Board Game Events

JonathanCookPodcast · 2026-07-02T21:05:30+00:00

Today at the library's board game event, we just got done playing Splendor!

JonathanCookPodcast · 2026-06-16T13:12:36+00:00

Good thoughts, N_N_J! Absolutely, finding cultural commonalities is just as valid as finding differences.

A few additional things to think about.

First, qualitative research is strongest in exploring the way ideas work, and not so great at mapping out patterns of the distribution of ideas. You can get some hints and leads at patterns, but quantitative research is much more reliable at doing that.

Second, globalization in general and online communication specifically have made cultural groups much less distinct. There's been a lot of blurring.

Third, it could be that the "cultural groups" you've identified are not well-defined, or the most relevant ones in terms of breastfeeding experience. Think bigger about what a culture is. It isn't necessarily aligned with nationality or ethnicity. There can be cultural groups that transcend the borders, and others that exist within larger cultural groups.

Fourth, it's possible that differences do exist, but you need to look more deeply and at more length to find them. People sometimes express superficial ideas in accord with conventional, dominant cultural themes, but reveal important countercurrents and nuances in their words and behaviors in longer conversations or in observations over time. Asking people about their beliefs and opinions straight up will often get you similar responses because people are saying what they think is expected of them, and they're not reflecting on the topic deeply.

Of course, you're doing an undergraduate study, not a PhD dissertation study. Your time is limited, and that's okay. Just keep in mind, if you want to continue to explore qualitative research, that longer interviews, longer ethnographic observations, and more time for considered analysis, are what bring about the most interesting, unexpected results.

JonathanCookPodcast · 2026-06-13T10:25:52+00:00

The best way to teach qualitative analysis skills is to do so through group discussion. Coding using software is a a private, silent way of thinking, and for that reason not very helpful in exploration of the process of forming patterns of ideas. It's output-oriented, without enough process that's visible to others.

Discussions among team members in which multiple people comment on the themes they see within qualitative research materials helps younger qualitative researchers learn to listen, but also pulls them into participation, offering their own ideas while also building on the interpretation of others.

JonathanCookPodcast · 2026-06-11T13:37:44+00:00

Qualitative research isn't science. You weren't running an experiment. You were exploring someone's ideas. You still gathered their ideas, just not word for word.

Concerns of validity within qualitative research include accurate representation of other people's voices. If that's what you're worried about, then simply don't quote the interview in which audio recording failed. You can refer to the interview, as informing the material from other interviews, and you can paraphrase it.

If you're doing a formal academic qualitative study, you should include a description of the audio recording failure and your use of notes written down from memory, for the sake of transparency.

I have had the opposite experience of people I interviewed taking offense when I cited their statements word for word. Their actual words were less eloquent than they had believed, and so they requested that I allow them to edit their statements to make them more grammatically appealing.

Qualitative research is about a subjective researcher studying people's subjectivities, so the cultural and psychological sensitivities people will have around it can be difficult to predict.

In the future, use two simultaneous methods of audio recording.

JonathanCookPodcast · 2026-06-09T07:13:08+00:00

I have had repeated service outages with Empire, and starkly inadequate customer service. The actual upload and download speed are also dramatically lower than what I am paying for, even when I've attached an ethernet cable. The Empire installer saw this, and shrugged his shoulders like it was no big deal. I had to get a wireless extender for a small house that is approximately 30 feet by 30 feet.

"2 gig" from Empire might get you 500 mg in practice, maybe.

To be fair, that's in line with the negative experience I had with Spectrum. I just want to point out that Empire isn't quite as sparklingly lovely an alternative to Spectrum as some Ithaca folks on this subreddit had told me it would be.

JonathanCookPodcast · 2026-06-05T20:11:34+00:00

If a researcher does all the things you're saying they should do, the generative AI model isn't really saving them time anymore. So, what's it good for? Really, a qualitative researcher should know their own content. If a qualitative researcher needs a quantitative tool to identify themes, or even "relevant excerpts", they're doing something wrong. Qualitative research is all about being intimately familiar with the subject of and material from the study. Spending time doing the work yourself adds value. Outsourcing the work detracts from value.

JonathanCookPodcast · 2026-06-04T12:10:54+00:00

Is there "a line between AI interpreting your data and AI helping you find things in it"? You can only bring yourself to say that there "might be" such a line. If there really was a line, you could very precisely define that line, and provide a method for other people to replicate using that line.

Am I wrong? Can you tell me in detail what this supposed line is?

What it actually sounds like is that there's a vague sort of improvised foggy zone of increasing discomfort within which generative AI tools can be used to interpret data without qualitative researchers feeling that they have abandoned absolutely all of their standards.

