 per year, but the number of people who think their life was saved by controlling air pollution is zero.
Like, the number of lives saved by controlling air pollution in America is probably over 200,000 per year, but the number of people who think their life was saved by controlling air pollution is zero.
April 7, 2025 at 4:13 AM
A tricky thing about modern society is that no one has any idea when they don’t die.
Like, the number of lives saved by controlling air pollution in America is probably over 200,000 per year, but the number of people who think their life was saved by controlling air pollution is zero.
Like, the number of lives saved by controlling air pollution in America is probably over 200,000 per year, but the number of people who think their life was saved by controlling air pollution is zero.
Reposted by Lal Dhillon
Where “bothsides-ism” prevails in the churches, where the slogan, “let us not talk politics” rides a wave of pious silence to protect the economic interests of churches, we sympathize with creeping totalitarianism that is actively destroying the space of and possibility for political difference.
March 31, 2025 at 6:29 PM
Where “bothsides-ism” prevails in the churches, where the slogan, “let us not talk politics” rides a wave of pious silence to protect the economic interests of churches, we sympathize with creeping totalitarianism that is actively destroying the space of and possibility for political difference.
'Oh no, my cheating opponent has been caught cheating and disqualified - this will surely work in their favour' - it's obvious nonsense. Even if it *does* boost support for the far right, allowing your opponent to break the rules with impunity will probably be worse for you.
Spare me your 'this'll be great for the far-right actually' takes. It's the worst kind of liberal defeatism.
March 31, 2025 at 4:20 PM
'Oh no, my cheating opponent has been caught cheating and disqualified - this will surely work in their favour' - it's obvious nonsense. Even if it *does* boost support for the far right, allowing your opponent to break the rules with impunity will probably be worse for you.
Reposted by Lal Dhillon
If your god causes fires but the democrats control hurricanes, there’s a deep theological paranoia at work; it’s the church’s responsibility to resist this disoriented imagination split between ideology and theology
January 10, 2025 at 7:10 PM
If your god causes fires but the democrats control hurricanes, there’s a deep theological paranoia at work; it’s the church’s responsibility to resist this disoriented imagination split between ideology and theology
Dan: starts to suspect Minah then *immediately* flames out at the roundtable.
The monkey paw in Minah's room:
#theTraitors
The monkey paw in Minah's room:
#theTraitors
a cartoon hand reaching out towards a purple object
ALT: a cartoon hand reaching out towards a purple object
media.tenor.com
January 11, 2025 at 12:08 AM
Dan: starts to suspect Minah then *immediately* flames out at the roundtable.
The monkey paw in Minah's room:
#theTraitors
The monkey paw in Minah's room:
#theTraitors
Reposted by Lal Dhillon
I see three distinct phases. Pre-Fox, when opinion was diverse but actual facts were indisputable.
Fox/Trump, where objective truth was subjected to the false equivalence of ‘alternative facts’ (ie lies).
And now, where media & tech platform owners collude with him to drown out the truth altogether.
Fox/Trump, where objective truth was subjected to the false equivalence of ‘alternative facts’ (ie lies).
And now, where media & tech platform owners collude with him to drown out the truth altogether.
January 8, 2025 at 3:45 PM
I see three distinct phases. Pre-Fox, when opinion was diverse but actual facts were indisputable.
Fox/Trump, where objective truth was subjected to the false equivalence of ‘alternative facts’ (ie lies).
And now, where media & tech platform owners collude with him to drown out the truth altogether.
Fox/Trump, where objective truth was subjected to the false equivalence of ‘alternative facts’ (ie lies).
And now, where media & tech platform owners collude with him to drown out the truth altogether.
Reposted by Lal Dhillon
The fact checking activisms of tech platforms were always more public relations than comprehensive attempts to dam up the torrent of mis/disinfo. Remember, the logic of these platforms (no matter what slogans they use) is committed to capturing data on every aspect our lives.
January 8, 2025 at 1:51 AM
The fact checking activisms of tech platforms were always more public relations than comprehensive attempts to dam up the torrent of mis/disinfo. Remember, the logic of these platforms (no matter what slogans they use) is committed to capturing data on every aspect our lives.
It's hard to think of a worse aberration than a genAI sermon. Preaching is a spiritual and relational activity. You might as well ask the machine to pray for you while you're at it.
I feel like I keep seeing church leaders saying things like, “How do we use AI in our ministries?”
YOU DON’T
Whether it is permissible to use the plagiarism machine that’s destroying the environment to write your sermons, etc. should not be an open question ⚓️
YOU DON’T
Whether it is permissible to use the plagiarism machine that’s destroying the environment to write your sermons, etc. should not be an open question ⚓️
January 4, 2025 at 9:45 PM
It's hard to think of a worse aberration than a genAI sermon. Preaching is a spiritual and relational activity. You might as well ask the machine to pray for you while you're at it.
#theTraitors is microcosm of the UK: equal parts dumb, dystopian and wholesome. You've got a lowkey racist pile on of someone for being nice+a doctor, a very smart black woman running rings around everyone else, and someone who is pretending to be welsh for reasons only she fully understands.
January 4, 2025 at 9:47 AM
#theTraitors is microcosm of the UK: equal parts dumb, dystopian and wholesome. You've got a lowkey racist pile on of someone for being nice+a doctor, a very smart black woman running rings around everyone else, and someone who is pretending to be welsh for reasons only she fully understands.
Reposted by Lal Dhillon
One of the great things about #TheTraitors is that it doesn't (yet) seem to be being played by people who've seen 'The Traitors'.
January 4, 2025 at 9:17 AM
One of the great things about #TheTraitors is that it doesn't (yet) seem to be being played by people who've seen 'The Traitors'.
All my best photos have the bairn in, but I quite like these too
December 31, 2024 at 8:56 PM
All my best photos have the bairn in, but I quite like these too
This thread nails it. GenAI advocates at uni don't realise that they are devaluing their product because they think the product is the writing the student produces and not the student themselves.
The real crisis is the way some of our colleagues encourage it, because THEY don't believe in those skills, and the way administrations encourage it, because they absolutely don't believe in them. And that's what truly devalues a college education.
December 26, 2024 at 6:21 PM
This thread nails it. GenAI advocates at uni don't realise that they are devaluing their product because they think the product is the writing the student produces and not the student themselves.
This would be fine if there were AI tools which genuinely improved the learning process, but there aren't. In most cases it makes things worse e.g by encouraging plagiarism or feeding students bad info.
I'm not obligated to use a bad, unethical tool just because it cost a lot of money to make.
I'm not obligated to use a bad, unethical tool just because it cost a lot of money to make.
👇 Students will be using AI (heavily) whether you like it or not. The challenge for us as educators is to incorporate AI responsibly into our classroom to facilitate learning. We can have a debate on what method is best, but the response "AI is bad, don't use it" doesn't engage with reality.
Yeah, the big issue I’m running into is that students will just go to mainstream LLMs to get explanations rather than find other resources or ask *me* questions - and the LLMs are trained on 2010s LinkedIn/Medium data science slop so they end up with the wrong understanding.
December 15, 2024 at 10:56 PM
This would be fine if there were AI tools which genuinely improved the learning process, but there aren't. In most cases it makes things worse e.g by encouraging plagiarism or feeding students bad info.
I'm not obligated to use a bad, unethical tool just because it cost a lot of money to make.
I'm not obligated to use a bad, unethical tool just because it cost a lot of money to make.