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Why (and how) I’m a generative AI vegetarian

(General note: throughout this post I am saying “AI” for short, but I mean large generative and LLM models specifically, not other forms of machine learning. I’m sacrificing some specificity for flow, and I’m okay with that.) This post came out of a conversation I had with old friends on Discord, about a month back. It gave me words for the finer points of how I interact with the current landscape of generative AI/LLM tools. My friend Adam Morse later wrote up a list he made, of the categories of reasons people do not use these tools, in a post called “AI Vegetarians, AI Vegans, and AI Users.” I talked about this briefly on Bluesky a few weeks ago, and I’ve continued to talk to people about the categories he… Read More »Why (and how) I’m a generative AI vegetarian

Flag of the country of Moldova, with three colors, blue, yellow, and red from left to right, and the moldovan country crest in the middle, across the yellow section.

Country and Connection

In November 2024, after an application, reference checks, and an offer, I said yes to being a Virtual Service Pilot Participant. My service engagement started in February 2025, was scheduled to run through late June, and I extended it to late August 2025 in order to complete a few more projects with my colleagues. This experience could not have come at a better time for me. It fit well with the reinventing and exploring I have been doing in my career, and it was meaningful to me as an individual who cares about freedom and better lives for people everywhere.

Research Data Management Training Proposal, And: Introducing Pitch Decks

I’m starting my “Pitch Decks” category on the blog today, to start showing off some of the pitch materials I’m creating. This answers an ongoing need: how to explain what I do to people who could use my help but aren’t clear on the how or why yet. Pitch decks also help me to articulate what my process is for particular sorts of consulting, where we start, and how we define and refine a description of the need. So here’s my Data Management Skills Training Proposal. You can view it on Google Slides or as a PDF: And you can view and download it on OSF: Sarah Oelker Research Data Management Training Proposal

Expectation setting in academic projects, and the “F*** You, Pay Me” principle

Sometimes your academic project suffers from a lack of clear documentation of expectations. I recently watched Mike Monteiro’s talk “F*ck You, Pay Me,” which is aimed at creative freelance and small business people (think web design and graphic design and copywriting and things like that), and I realized that hey, I know this particular heck from library and educational technology projects. It’s not that all projects I’ve worked on in academic project spaces have been messes: far from it! But over and over in academic spaces, people are glad when I ask for clear expectations, when I bring along documents and other tools for getting us to clear and shared expectations, when I am gently firm about getting these expectations recorded. Why are they so happy about it? And why… Read More »Expectation setting in academic projects, and the “F*** You, Pay Me” principle

“Overtly resist change” and the first day of school

I’m up early because it’s the first day of school. The thing is: I no longer have a first day of school. But for nearly two decades, the Wednesday after Labor Day in the United States was my first day. Oh, we were already in the thick of it, as librarians and instructional technologists, by the time the first day of classes rolled around, but it was the marking of time, the official signpost, that lived large in my head. As with many things, the body and mind keep the score, and so this morning, my body knows that it’s the first day of school and is excited, restless, in waiting mode. Old habits do indeed die hard. I was thinking about this as I woke up today, and my… Read More »“Overtly resist change” and the first day of school

Research Data Management Consulting and Faceting

Last week I had a really good conversation about my RDM consulting offerings with a friend who is in an allied health field, is self-employed, and has been out of academia for a while. As I continue to refine my consulting services page and reach out to colleagues about what I’m doing, it has been really good to talk to a variety of people about what I do. My friend had trouble wrapping her head around this admittedly broad slate of things I offer as an RDM consultant. With good reason: at one point she said that my consulting services page was trying to do an awful lot, perhaps too much, and I immediately agreed. Now, there are reasons the page needs to be set up the way it is,… Read More »Research Data Management Consulting and Faceting

Uprooting the success/failure binary

Sometimes I get a few social media posts into a thread and realize it could have been a blog post. So here are this morning’s thoughts on our success/failure mindsets, why they’re so persistent, and what I’m trying to do instead. The mental model of a success/failure binary is really sticky, and I repeat to myself regularly that I’m cultivating iterative change, and practice rather than outcome, in order to find the niches for my skills. Read more on Mastodon These thoughts were partly a result of my releasing a new services page yesterday, which you can find here: I have a list of things I’d like to improve, on that page, like the mobile spacing, some ways I group information, and links to a more comprehensive list of skills.… Read More »Uprooting the success/failure binary

Initial thoughts

This space may be where I post longer form thoughts about my work. That is, however, so far down the list of things I need to be doing right now that I would say do not hold your breath for those thoughts. Feel free to interact with me at https://glammr.us/@buxuyaojieguo on Mastodon, or contact me on LinkedIn.