Patrick Luck
@patrickluck.bsky.social
Historian of slavery in the lower Mississippi valley and early republic
Union president
Author of Replanting a Slave Society, https://upress.virginia.edu/title/5665/
Book review editor for H-Early-America
Union president
Author of Replanting a Slave Society, https://upress.virginia.edu/title/5665/
Book review editor for H-Early-America
One of those cultural shifts that will always stay with me is when the dominant discourse on lawyers went almost overnight from "well-paid, if somewhat soulless, profession" to "you naively though you could make money doing that? What a rube!" in 2008.
Well, good luck CS majors!
Well, good luck CS majors!
From today's Chronicle of Higher Ed briefing. I am *never* an advocate of cutting programs. But I am curious to see if there will be the same type of "students aren't majoring in this, so let's cut the program" discourse around computer science as there always is for the arts and humanities.
November 11, 2025 at 4:30 PM
One of those cultural shifts that will always stay with me is when the dominant discourse on lawyers went almost overnight from "well-paid, if somewhat soulless, profession" to "you naively though you could make money doing that? What a rube!" in 2008.
Well, good luck CS majors!
Well, good luck CS majors!
Reposted by Patrick Luck
November 11, 2025 at 1:23 AM
When you get something like this you realize the numbers are just pulled out of the air.
I was just talking to someone about how, when I got a semi-elective surgery a few years ago, no one could even give me a ballpark figure of how much it would cost.
I was just talking to someone about how, when I got a semi-elective surgery a few years ago, no one could even give me a ballpark figure of how much it would cost.
A much smaller charging story (but I feel like a wilder one; the numbers here are estimates b/c I don't remember exactly as 6 years ago).
Billed charge for blood test: $500
Amount I paid out of pocket: $19
Amount insurance paid: $0
WTF?
Billed charge for blood test: $500
Amount I paid out of pocket: $19
Amount insurance paid: $0
WTF?
so, today I got the surgery center where I got my deviated septum fixed to send me an itemized bill so I could submit to my FSA for reimbursement
my out of pocket cost: $473
what my insurance paid: $4258
what they tried to charge my insurance (not a misprint): $173692
my out of pocket cost: $473
what my insurance paid: $4258
what they tried to charge my insurance (not a misprint): $173692
November 11, 2025 at 1:15 PM
When you get something like this you realize the numbers are just pulled out of the air.
I was just talking to someone about how, when I got a semi-elective surgery a few years ago, no one could even give me a ballpark figure of how much it would cost.
I was just talking to someone about how, when I got a semi-elective surgery a few years ago, no one could even give me a ballpark figure of how much it would cost.
A much smaller charging story (but I feel like a wilder one; the numbers here are estimates b/c I don't remember exactly as 6 years ago).
Billed charge for blood test: $500
Amount I paid out of pocket: $19
Amount insurance paid: $0
WTF?
Billed charge for blood test: $500
Amount I paid out of pocket: $19
Amount insurance paid: $0
WTF?
so, today I got the surgery center where I got my deviated septum fixed to send me an itemized bill so I could submit to my FSA for reimbursement
my out of pocket cost: $473
what my insurance paid: $4258
what they tried to charge my insurance (not a misprint): $173692
my out of pocket cost: $473
what my insurance paid: $4258
what they tried to charge my insurance (not a misprint): $173692
I was at an event yesterday where Rand Paul spoke via video and talked about how great it was to send ACA money "directly to the people" so that they could work collectively to get better deals on health care.
November 11, 2025 at 1:14 PM
A much smaller charging story (but I feel like a wilder one; the numbers here are estimates b/c I don't remember exactly as 6 years ago).
Billed charge for blood test: $500
Amount I paid out of pocket: $19
Amount insurance paid: $0
WTF?
Billed charge for blood test: $500
Amount I paid out of pocket: $19
Amount insurance paid: $0
WTF?
Reposted by Patrick Luck
From today's Chronicle of Higher Ed briefing. I am *never* an advocate of cutting programs. But I am curious to see if there will be the same type of "students aren't majoring in this, so let's cut the program" discourse around computer science as there always is for the arts and humanities.
November 11, 2025 at 12:38 PM
From today's Chronicle of Higher Ed briefing. I am *never* an advocate of cutting programs. But I am curious to see if there will be the same type of "students aren't majoring in this, so let's cut the program" discourse around computer science as there always is for the arts and humanities.
Reposted by Patrick Luck
this is so silly. people know the deal with bond. the writers should just embrace the metatextual aspects of the franchise
James Bond’s death in No Time to Die is causing a nightmare for the next film. Writers are stuck because Bond “was blown to pieces.”
