Opinionated

Disclaimer: I am not a neuroscientist, neurologist, psychologist, psychiatrist, lawyer, philosopher, or guru. Nor do I consider myself enlightened or with all the answers. But anyone who knows me knows that has never been cause for me to keep my opinions to myself. I am merely sharing things I’ve found to be interesting and of value. I do not claim to have internalized all this information or to live my life by it. This is not hypocrisy, it is merely the reality of being human; we can ‘know’ the right thing to do but not be able to access it at the exact moment we need it, let alone recognize the moment as we experience it.

This series of articles is the result of research I did for my own purposes this year to address problems I perceived in my own life and head. It involved a lot of time and effort, and while I can’t save others all of that effort (some of the effort is the entire point) I can share resources and conclusions and hopefully pave the way to improving your brain, mind, life, well being and productivity.

I tried to give a quick summary of what people should consider about their brain and mind as an Ignite talk titled “Your Brain Didn’t Come with a User Manual”. I think that talk was limited in a number of ways, not least because I blew the delivery of what I intended to hit thanks to being distressed and distracted for reasons I’ve explained previously¹.

There is a lot I could say, and a lot to cover. So I am breaking it down into a series of articles so I can spread out writing them. My interest in taking time to write about this will be directly fueled by interest from others. So if you want me to have incentive to write and you want to be notified as each piece arrives be sure to subscribe².

1. Your Brain & Mind (the Hardware, evolution, the Software, what it is, how it forms)
2. Limits (how easily we are fooled/distracted, what our chemicals do to us)
3. Cognitive Bias and Logic (know it or be a tool)
4. The Limits of Knowledge (incompetence, knowing what you know)
5. Information Overload (why your phone is making you stupid)
6. Basic Maintenance (keeping the hardware healthy)
7. Exercise the Mind (ways to improve the mind and attention)
8. Recommended Reading

As you can see it is a lot, and I don’t have time to write a book in addition to the two I’m already working on so it will have to be spread out over a few weeks. I appreciate your attention and patience.