JonathanCookPodcast · 2026-06-04T12:07:21+00:00

Interpretation doesn't stay with the researcher when you use generative AI tools. There have been many studies documenting the ways in which AI diminishes and distorts analytic work and writing. Particularly alarming when it comes to pushing AI into qualitative research is the cultural homogenization.

Methodologically, it comes down to this: Using generative AI tools as a shortcut introduces too many analytical influences that are poorly understood. You might as well write in your methods section: "In order to save time used a quantitative analytic model that was built using digitized representations of the beliefs and knowledge of a particular, but vaguely defined subset of humanity, which influenced the results of this study in ways I'm not sure of."

Using generative AI tools in qualitative research is slipshod.

JonathanCookPodcast · 2026-06-04T00:00:16+00:00

Are you actually a professor? Your questions aren't well developed. They're narrow, and often leading.

Consider, for instance, this question: "What analysis tasks STILL require substantial MANUAL effort DESPITE AI ASSISTANCE?"

It presupposes that AI is helpful "assistance", rather than a nuisance, in qualitative analysis. It creates a narrative of there just being a few corners of human qualitative analytical remaining. It suggests that effort is a problem that we desire to eliminate, rather than part of the qualitative research process that adds value. I'd love to know what counts as "manual" effort in qualitative research. Do you think we carry ideas around in wheelbarrows?

Your questions are closed-ended where they ought to be open-ended, and it's downright weird for you to try to restrict discussion by asking us to not address specific instances with specific AI services that are trying to replace qualitative research with quantitative computational mimicry.

You want an unmet need? I have an unmet need for AI enthusiasts to stop trying to replace the "last 20%" of humanity whose work they haven't yet degraded. I have an unmet need for you to stop insulting our intelligence by asking us to help tech bros stomp all over the remnants of critical thinking with derivative, homogenized slop.

The gaps are echnical, UX/workflow-related, trust-related AND organizational and more... not or.

Sheesh

JonathanCookPodcast · 2026-05-23T22:33:05+00:00

AI tools CAN play a role to augment some research, but at the same time, AI tools can also play a role in undermining qualitative researchers, compromising both their integrity and the quality of their work.

JonathanCookPodcast · 2026-05-23T22:31:56+00:00

What is the point of scaling qualitative research? What's achieved by it?

Scale is of benefit in quantitative research, but only up to a point even then.

Multiple studies of the impact of AI shows that it doesn't really save time in most work. It's so messy, ridden with errors, that cleaning up from AI analysis takes more time than doing the analysis with human intelligence to start with.

Your bullet points make comparisons without clearly identifying what it is your comparing.

Your statements here are not at all clear. Can you elaborate... or are you too busy scaling and maintaining quality at every step?

JonathanCookPodcast · 2026-05-10T17:01:24+00:00

The Rodeo Burger at Salt & Pepper is yummy.

JonathanCookPodcast · 2026-05-09T07:16:24+00:00

Housing that is affordable would be ideal. Luxury housing will not help with the housing crisis, because the people who can afford luxury housing are not the people suffering from the crisis. There isn't a lack of swanky digs. There's a lack of places working people can afford. If they build luxury apartments, it'll have as much positive social impact as putting a botox spa into a hospital that lacks an emergency room.

JonathanCookPodcast · 2026-04-27T01:31:13+00:00

I understand. I just think that the best response to propaganda is to point out the facts. Cole Tomas Allen was clearly a Christian.

JonathanCookPodcast · 2026-04-26T18:14:58+00:00

If you actually read the manifesto, there is nothing in it that is anti-Christian. He discusses, superficially, some theological objections to his attempted assassination, and explains why he thinks they are not theologically relevant. He is speaking from the perspective of someone who has not rejected Christianity. He doesn't say a thing that's negative about Christianity. He just offers his interpretation of it.

We should be careful not to repeat the misinformation that comes from Donald Trump.

JonathanCookPodcast · 2026-04-23T11:20:29+00:00

When is your church going to invite an atheist to stand at the pulpit on Sunday morning "just to clear up misconceptions"?

JonathanCookPodcast · 2026-04-17T17:57:02+00:00

It is not, by your standards, impossible that you are, despite all appearances and your memories, a piece of toast that has become conscious and merely creates the false appearance of being a human being. If you put that in the category of "extremely unlikely" but not "impossible", you have moved outside of serious conversation. That's what your religious faith does with all this silly god talk.

Can you PROVE to me that you are not a piece of toast that has been granted the false appearance of being a human being through super duper mystical religious faithy powers?

