About

“How often do we tell our own life story? How often do we adjust, embellish, make sly cuts? And the longer life goes on, the fewer are those around to challenge our account, to remind us that our life is not our life, merely the story we have told about our life. Told to others, but—mainly—to ourselves”. ³

I first encountered the idea of cognitive biases while procrastinating on a term paper during my first year at university. What began as a Wikipedia rabbit hole became a years-long obsession with how our minds systematically deviate from optimal reasoning. I was fascinated not by the errors themselves, but by the humbling insight that our most confident beliefs might rest on foundations of sand¹.

This site exists at the intersection of several interests: rationality, complexity science, sociology, and what might generously be called "applied epistemology". If pressed to describe my project in a sentence, I'd say I'm trying to understand how minds (human and otherwise) can reliably form accurate models of reality despite their inherent limitations.

Some readers have asked why I switched careers from mathematics to software engineering. The honest answer is that I followed the gradient of intellectual excitement. Academia offered depth but demanded narrowness. Industry offered breadth and the opportunity to build systems that implement the theories I find compelling. There's something uniquely satisfying about debugging not just code but the mental models that produced it².

My writing tends to meander between technical explanations, personal observations, and thought experiments that occasionally border on science fiction. This is not an accident but a reflection of how I think—associatively, with concepts linked across domains by structural similarities rather than conventional categories. If this appeals to you, you'll probably enjoy what I publish here. If not, there are many excellent blogs with more disciplined approaches.

For those wondering about my political affiliations: I'm increasingly convinced that our standard political taxonomies are inadequate descriptors of the actual landscape of disagreement. I aspire to what Julia Galef calls "scout mindset", a commitment to seeing what's there rather than what I wish were there. This doesn't mean I lack political views, only that I try to hold them provisionally, as models rather than identities.

If you find errors in my reasoning or have counter-arguments to positions I've taken, please point them out. One of the main reasons I write is to be corrected when I'm wrong. As Feynman supposedly said, "The first principle is that you must not fool yourself—and you are the easiest person to fool."

I spent quite a bit of time trying to make up my mind what should be on this blog - whether it should be info about myself or the notes that I wrote. Ultimately I decided to show the articles because it is not about me but my contents.

I do not have a specific theme of topics that are covered in this blog. Mainly what I want to share revolves around my work, life and interests. If you expect a lot of randomness, this site is for you.

You can reach me at [email protected]. I read everything but respond selectively, not out of rudeness but finite time. If you're a long-time reader but first-time emailer, please mention this; I prioritize engaging with the community that's formed around these ideas.