Anthony Horowitz, author of three 007 novels, says:
“You can't have him wake up in shower and saying it was all a dream."
radaronline.com/p/james-bond...
Anthony Horowitz, author of three 007 novels, says:
“You can't have him wake up in shower and saying it was all a dream."
radaronline.com/p/james-bond...
November 11, 2025 at 1:01 PM
this is so silly. people know the deal with bond. the writers should just embrace the metatextual aspects of the franchise
One of the most revelatory moments about how our politics actually works is when the Senate decided not to do a rigorous trial of Trump after the autogolpe attempt because people wanted to go home for Valentines Day.
Just a completely feckless group.
Just a completely feckless group.
This is most of the reason but remember it next time they tell you how important the senate is for allowing slow and careful deliberation and debate
The least sinister (but probably just as enraging) explanation has always been "they just wanna get out of the Senate chambers and off the clock." Why make the process take longer when they could fail quickly and go home?
November 11, 2025 at 12:08 PM
One of the most revelatory moments about how our politics actually works is when the Senate decided not to do a rigorous trial of Trump after the autogolpe attempt because people wanted to go home for Valentines Day.
Just a completely feckless group.
Just a completely feckless group.
Reposted by Patrick Luck
As someone who spent ten years in grad school (and did defend + graduate) I’m always so weirded out by people who think being smart about one thing makes them smart about everything when what being highly educated did to me was saddle me with the crushing certainty that I’m not smart about anything
the pandemic really fucked him up. he had no expertise in public health, but felt like being a quant guy should make him an expert by default, and people not agreeing with him on that point just sent him into a bizarre radicalizing ego spiral.
November 10, 2025 at 6:52 PM
As someone who spent ten years in grad school (and did defend + graduate) I’m always so weirded out by people who think being smart about one thing makes them smart about everything when what being highly educated did to me was saddle me with the crushing certainty that I’m not smart about anything
Lots of people, understandably, refusing or unable to accept both how dire the situation is and what it would actually take to fix it.
November 10, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Lots of people, understandably, refusing or unable to accept both how dire the situation is and what it would actually take to fix it.
No way out but through, and a lot of people are very invested in not understanding this.
I'm dispositionally not an "accelerationist," but it's getting harder to think we get out of this crisis without something really system-breaking happening.
November 10, 2025 at 12:48 AM
No way out but through, and a lot of people are very invested in not understanding this.
I'm dispositionally not an "accelerationist," but it's getting harder to think we get out of this crisis without something really system-breaking happening.
November 10, 2025 at 12:48 AM
I'm dispositionally not an "accelerationist," but it's getting harder to think we get out of this crisis without something really system-breaking happening.
Reposted by Patrick Luck
Historians, race and ethnicity, women & gender studies scholars, take a look. The idea that teaching *accurate* history and scholarship is "grievance studies" misdirects who is nursing the grievances. Gorgeously written. Read it now.
November 9, 2025 at 11:30 AM
Historians, race and ethnicity, women & gender studies scholars, take a look. The idea that teaching *accurate* history and scholarship is "grievance studies" misdirects who is nursing the grievances. Gorgeously written. Read it now.
I feel like I've been at 1-3 for at least a couple of years.
November 9, 2025 at 11:18 AM
I feel like I've been at 1-3 for at least a couple of years.
Reposted by Patrick Luck
What an amazing essay from the former chair of Africana Studies at Bowdoin. I'll share a few sections in the reply but seriously, read the whole thing. It's all insightful and beautifully written.
lithub.com/maybe-dont-t...
lithub.com/maybe-dont-t...
Maybe Don’t Talk to the New York Times About Zohran Mamdani
It’s remarkable, the people you’ll hear from. Teach for even a little while at an expensive institution—the term they tend to prefer is “elite”—and odds are that eventually someone who was a studen…
lithub.com
November 8, 2025 at 7:11 PM
What an amazing essay from the former chair of Africana Studies at Bowdoin. I'll share a few sections in the reply but seriously, read the whole thing. It's all insightful and beautifully written.
lithub.com/maybe-dont-t...
lithub.com/maybe-dont-t...
Whelp. I guess I'm never going to Target again.
"Store employees are now required to smile if they are within 10 feet of a shopper.
They also must make eye contact with and wave to or greet the customer.
If they’re within four feet, the employee should ask how the customer’s day is going or if they need help."
🙄 Won't stop the boycott, y'all.
They also must make eye contact with and wave to or greet the customer.
If they’re within four feet, the employee should ask how the customer’s day is going or if they need help."
