The pleasures and pitfalls of writing about yourself

When I look back on everything I’ve written in this blog, each post can be bucketed into one of two categories: nerdposting and feelingsposting. Nerdposting is when I write about something I’m interested in, primarily in the third person, with the goal of putting forward an argument or an explanation (examples: questions about the brain, revolutionary biology, or machine learning in science). Feelingsposting is when I share about my personal experiences and attempt to describe a distinct mood, with the goal of conveying some insight about emotions or life (examples: real life, give your friends a chance to abandon you). I’ve also occasionally tried blending the two, like in the problem of other minds or how to think well. But I’ve always felt there’s some incompatibility between them, and this post is my attempt at talking about my experience of writing each, and what I would like to focus on more. Feelingsposting is a kind of public journalling. You use the written page to process and

When I look back on everything I’ve written in this blog, each post can be bucketed into one of two categories: nerdposting and feelingsposting. Nerdposting is when I write about something I’m interested in, primarily in the third person, with the goal of putting forward an argument or an explanation (examples: questions about the brain, revolutionary biology, or machine learning in science). Feelingsposting is when I share about my personal experiences and attempt to describe a distinct mood, with the goal of conveying some insight about emotions or life (examples: real life, give your friend