I was so fired up to bring my manuscript to conclusion that I started the editing process. I had been in the midst of the chapter on probability which is the end of the first, philosophical section of the manuscript. Since next up was the brain and neuroscience section, I started ramping up some background work there, taking notes on The Idea of the Brain and The Entangled Brain.
Now that I finished note taking on both of those, I returned to the probability section. It’s got a solid grounding, but I realized that it was short and superficial. So I’ve gone back to sources and am taking notes on the first few chapters of E.T. Jaynes’ Probability Theory: The Logic of Science, which I had been reviewing last fall but without good note taking.
So that puts me way behind sharing my work here in public. Yet slowing down for me is fine as I have not deadline or even any compelling reason to actually finish the manuscript itself. As a tool in the process of exploring these subjects, it’s been valuable. It’s also been a project that has provided some focus on my tools like my Linux computer, the Kindle Scribe and Devonthink.
Over and over again I learn the same lesson that the first step is to define the problem and desired outcomes well. Start with the end in mind and Covey phrased it. Only then is it possible to choose a set of tools for the task, with reassessment of workflow from time to time improving efficiency and keeping the work enjoyable.
Yet projects keep presenting themselves. Since Twitter is pretty dead to me at this point, Reddit has emerged as a random feed to satisfy my endless curiosity. Of course the subject matter is a bit different and I miss Philosophy Twitter and Neuroscience Twitter. There’s lots more computer talk presented to me on Reddit, so I’ve gotten engaged in programming languages, specifically this functional programming paradigm that I learned through doing statistics in R. So I’ve spent a bit of time playing with Scheme variants now and reading some discussions on computation. May take some time away from general reading, but it’s all good when it comes to ensuring one lives in a rich, mentally healthy intellectual environment.