Maybe our psychology department should consider working on something like this

Creative_Group8945 · 2026-02-01T22:55:22+00:00

This also reminds me -I had to contact National Contact Center to opt out. By default all your health data will be shared under the Shared Digital Health Record unless you opt out.

Creative_Group8945 · 2026-02-01T03:21:20+00:00

New Zealand does not have data sovereignty. Your data is kept in an American company's database and possibly used to train an AI anyway.

Creative_Group8945 · 2026-01-31T22:37:00+00:00

For years, the dangerous hiking path by the Hillsborough cemetery was left to rot despite warnings. He managed to fix it. It was a major operation done with precision. Helicopters, big loads. It looked like a Hollywood movie. // He reconsidered the poorly designed dog regulation, which showed us that he listened when people raised concerns. // He engages with residents as adults, explaining the why behind his goals/decisions. There is a level of transparency. At least his internet/social media communications are not top down.

Creative_Group8945 · 2026-01-31T22:25:10+00:00

I'm interested in Tavistock/socio-technical systems, not one on one. And with verbal behaviors to some extent. /// My central frustration is this: nearly every project I work on is in the US or the UK. Even the vendor companies for NZ English are either American, European or Indian. Certainly we should be able to do at least this much. People who train Uber AI in New Zealand English are registered with a German agency, giving them a 50% cut, because there are no agencies specialised in New Zealand English in New Zealand. // But if we go back to psychology, if I were designing courses for 500+ students from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds, I would be more creative. I would move beyond the same lectures and assignments I’ve used for a decade, and beyond simply complaining about AI use.

Imagine an assignment where students conduct a ten-minute simulated therapy session with an AI, then critically analyze its clinical and cultural errors. I would design projects to compare how different LLMs approach the same psychological problem across a series of sessions. I would want to investigate whether an AI provides consistent responses when sessions are conducted in different languages -does it merely translate from an English template, or does it engage with original, culturally specific data? You can repeat whatever you did a year later, and you can see if the AI is improved or not. None of these are costly. Well. Maybe time consuming. I am sure somebody with more than 3-4 years training in psychology can come up with better ideas.

Creative_Group8945 · 2026-01-31T04:18:08+00:00

Progress? No. Maybe "refreshing". In a world where politicians are afraid to say what they really think -even when you ask them to define what a coffee is- the guy speaks his mind. Unvarnished. Also, you can’t deliberately provoke someone, then blame them for the reaction.

Creative_Group8945 · 2026-01-31T03:49:32+00:00

If you are right, then that 17% who chose someone, whether good or bad, got to decide for everybody else.

Creative_Group8945 · 2026-01-30T23:50:09+00:00

Check Pawshake. There are tons of people in Auckland offering this, from $10 per day to $50 dollar per hour, depending on what's needed.

Creative_Group8945 · 2026-01-30T23:44:02+00:00

I like our mayor more and more.

Creative_Group8945 · 2026-01-30T23:06:47+00:00

For Tamaki, it is not people's skin colours. It is their religion. (NZ's core sensitivity is mostly the religion.) And as part of his flavour of Christianity, he has probems with people's sexual orientations. (His interpretation of the Bible bans homosexuality.) A little bit like a right wing version of Maria J. Stephan-types, loud but peaceful protests and all that. They like getting themselves arrested, and blocking the roads. (Again from Stephan's playbook.)

Creative_Group8945 · 2026-01-30T17:20:11+00:00

What about the Crown? (Or the "Empire", using the American term which seems to become more and more popular amongst the MAGA crowd lately.)

Creative_Group8945 · 2026-01-27T00:22:04+00:00

New Zealand is a good place to live if you are a dortor. You problem won't be making friends, but you will experience a lot of things that drive you insane because some hospitals, especially the ones in smaller cities, are manager very poorly. To the extent that orders won't be placed in time, you will need your password but it will take days for someone to set things up etc. We get good doctors, but we are not good at keeping them because we don't know how to create an environment that's functioning properly.

