Michèle du Toit

cogsci is endlessly fascinating and I can't stop learning about it very interested in conversations about metacognition, neuroscience, philosophy, psychology, or anything related to how the mind/brain works please message me if you've done work in these fields!

@p_millerd I’ve seen a lot of people use Substack for essays and kit or beehiiv for transactional/list. The benefit of segmentation + extra analytics is huge, imo worth the cost many times over esp as your brand and following grow ps I always read your longforms, really love your work

probably makes sense for me to move my pathless email to kit at some point and keep substack for blogging type posts but a bit nervous just with the cost, would need to invest in a good way to consistently monetize from the beginning but big upsides could be tracking customers way better (especially given im using shopify now) and better onboarding and segmentation just dont know if i want a 2nd kit to manage (my strategyU is there), especially with me liking the writing and newsletter style so much, I just dont think my way of doing newsletters is the best way for be to be spending my time in the next few years (aka I should write and finish more books) thoughts from the crowd here?

Once you hit a certain level of skill, you'll realize that most business problems aren't business problems. They're emotional or interpersonal problems disguised as business problems.

yes, so many questions 1) when you co-write, do you and Johanna throw an idea around like a conversational ball, with emergent understanding in unexpected directions as the end result, or do you already know in advance what you’re going to write? 2) how do you find the words to map abstraction? is there a process or is it intuitive? 3) do you ever feel influenced by the “collective unconscious”, almost like an idea wasn’t fully yours, or notice that several people independently had the same idea at the same time?

I’m thinking about writing a post that gives some context about who we are and what we are trying to do with Escaping Flatland. Do you have anything you’d like to know about Johanna or me? Or how we collaborate, etc?

idea pollination across the constellation of my interests 💡✨ added a 2d map that randomly selects topics. when i pause on a pair, gemini flash lite generates a new project idea combining both of them e.g. evolutionary algorithms + gesture-driven world-building = ??

@abbiDogan maybe it’s partly avoidance, but another big part is the reinforcement loop. the neurobiological pull of variable reward schedules engineered into apps, causing the dopamine addiction. in which case, it really is about the devices

@hiAndrewQuinn Oh that’s interesting. I wonder if there’s been research done on the adventure gene (DRD4-7R) and risk tolerance in general in the context of career choices. Also makes me wonder to what extent chronic nervous system disregulation could be linked to personality or genetics

@michele_dutoit I think the other theory supports this. I've known a few people who get addicted to the "certainty" of their own risk estimates, and end up unable to work in places where there just isn't enough data to put an exact number on it.

Something I find fascinating is how engineers across virtually all disciplines seem prone to at least a mild form of pessimistic bias. One theory I have is that, when you don't yourself get paid much more money to fix important things, you don't even realize this can happen.

the more I learn about the brain, the more everything makes sense

@JoshMHellman oh gosh, hope the little one is feeling better and you all got some rest!

Sick baby = zero hours of sleep

this blows my mind

@AnnaLeptikon As someone new to the field, I really appreciate the resource. I've been trying to map a self-study learning path but it keeps getting exponentially bigger as I discover just how much more there is to discover

Had a lot of fun understanding historical connections back then by creating this artifact, for example how the technology during the world wars influenced the development of AI and cognitive science later on. I created this entirely betting on Cunningham’s Law, please make better versions of it, I won’t.

@TheWillCarter There's an excellent YouTube series by John Vervaeke that I think you might enjoy youtube.com/playlist?list=…

@michele_dutoit That looks intense, Certainty won’t lack for good reading material 😁

studying cogsci is going to take slightly longer than I originally thought

The best definition of knowledge is not propositional (simply knowing more facts or "truths"), instead, it is the concept of having "optimal grip on affordances" as an expression of skilled intentionality. This is a relational phenomenon, meaning it heavily depends on the niche and skills of the organism. The phenomenology of (how it feels like to have) an "optimal grip" on the world is when the world feels like a direct invitation for action, or, well, as if it were just, you know, "asking for it".

kind of in awe of @AnnaLeptikon for putting this together riedlanna.com/cognitivescien…

@hiAndrewQuinn Happy birthday Andrew! 🥂

it's my birthday :) by my own standards i am doing quite well for 31. wife, childe, nice job, nice place mostly i want to continue to push my career forward over the next few years. taking advice for this via dms

Optimistic people have similar patterns of brain activity. They have very vivid thoughts about positive events but conceive of negative events with emotional distance.

@LeighStJohn33 I’m really interested in how we think, as humans & how it differs between individuals. I want to research how neurodivergence relates to human potential and executive function Building AI has taught us so much about our own intelligence, but there is so much we don’t understand

@michele_dutoit Curious what the goal of studying the above would be Michele? Feels like a lot of it could be condensed heavily depending on the goal

I wonder if I can use AI to condense a bsc cogsci degree into 5 months of intense self-study Since I don't really need the formal qualification or academic cred, I could maybe study the core 20% that makes up 80% of the field, then deepen where things get especially interesting

@SchrodingrsBrat Stadsfeestzaal, Antwerp Belgium

@michele_dutoit Send me location

Two of my favorite things in one place: architecture and groceries