Purple Googly-Eyed Squid May Be Math Genius - Seeker

Impulse, instinct or intuition, Applied psychology, geometry and astronomy, 1919 

https://www.pnas.org/cms/10.1073/pnas.2001037117/asset/a20f5beb-e260-4f19-864d-3ef17ff18d4c/assets/images/large/pnas.2001037117fig01.jpg

You know. Reading is important. Because I'm like always trying to make every line I write this groundbreaking mindfucking art but like. A book is 90% just saying what happened. "I hugged him around the waist." "The chair was brown and overstuffed." "I woke up alone." Etc etc. Like normal ass lines. I just keep comparing my boring, necessary to set a scene lines, with famous authors' absolute best lines and like.... every line doesn't have to shatter the earth. Sometimes someone just sits in a chair and the lines that wreck you come later, one at a time, here and there. It's alright.

Fritjof Capra, The Tao of Physics

Lucian Black, Luciferian Order

"So you navigate your life with the help of others who held mirrors up for you. People praised your good qualities and criticised your bad habits, and these perspectives -often surprising to you - helped you to guide your life.

So poorly did you know yourself that you were always surprised at how you looked at the photographs or how you sounded on the voice mail.

In this way, much of your existence took place in the eyes, ears and fingertips of others." - David Eagleman, Sum

Hunter gatherer, prying open the seeds, got curious enough, started peeling its own skin, digging underneath, born with scars on your hands, stardust, sun sent, the first flesh you ever tasted, your own, folded flesh underneath the bone, and two eyes gazing in oblivion, oblivious of obvious

There are many postdocs in academia, but not so many permanent researchers.

A new paper shows a statistics on where hundreds of Biomedical Sciences PhD graduates eventually ended up 10 years or more after graduation.

Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology

From goal to outcome: Analyzing the progression of biomedical sciences PhD careers in a longitudinal study using an expanded taxonomy

Using a taxonomy that delineates key milestones, this study analyzed biomedical PhD student career goals and outcomes. We related career goa

What strikes me there:

1. Sooo many postdocs go to administration positions after their postdoc is finished.

And it's true! I know so many people in administration who were good scientists before!

The following graph shows that from 418 PhD graduates, 325 went for a postdoc and 93 didn't. 145 administration/management/operation (AMO in the graph) positions in the end is for me a bit shocking.

2. The time for a postdoc in academia to actually get a permanent/non trainee position can be up to 13 years!

Only half of the people makes in in 6 years after OhD graduation. That's much longer than getting a permanent job in administration. I do not want to be 13 years postdoc. This is also one of the reasons people quit academia.

There are many more facts in the original article. Go read it if you're interested.

The books I'm reading at the moment.

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius - I love this book. It puts you in the perspective of the time and space you occupy, I found a lot of my own thinking and feelings within the pages of this book. A guy born in AD 121 has very clear view on life that is still relevant today.

Great Adaptations by Kenneth Catania - A professor of biological sciences takes you on a journey with him while he studies various animals adaptive abilities. Star nosed moles, electric eels, tentacled snakes... Very interesting insight in how these creatures evolved and adapted.

What we cannot know by Marcus du Sautoy - Explains concepts from the ground up, I like the illustrations that accompany the text and practical examples. Lays foundations to the known and wonders into the future of research and the possibilities that come with it as well as limitations. Covering themes from quantum physics and cosmology to sensory perception and neuroscience.

Labyrinths of reason by William Poundstone - "Blue sky, sunshine, deja vu glazed with dread." How do you know this isn't all a dream? Is anything certain? Ontology, logic, mathematics, deduction, epistemology, memory formation, paradoxes and puzzles.

A brain for numbers by Andreas Nieder - Humans' understanding of numbers is intuitive. How are infants able to perceive numbers even before they learn the words for them? How do our brains process numbers? Can animals count? He shows how it is an adaptive ability and that plenty of animals have the number sense too. There is a variety of research and supporting evidence mentioned which I really like.