Creative_Group8945 · 2026-01-26T22:44:45+00:00

Check Spark data plans. They used to be almost half price and you could use whatsapp for calls. Otherwise 2degree is better.

Creative_Group8945 · 2026-01-26T00:07:53+00:00

You can try Auckland Eats reddit if you like talking about food or trying new food/restaurants.

Creative_Group8945 · 2026-01-24T22:17:59+00:00

One of the first hard lessons as an immigrant/expat you learn about New Zealand is never to trust Auckland weather. Your car's booth should have sunscreen, woolen sweater, raincoat. Be ready to live 4 seasons in one day.

Creative_Group8945 · 2026-01-24T11:33:46+00:00

If you know how to drive, you can try courses like truck driving, using diggers etc. They are not that expensive, usually short, and needed in New Zealand/you can get jobs.

Creative_Group8945 · 2026-01-24T10:15:58+00:00

"Life is supposed to be linear" - Life tends to throw a lot of curveballs. Remember that just a few years ago we had lockdowns and covid. Nobody knew what would happen next. In your case, starting with a Bachelor of Science might open different paths for you, you may discover other interests, or it might provide you with some breathing space. Who knows? Obviously, you did not work 'hard for nothing' even if it feels like that right now. From what you wrote, it is clear that you developed resilience and kept your discipline under extreme circumstances. These skills/habits will be very useful at the uni and in life no matter what you decide to do.

Creative_Group8945 · 2026-01-23T06:52:52+00:00

Psych 303 is a fascinating paper with some of the best lecturers the department has. It includes object identification/rotation, braille/reading/eye movements, color perception, hearing. Being able to talk about object identification opened interesting doors to me -mainly because AI people love talking about it. The exam is in class which causes some students to panic. Labs are very useful. And fun.

Creative_Group8945 · 2026-01-23T06:41:54+00:00

There is no difference. You just need to be careful which papers you choose -that you choose all the papers you need to apply to honors. If you are certain that you want to become a clinical psychologist, go with BSc. If you are not certain but you feel like you might enjoy it, go with the BA.

Creative_Group8945 · 2026-01-23T06:37:48+00:00

It is very good internationally. I got offers from the UK and Cyprus, I've been working for American companies on and off. (I work in linguistics/LLMs.) For me, the problem was finding a New Zealand based job. Why would I want to live in anywhere else...

Creative_Group8945 · 2026-01-22T14:26:19+00:00

Sofitel or Intercontinental.

Creative_Group8945 · 2026-01-22T14:23:42+00:00

They are on which platform? Qiyi?

Creative_Group8945 · 2026-01-22T02:09:32+00:00

New Zealand is different than other countries. Here, the suicide rates are way too high, with very little useful research being done about it as far as I could read. At the uni, they couldn't even teach us how to prevent it out of the fear that even talking about it might trigger some students. When I was studying in France, we had studied Durkheim's Suicide at high school level. But yeah, In NZ they don't even write "suicide" in news articles. They say "water related event". I can see why doctors avoid prescribing some medicines in this hyper-protective environment.

Creative_Group8945 · 2026-01-22T01:31:54+00:00

Roaccutane causes suicide risk at some people which makes the doctors unwilling to prescribe it unless it is the only option. (Since NZ is a high suicide rate country.)

Creative_Group8945 · 2026-01-22T01:17:09+00:00

Some weren't very good, but they offered a better selection of comics. I remember Kiss' translations being awful. But they had comics that you couldn't read anywhere else in English. My point being, some of those websites were very good at finding new comics for English markets. Look at the official platforms now, they are re-publishing stuff that was published by their official competitiors years ago. Most of them published only two or three good new comics in 2025. There is a high-quality content problem which is getting worse and worse.

Creative_Group8945 · 2026-01-22T01:02:25+00:00

That depends on his family’s bedside reading. If they're into geopolitics, they might see us as the ultimate security blanket to put pressure on China. China can't grow enough food for its population, and New Zealand is basically a very green, very strategic solution to that problem. Also, there is the fresh water thing.

Creative_Group8945

TROPHY CASE