My latest post: cognitivewonderland.... About how the things we're immersed in are often invisible to us. "There's nothing we're more immersed in than the workings of our own brains."

A guest post by self-control researcher Michael Inzlicht on how the field has mischaracterized self-control and willpower: cognitivewonderland....

New post: cognitivewonderland.... "In a very real sense, we are stuck in our skulls, figuring out what's going on in the world from the measurements of various instruments."

What did dopamine do to deserve this? New guest post by @garwboy.bsky.social on the unfair demonization of a neurotransmitter "Saying you’re addicted to dopamine is like saying you’re looking at your own retina: you can’t do that, it’s too fundamental to the process."

New post: cognitivewonderland.... All about scanning fish brains, fMRI statistics, and overzealous skepticism "A little over 15 years ago, some researchers put a salmon into an fMRI scanner."

This week: Some book recommendations of sci fi stories that use my favorite sci fi trope: mind uploading! cognitivewonderland....

New post. cognitivewonderland.... Disagreement doesn't mean irrationality: people interpret the same evidence differently due to prior beliefs and trusted sources. Being charitable, rather than dismissive, helps us understand—and maybe even persuade—those who disagree.

New post is up! cognitivewonderland.... Talking about why you shouldn't sweat decisions so much. More generally on power laws, touching on linguistics, Sturgeon's law, data science, and decision theory.

In last week's post, I answered some reader questions about the Dunning-Kruger effect, procrastination, and my vibes on the current political situation in the US. cognitivewonderland....

"There appears to be a disconnect between research findings and opinions of certain leaders. As a form of work organization, WFH, and especially hybrid work, has been shown to have significant benefits."

Why The Algorithm Hates You: cognitivewonderland.... The Friendship Paradox and other adventures in sampling bias

I've seen a lot of articles talking about how dads roughhousing with their kids has benefits for the kids’ emotional and motor development, but I've never seen one that mentions the primary benefit: satisfying the dad's deep-seated need to just pick someone up and chuck them across the room

This thread about the NIH cuts...

New post: cognitivewonderland.... "We don't just have a "smart mode" (System 2) and "dumb mode" (System 1). Instead, we have a collection of tools for thinking and deciding."

Post from last week: What is interesting? cognitivewonderland.... Exploring the psychology of what makes things interesting, and the relationship between our curiosity and complexity. Also has my wife's drawing of a cow.

Please share this with all your parent friends, drawing special attention to number 3. Let them eat cake, damn it! @tommyblanchard.bsky.social cognitivewonderland.substack.com/p/3-neuromyt...

People are unreasonable in how unreasonable they judge people to be

Another of my most popular articles for 2024, a much more autobiographical post

This was another of my most popular articles from 2024, about how we all have pretty incomplete understandings of the world, and this opens opportunities for curiosity all around us cognitivewonderland.substack.com/p/an-ode-to-...

Agreed, let's start pronouncing the football thing "super-buh-lee"

The best thing I learned in 2024: You can ask for pickles for Christmas. No one will stop you.

This was my most popular article of 2024, talking about how and why neuroscience is misused in the self-help and productivity hack worlds "[N]euroscience is particularly ill-suited to supporting self-help advice"

An excellently succinct account by @tommyblanchard.bsky.social of some of the problems facing research using statistical methods cognitivewonderland.substack.com/p/why-so-muc...

If you stopped at a deserted rest area to use the restroom and found it filled with turtles who all silently, balefully, turned their heads to look at you, how many turtles would it take to scare you off? That number is your Uncanny Rest-Area Restroom Turtle Number.

As someone who has been a manager and been asked to analyze this type of ("anonymized") data: never say anything in a survey (or exit interview) you wouldn't say to your manager and company leadership in person. It doesn't matter how many assurances you have it's anonymous.

Forget the 12 days of Christmas, tis the season for the 10 days of applying medicated cream to my preschooler's strep infected butt

Yes, tweet isn't in use, just use that instead of "skeet" "Skeet" is already a term used by Lil Jon to refer to, uhh, something else

It's that time of year. One daycare cold blends seamlessly into another. It's impossible to distinguish the lingering effects of one cold from the symptoms of a new one. I look forward to being able to breathe through my nose again in the spring

Tommy is one of the best writers out there! And an all around interesting human too. If you're a neuro person it's must read material👇

New post is up: cognitivewonderland.... It talks about what improv can teach us about how to think about reductive explanations. Also talks about rainbows and cunnilingus. It's really got it all.

Two stages of writing: 1) This shouldn't take too long 2) Oh no

I'm more active on Substack than I am here, but I want to have a foot in both worlds. To that end, I've made a Starter Pack of Substack folks on Bluesky: bsky.app/starter-pack...

A Thanksgiving Day post about our senses: cognitivewonderland.... "Like a fish that doesn't know what water is because it's always present, we're unaware of how essential proprioception is because we never experience the world without it."

New post about the history of computers, conceptual revolutions, and emergent phenomena! cognitivewonderland....

In phil grad school I was advised to never write "as [x] famously said", because nothing any modern philosopher says can be considered famous

"Why the hell haven't we figured out the brain yet?" New article out today: cognitivewonderland....

Chest hair is also the perfect toy for the baby, they pull it and get a fun yelping sound

A science fiction short story I wrote (originally published in Alternative Deathiness): open.substack.com/pu... Mind uploads and death! Fun!

WEIRD AL vs THE LINGUISTS cognitivewonderland.... A fun post about prescriptivism and descriptivism in language

This week: The Seductive Allure of Neuro Self-Help: cognitivewonderland.... Self-help and productivity gurus love to talk about neuroscience and the brain, despite neuroscience having little useful to say on these topics

This week's post: cognitivewonderland.... The title sounds serious but also the word "butt" appears three times in the first ~100 words so make of that what you will

New post is out! cognitivewonderland.... Talking about consciousness and "philosophical zombies", and why we should be skeptical of concluding too much from our intuitions and introspection about the mind.

This week's post is about generative AI and art: cognitivewonderland.... It takes on both the hype around AI generation and those that put forward simple rules for why AI can't or shouldn't contribute to art, and speculation about what art with AI could look like in the future.

This week's post is up! open.substack.com/pu... A three-year-old's curiosity about door knobs, our ignorance of everyday objects, and the wonder all around us