What’s it all about?

In software development, there is the concept of a devblog. Like all blogs, a devblog is many things to many people, but the example that inspired me to start writing this is the use of a blog to keep a warts-and-all record of the evolution of a project, in a public forum where others can contribute if they choose. So, the purpose of this blog is to provide a record of what I was thinking, what experiments, analyses, etc., I tried. What worked and what didn’t. And any vague musings I may have about bigger picture topics that I don’t think cognitive neuroscience is ready to tackle yet.

This blog is explicitly not intended to be an avenue for self-promotion and to make me look good. Over the years I have, in my typically lazy way, worked to fight the unnecessary amounts of imposter syndrome in our field with the best weapon I have: excessive honesty. That is certainly not going to change here. I think it is important for an intellectual endeavour, like any creative process, to have a safe space to try things out, kick ideas around, and make mistakes. So, if you read the posts here, you can expect me to say things that might be uninformed, misguided, or outright wrong. If those mistakes are pointed out to me, I will endeavour to receive that feedback with humility.

I work in cognitive neuroscience. Specifically, the overlapping areas of attention, perception, and neural oscillations (waves in brain activity). This is a fascinating field to me because of its perfect blend of the concrete (bits of brain doing actual things) and the conceptual (attention is not an actual thing). It borders into philosophy at times, but also has technical challenges. This blend of relevant areas creates a space where anyone can contribute, no matter their strengths and weaknesses. As a person with some strengths and some definite weaknesses (I am not a math guy), that is exciting to me.

I also work in academia. This is less exciting to me and I hope to avoid, to some extent, the pitfalls of constantly griping about admin, students, pressure to publish, etc. Those are valid topics, and I’ll talk about them if I feel the need, as others have extensively before me, but I am hoping this will be more of a place for intellectual inspiration and exploration. If I focus on academia at all, I hope to talk more about the human element. The joys and challenges of teaching and supervision. The excitement that comes from a good chat about science. The interesting problem of how to network when you have intense social anxiety (I do. Apologies to Mathilde, Ian, and others I have spooked at conferences by appearing in front of them and talking in an incomprehensible torrent before scurrying away in shame). Being human is a challenge at least as daunting and puzzling as tackling a scientific mystery, and is a topic I love to think and talk about, so you can expect some of that here.

And that, my friends, is what this blog is all about. It is more for me than it is for you, but I hope you find something to interest you nonetheless.