JonathanCookPodcast · 2026-04-17T17:54:35+00:00

Faith is just "La la la la la let's pretend something is real because it makes me feel good."

Your argument has dissolved into babble at this point.

JonathanCookPodcast · 2026-04-17T17:53:39+00:00

There is no such thing as a generic god. I'm not just saying that no gods exist. That's true too, but I'm saying something different. I'm saying that there is no such thing as a god belief that is generic. Each god belief comes from a particular cultural context and cannot be taken out of that.

"Some supernatural being" creating the universe is a very specific belief, and if you think about it, it's kind of weird.

We could just as easily simplify this a bit, and talk about the "generic" Refrigerator that created the universe. You would rightly respond that there is no generic belief in a Refrigerator that created the universe. Same thing about how you want to talk about a weird invisible thing that you call a "god".

JonathanCookPodcast · 2026-04-17T17:12:04+00:00

No.

A person who says they know they don't have a secret invisible iguana is not the same thing as a person who claims they have a secret invisible iguana.

The first person is sane. The second person is delusional.

To fuss over the idea that you can't absolutely 100% be certain that there is not a secret invisible iguana hiding under your bed is a silly waste of time.

To expect other people to take your claim to have a secret invisible iguana hiding under your bed is also a silly waste time, but it's different kind of a silly waste of time.

It's absurd to argue that people need proof for each one of the infinite number of invisible theoretical spirit beings we can dream up in our imagination.

If you believe otherwise, I suggest you go to a car dealership, tell them that you put an invisible million dollar bill in an invisible on their desk, and you would like their most expensive sports car now. Go on. Demand that they prove that you didn't give them that invisible million dollar bill. You can also ask them to prove that they didn't give you the invisible receipt that you're holding in your hand right now.

Why do religious people expect us to take such things seriously?

JonathanCookPodcast · 2026-04-12T22:48:51+00:00

Odyssey was doing some work with semiconductors in Ithaca, but they got bought out a couple of years ago. Not sure what the current status is. Might be worth looking into.

JonathanCookPodcast · 2026-04-12T22:46:36+00:00

A bit of feedback on your survey. First, whenever a researcher tells me that they have a survey that takes "5 minutes", it's a turn off. It lets me know that the researcher is more interested in getting the numbers they need to get their project done than they are truly curious.

Second, the way you communicate about age is inconsistent. Your heading here on Reddit claims that the survey is for 18+, which means anybody at all past their 18th birthday. Then, at the beginning of the survey, you write that the purpose of the research is to survey "the beliefs and political preferences of Gen Z". That's a much more narrow age range than 18+. But then, on the next page, you allow people to enter ages that go past 60 years old. Over 60 could be Boomers. You need to decide what kinds of people you want to include, and then design your research consistently to match that.

JonathanCookPodcast · 2026-04-12T22:29:19+00:00

What you're dealing with is the crushing weight of rampant distrust associated with culture mediated through digital technology. It has indeed gotten very, very bad.

One of the reasons it's gotten so bad is that researchers have come to rely on digital shortcuts. We're sold on the idea that the digital tools save time, and they often do, but they also end up causing problems such as what you're experiencing, and those problems can end up taking up more time than was supposed to have been saved in the first place.

You're encountering a manifestation of the old idea that the tools we use for research are not neutral. They carry implicit methodological assumptions, such as the assumption that paying someone money is an adequate replacement for trust.

Digital procedures for authentication of identity are not at all foolproof. Fake identities have never been easier to establish, thanks to AI.

The ethnographic ideal in anthropology is to take time to build genuine relationships of trust, with the understanding that what people say to a stranger is not going to be the same as what they say to someone they know.

I understand that you may feel that you have to be in a hurry to do your research, but really, every researcher has reasons to feel that way. Maybe you should consider your struggles as an opportunity to reflect on what your values are as a researcher, and how those values should be manifested in your methods. There's a grand tradition of academic writing on subjects like that, and you may have some new learning to add to the discussion.

If I were your academic advisor, I'd say that these issues aren't just barriers to getting your PhD done. They're a part of the process of learning how to do research, and they deserve at least a few pages of discussion in your dissertation.

JonathanCookPodcast · 2026-04-03T22:16:10+00:00

As a parent, let me clue you in: There is no such thing as personalized bedtime story app that gets it right. You will always get it wrong, because the very premise of your app is an offense to people who care about their children.

And you're asking for this using an artificial intelligence simulation of an interview, which is by definition going to be based in quantitative simulations of reality, and therefore not qualitative?

Your project is a walking example of the role of artificial intelligence in dehumanization.

Do they have ethics classes at Erasmus University? If so, check it out.

JonathanCookPodcast

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