Notes

Short notes on new work in psychology, physics and philosophy. Mostly papers, occasionally a book or an argument that has started moving through a field.

The point is not to be first. It is to say what a finding actually shows, which is usually narrower and more interesting than what it gets reported as showing.

NO NOTES YET

This address used to hold a set of marketing tools. Those have moved, and what replaces them has not started. The standard is below so that the first note has something to be held to.

The cadence will be stated here once there is a real rhythm to describe rather than an intention.

01 · The standard

What every note has to contain

A site that spends its time separating what physics says from what it is popularly taken to say cannot then summarise research from press coverage. So each note is the same four things, in the same order.

THE FINDING
One sentence, in plain language, with the hedges the authors themselves used rather than the ones a headline removed.
WHAT IT SHOWS
The actual scope. Sample, method, and the population it can be generalised to, which is often much smaller than the abstract implies.
WHAT IT DOES NOT
The claim it is being made to support elsewhere and cannot. This is the part that justifies the note existing.
THE SOURCE
The paper itself wherever it is reachable, never the university press release and never coverage of coverage.
02 · Coverage

Three fields, and one bias

The same subjects as everything else here, minus the two that are arguments rather than research literatures.

Psychology
Attachment, close relationships, motivation and self-concept. Replication news counts as news here, including when it goes against something I have written.
Physics
Foundations rather than applications. Measurement, interpretation, the arrow of time. Where I am out of my depth I will say so instead of paraphrasing confidently.
Philosophy
Personal identity, agency, time and the philosophy of physics, where a good paper often does more work than an experiment.
The bias, stated
I am more likely to notice work that bears on what I already write about. That is a selection effect, not a survey of the fields, and these notes should be read as one person reading rather than as coverage.

In the meantime

The reading page will hold the longer sources once it is filled, and the first book carries its own references. If a paper should be on this page, send it.

The reading list The writing Send me a paper