How I spent my winter break

Academia provides ample breaks (even though the work is never done).

I choose to spend this winter break "sharpening my saw" by improving my typing ability and learning a new computer language.

Improving typing is simple but not easy, any program or class will work. It is developing procedural expertise, you will get better if you receive immediate feedback and practice copiously.

The harder, more interesting project was learning Python. I have massive sunk cost in MATLAB programming. However given my move into web-based research, I need a language that is designed for where I am and where I want to go. Python appears to have the best return for minimal investment. "Learning Python the Hard Way" was the first step in my journey.

The magic was stopping the "doing" of work and pairing the two projects. Temporarily pausing other projects provided focused blocks of time to learn. Also, freely oscillating between cognitive and procedural challenges kept both fresh.

Biohacking lessons

I gave my final lecture for Sensation and Perception at Catholic University of America. The entire course was an amazing experience.

I ended the class by profiling "biohacking." Biohacking is a logical bookend, circling back to transduction and discussing a possible future direction for sensation and perception.

As a bonus, I was able to share an life-changing idea - Pick yourself to make the world a better, more interesting place. No one assigned the people in video biohacking as a requirement for a course. Independently, they leveraged the available resources to make a meaningful contribution to their own and others' lives. I hope the same can be said about my course.