Keep talking, keep listening, keep trying

On my writer's journey (so far)

October 18, 2022Posted inAxis Praxis

Some years ago, I began writing ‘serious’ longform essays on a variety of topics. Up until that point, my writing was aimed at a small group of blogger friends, most of whom I knew in real life. I had already begun dabbling with informative essays to supplement my usual output of diary entries, pop cultural ramblings, and surreal nonsense, but a specific incident crystallized a change of attitude. It occurred on January 29, 2011 at a symposium on music and neuroscience. (This was around 7 months before I defended my PhD.)

As it turns out, the very last post on my ‘personal’ blog was about this experience. Here’s a slightly edited version:

Sailing the Seas of Thought

On charitable interpretation, resonance, and the Jazz of Ideas

January 22, 2021Posted inOdds & Ends
A woman stands in a narrow boat drifting on a stormy sea, surrounded by birds

I am an inveterate ‘sharer’. The shares that I take most pleasure in1 are ideas: papers, lectures, book extracts, podcasts, tweets. I see this in terms of missionary zeal: I derive pleasure from spreading the word. But the recipient does not always share my enthusiasm. Sometimes this is because I’ve overlooked some error or ulterior motive that a more patient observer would detect. I attribute much of this to a tendency for charitable interpretation. I fill out ideas with the help of memory and imagination; I smooth off the sharp edges. And even though I’m aware of this phenomenon, I miss flaws in what I share, seeing then only after someone else points them out2. But the overlooked flaws — which so often provoke irritation — are not always in the share itself, but in its source.

Why human memory is not a bit like a computer’s

July 13, 2018Posted inAxis Praxis, neurologism

DisintegrationofPersistence(This is a cross-post of a 3 Quarks Daily article I wrote last year.)

A few months ago I attended a rather peculiar seminar at MIT’s Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences. A neuroscientist colleague of mine named Robert Ajemian had invited an unusual speaker: a man named Jim Karol, who was billed as having the world’s best memory. According to his website, his abilities include “knowing over 80,000 zip codes, thousands of digits of Pi, the Scrabble dictionary, sports almanacs, MEDICAL journals, and thousands of other facts.” He has memorized the day of the week for every date stretching back to 1AD. And his abilities are not simply matter of superhuman willingness to spend hours memorizing lists. He can add new items to his memory rapidly, on the fly. After a quick look at a deck of cards, he can recall perfectly the order in which they were shuffled. I witnessed him do this last ‘trick’, as well as a few others, so I can testify that his abilities are truly extraordinary [1].