🙄 Won't stop the boycott, y'all.
Target is now requiring its employees to smile more
As the holiday season fast approaches, Target is urging its employees to add a little more “jolly” to their work routine.
www.wilx.com
November 8, 2025 at 4:25 PM
Whelp. I guess I'm never going to Target again.
Reposted by Patrick Luck
A bee on a dune sunflower
November 7, 2025 at 10:01 PM
A bee on a dune sunflower
Reposted by Patrick Luck
A lynx spider had babies in the garden
November 7, 2025 at 10:01 PM
A lynx spider had babies in the garden
I don't know man, cold calling church secretaries and asking for money probably isn't a very insightful social experiment.
November 8, 2025 at 2:04 PM
I don't know man, cold calling church secretaries and asking for money probably isn't a very insightful social experiment.
"Mr. Jackson says it paved the way for the My Lai massacre in Vietnam and Abu Ghraib in Iraq. These incidents... became and remain so infamous not because they represent what Mr. Jackson seems to believe has become 'the American way of making war,' but because they represent a departure from it."
I didn't have Philippine War atrocities on my bingo card for this week: www.wsj.com/opinion/sple...
‘Splendid Liberators’ Review: Conflicts and Colonies
President McKinley had hoped to maintain peace with Spain. The U.S. would soon be fighting from the Caribbean to the Pacific.
www.wsj.com
November 8, 2025 at 1:30 PM
"Mr. Jackson says it paved the way for the My Lai massacre in Vietnam and Abu Ghraib in Iraq. These incidents... became and remain so infamous not because they represent what Mr. Jackson seems to believe has become 'the American way of making war,' but because they represent a departure from it."
I didn't have Philippine War atrocities on my bingo card for this week: www.wsj.com/opinion/sple...
‘Splendid Liberators’ Review: Conflicts and Colonies
President McKinley had hoped to maintain peace with Spain. The U.S. would soon be fighting from the Caribbean to the Pacific.
www.wsj.com
November 8, 2025 at 1:29 PM
I didn't have Philippine War atrocities on my bingo card for this week: www.wsj.com/opinion/sple...
A lynx spider had babies in the garden
November 7, 2025 at 10:01 PM
A lynx spider had babies in the garden
Reposted by Patrick Luck
A fun question. In 5 years time, what looks better? The US’s enormous bet & capex on AI? Or China’s equally enormous bet and capex on renewables?
China has made cheap, clean energy available in huge quantities. The world should take the win econ.st/4oqFszB
Photo: Eyevine
Photo: Eyevine
November 7, 2025 at 7:10 AM
A fun question. In 5 years time, what looks better? The US’s enormous bet & capex on AI? Or China’s equally enormous bet and capex on renewables?
What it looks like for fields to willingly commit suicide.
"Large language models (LLMs) are increasingly used in the social sciences to simulate human behavior, based on the assumption that they can generate realistic, human-like text. "
arxiv.org/abs/2511.04195
"Large language models (LLMs) are increasingly used in the social sciences to simulate human behavior, based on the assumption that they can generate realistic, human-like text. "
arxiv.org/abs/2511.04195
Computational Turing Test Reveals Systematic Differences Between Human and AI Language
Large language models (LLMs) are increasingly used in the social sciences to simulate human behavior, based on the assumption that they can generate realistic, human-like text. Yet this assumption rem...
arxiv.org
November 7, 2025 at 11:21 AM
What it looks like for fields to willingly commit suicide.
"Large language models (LLMs) are increasingly used in the social sciences to simulate human behavior, based on the assumption that they can generate realistic, human-like text. "
arxiv.org/abs/2511.04195
"Large language models (LLMs) are increasingly used in the social sciences to simulate human behavior, based on the assumption that they can generate realistic, human-like text. "
arxiv.org/abs/2511.04195
Reposted by Patrick Luck
A family friend was telling us about what her husband shared about his experience in Broadview before he was deported back to Mexico. She's been sharing to friends and family because she's just in disbelief & horror what her husband told her. She wasn't able to talk to him until he was in Mexico.
November 7, 2025 at 3:08 AM
A family friend was telling us about what her husband shared about his experience in Broadview before he was deported back to Mexico. She's been sharing to friends and family because she's just in disbelief & horror what her husband told her. She wasn't able to talk to him until he was in Mexico.
Reposted by Patrick Luck
Nobody ever says "I wish I'd played more video games" when they die. Video games haven't been around long enough. I may be the first to say it.
October 16, 2025 at 8:18 PM
Nobody ever says "I wish I'd played more video games" when they die. Video games haven't been around long enough. I may be the first to say it.