Cyborg Interfaces

Last year I decided to start my own company. At the time it wasn’t completely clear to me what the company would do. But I reckoned that the only way to find out was to give it a go. Naming the company One of the first challenges I met was naming the company. My professional life had been spent working at interfaces. The interface between hard and soft skills The interface between science and computing The interface between humans and computers So I wanted to include the word “interfaces”. My...

In my twenties I had a friend that was always ahead of the curve in terms of gadgets and tech. She was the person that introduced me to USB Thumb Drives back in the day when they could only store 8 to 16MB. She was also a person with a plan. “When I finish my degree I’ll get a job with a big consulting firm. Then in three years I’ll get promoted. Then in two years I’ll meet my future husband. Then one year later we’ll have our first child. Then…” To me it sounded insane — so many plans, and...

On Monday I sat down for a couple of hours and created a long To-Do list. Then I spent the rest of the day in a flurry, taking action, crossing things off my list. At the end I felt good. I had ticked many things off my list, giving me a steady stream of dopamine. The problem was that I had only completed unimportant tasks — I had focussed on the easy stuff. The next day I decided to use a different approach. I looked at the list and spent five minutes picking out the most important item....

During the early parts of my PhD I destroyed a lot of equipment in the lab. I was impatient and I didn’t understand what I was doing. For example, to clean the FPLC (Fast Protein Liquid Chromatography) machine I had to run 2 litres of water through it before switching to ethanol. However, 2 litres sounded like a ridiculously large amount, and it took a lot of time — so I cut it in half. Unfortunately, the previous buffers had not been washed away by the time the ethanol entered the system and...

Hi Reader! I recently wrote a post about negativity bias — the tendency to put more emphasis on negative events than positive ones. The post was titled Celebrating More — the title reflects that I wanted a positive outlook, and celebrating wins is one way to counter negativity bias. Another approach is to work reflection into one’s routine. By reflecting I can force myself to notice achievements and other good things. If this sounds interesting check out my post on How I made reflection part...

I wanted to start this email with a funny anecdote of me miscommunicating, so I decided to ask my wife. “Can you think of an example when I communicated badly?” That was a mistake, it was as if she went to the library and pulled out a thick folder. “Where should we start?” In the workplace communication is key to exchanging ideas, collaborating and building trust. Conversely, poor communication is a common source of frustration, arguments and distrust. Yet, when we study science and...

What is the goal of the organisation that you are working for? Typically it will fall into the template below: Do something valuable for customers to make money The third bullet point is often implied, and left out of mission statements. For people working in academia this might feel alien or irrelevant, but I believe it is equally applicable. Do amazing science for the benefit of society and humankind to win more research grants However, the devil is in the details. What — specifically — is...

During my teens I was reserved, worrying that people would make fun of me if I let them get too close. There were a lot of hormones, pimples and angst. The experience of being a teenager sucked. It wasn’t until university that I learnt how to trust people, and that was largely due to joining a martial arts club. Practicing Shorinji Kempo, was how I managed to get over my sucky teenage years. Kempo is based on pair work. You attack me, then I attack you. First you make yourself vulnerable for...