Gustav Markkula
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markkula.bsky.social
Gustav Markkula
@markkula.bsky.social
3K followers 860 following 160 posts
Prof at Leeds trying to model human behaviour, the weirder the better

Into road safety, neuroscience, machine learning, and connections between fundamental and applied science

https://environment.leeds.ac.uk/transport/staff/957/professor-gustav-markkula
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markkula.bsky.social
Great post, and can definitely be read as film noir voiceover in places
Film noir detective looking out a window, and a screenshot from the linked post: “Moving forward, I would have to be more skeptical, even (or perhaps especially) of high-impact papers with impressive results.”
May 19, 2025 at 5:19 PM
markkula.bsky.social
CleanRL was a revelation for me, and I noticed that this paper (which Daphne pointed me to 😄) lauded the single file approach in general. It’s an interesting question I think - readability of a finished research product vs modularity and robustness of a codebase under dev?

arxiv.org/abs/2502.20349
R3. Adopt the “single file” philosophy. Ideally, key workflows (e.g. model or evaluation definititions) should be defined in a single file. This has emerged as a powerful force for reproducibility in ML research (see Table 1 for examples). While this approach contradicts traditional software engineering principles of modularity and abstraction, it offers distinct advantages for research code: (1) complete understanding of an important component (e.g. how a model works) requires reading only one file, (2) minimal abstraction layers and dependencies, and (3) easy adaptation of either complete implementations or specific components. One can simply copy this single file into another codebase. Removing friction from future reuse also benefits us—as we can see from Table 1, these methods get a large number of citations.
May 11, 2025 at 8:21 PM
markkula.bsky.social
Amazing days at Champalimaud Neuroscience @champalimaudr.bsky.social in Lisbon, discussing how animals, humans, and human road users do sensorimotor control. Super smart super friendly people, and my reading list has exploded. 😅Thanks so much for the invite Alfonso Renart and colleagues!
Champalimaud Foundation, right next to the sea Me in front of the Champalimaud building, complete with indoors palm trees and midair tubular glass corridor Torre Belém A custard pasteis, perfectly flaky and still warm from the oven, and a cafe pingado
April 30, 2025 at 4:43 PM
markkula.bsky.social
A recipe for pain-free(?) academic writing

gmarkkula.github.io/writing-reci...

I’m a big fan of “top-down iterative writing”, for all kinds of academic texts. This is my take on why it works and one way to do it, in a series of (individually pain-minimised) steps from blank screen to submission
🧪
February 2, 2025 at 10:55 AM
markkula.bsky.social
A recipe for pain-free(?) academic writing

gmarkkula.github.io/writing-reci...

I’m a big fan of “top-down iterative writing”, for all kinds of academic texts. This is my take on why it helps, and one way to do it, in a series of (individually pain-minimised) steps from blank screen to submission
🧪
February 2, 2025 at 10:13 AM
markkula.bsky.social
NYT were a little playful with their Connections game today, using pictograms instead of words, but the normally soft spoken puzzlers in the comments section were clearly not in a playful mood 😂
Abby Sydney Dec. 11 I absolutely HATED this. I like Connections because it’s a word puzzle, not a visual puzzle. It’s a massive “No” from me. 31 Replies792 RecommendShareFlag Caz commented December 11 C Caz Australia Dec. 11 I can see this working as a completely separate puzzle but please, please don’t ruin my favourite puzzle by adding in this version. It changes it from being a word puzzle to an interpretation of a picture puzzle. 4 Replies649 RecommendShareFlag タイタイ commented December 11 タ タイタイ 日本 Dec. 11 I didn't like this one. The text version is less ambiguous. A drawing of a mouth? Maybe lips? Teeth? Hard to tell from the image what the focus is supposed to be. PaisleyP Australia Dec. 11 Detested this format. Not all of us associate the pictures with the words they were assigned. I think this is too personal to the experience of the puzzle maker, not universal enough to be enjoyable. Please don't do it again, or make it a different puzzle. Connections is much more fun for me as a word game. 5 Replies430 RecommendShareFlag H commented December 11 H H NZ Dec. 11 I sure love trying to identify the ambiguous ice cream topping from a monochromatic icon. Good thing it couldn't be one of literal hundreds of options 😠 11 Replies341 RecommendShareFlag Bryan commented December 11 B Bryan Brisbane Dec. 11 Add me to the list of folks who didn’t like this version of the puzzle. Please go back to the words. Felix Göttingen Dec. 11 Please never do this again. Reply105 RecommendShare
December 12, 2024 at 8:54 PM
markkula.bsky.social
In other news it’s great to be back in lovely Delft, looking forward to look my most serious (?) tomorrow in the Dutch academic paraphernalia
November 26, 2024 at 8:14 PM
markkula.bsky.social
Was wondering how global inequality has changed over time and found this great read. Improvement in the last 20 years, but you still need to go back to ca 1880 to find a more equal world, and that elephant curve behind the improvement resonates a lot with current events…
wir2022.wid.world/chapter-2/
Graph showing Gini coefficient going up from 0.60 in 1820 to 0.72 in 1910 then fluctuating thereabouts until 2000 from where it drops to 0.67 in 2020. Graph showing the global growth from 1980 to 2020 in per capita real income for the different percentiles of that income. There is one peak around the 40-60 percentile, a trough at around the 80-90 percentile and then another peak for the very highest percentiles - overall showing how the lower and middle income classes of rich countries have lagged behind in growth
November 25, 2024 at 8:32 AM
markkula.bsky.social
Name a game with a 10/10 soundtrack

Still gives me the shivers
Promotional artwork for the game Outer Wilds
November 24, 2024 at 1:43 PM
markkula.bsky.social
Leading to this little 1964 gem for example

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
October 3, 2024 at 6:51 AM
markkula.bsky.social
I don’t care if it was a reference manager misclick or a misunderstanding of my weird name, I appreciate the personal touch regardless 🧪
Screenshot from paper: “Accordingly, Telban [16] proposed a visual–vestibular interac- interaction model. Later, Gustav [17] confirmed that during driving, drivers integrate visual and vestibular cues rather than relying solely on the vestibular system for perceptual information.”
May 18, 2024 at 9:00 AM