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When we have an unsolved question in science, sometimes we find a clear answer, but other times we watch the question slowly dissolve before our eyes. A big part of my motivation for studying the brain these last few years has been to find a “robust” theory of the mind and brain: a theory which gives us a clear, unified picture of how the brain works, and precisely how mind and brain come together to generate all the things we’re used to—things like our coherent perception of the world, our ability to communicate via language, our capacity to think, imagine, or conjure new ideas, our capacity to remember and understand events of the past, or to plan and coordinate complex projects....

This post summarizes my independent readings and research into psychology and neuroscience. My initial interest in the mind In the past few years I’ve embarked on a lifelong quest to understand the mind and brain. Starting in the pandemic, I spent the evenings after my day job reading textbooks and papers, and writing the occasional blog post (I wrote this overview of my learnings from reading Bear et al’s Neuroscience: Exploring the Brain)....

This is the tenth post in my series of daily posts for the month of April. To get the best of my writing in your inbox, subscribe to my Substack. I. In 305 to my city, Drake has the following line: tonight was your night go get you some lobsters and shrimp He has an unduly strong emphasis on the shrimp, almost pronouncing it like shrump. I was obsessed with Drake in high school and college so this line stuck with me, and it became an inside joke between me and a close friend....

This is the ninth post in my series of daily posts for the month of April. To get the best of my writing in your inbox, subscribe to my Substack. life is a pen, not a pencil you can scrape over the words, obscure them or embellish them but you can’t take them back there are so many things I want to tell you but I hold back, hoping to leave the page unscathed...

This is the eighth post in my series of daily posts for the month of April. To get the best of my writing in your inbox, subscribe to my Substack. Managing social media use is ultimately about managing emotions. I’ve written about emotions before, so for this post I’ll just be sharing the specific tools and strategies I use to manage my social media consumption. Custom CSS is your friend I usually go to a given social media app for one of two reasons: to accomplish a certain action (e....

This is the seventh post in my series of daily posts for the month of April. To get the best of my writing in your inbox, subscribe to my Substack. Sometimes I catch up with friends I haven’t talked to in a few years and they go woah, since when were you into psychology? And the answer is: forever, kinda. When I was in middle school my teacher asked the class to write an essay to answer the question “what is your favorite subject?...

This is the sixth post in my series of daily posts for the month of April. To get the best of my writing in your inbox, subscribe to my Substack. I am once again confused about existential risk to humanity due to AGI. My position on this has shifted back and forth many times, although for the most part I’ve resisted becoming a full-on doomer. In this post I’ll outline how I currently think about the issue, and why I’m not panicking about it (yet)....

This is the fifth post in my series of daily posts for the month of April. To get the best of my writing in your inbox, subscribe to my Substack. Not enough people appreciate the art of skillful listening. This is unfortunate because we would all have a much easier time dealing with our problems if we were surrounded with good listeners. The advice below is what I’ve learned from my experience coaching and just helping my friends with their problems....

This is the fourth post in my series of daily posts for the month of April. To get the best of my writing in your inbox, subscribe to my Substack. I wrote a few days ago that to write well, I’ll have to be brutally honest with you. So here’s some honesty: I spent two hours writing two different drafts for today’s piece, and then I decided that today’s not the day for either of them....

This is the third post in my series of daily posts for the month of April. To get the best of my writing in your inbox and support my writing, subscribe to my Substack. Everyone with ambition has a life that they dream of. Maybe you dream of being an artist in New York, or a serial entrepreneur, or the member of a niche internet social club. I have many such dreams, and for the first time in a while I’m wholeheartedly pursuing them....