I’ve decided to start blogging actively again.

I’ve been frustrated with the decline of blogging and the move to Tumblr/Twitter/Facebook.

My natural form is the essay. I believe (with caveats) that discussion and speculation are valuable. Blogging is a way to have an intellectually stimulating exchange — a blog post is long enough to expand and justify an idea, but shorter and less formal than a paper or a book. In a lively blogging community, it’s understood that people’s ideas are interesting but could easily turn out to be wrong.

I find myself wanting to bifurcate — to either write extremely circumspect things that I’m 100% certain are true, or make low-quality off-the-cuff comments in a social-media context where people won’t hold me to a high standard. And I think that impulse is bad. I believe it’s better to think in public, and learn in public, and sometimes be wrong in public.

I’m leaving academia to be a data scientist, and I’m leaving behind the notion that one has to present a flawless and impersonal facade in order to live a successful life. I genuinely think that’s unhealthy and outdated. I want to strive to be right, not to appear right.

I’m also going to post my literature reviews on medical topics here. I am not a doctor; making sense out of the medical literature is my side project and passion. If I make any errors, please don’t hesitate to correct me.