I created this site for three reasons, by which I mean four.
- I suspect that some of the things I learned during eight years of university and years of employment in research and analysis roles could benefit someone else. I want to write it down before I forget it.
- My brain may be turning to mush, months of covid side-effects and social isolation have not been good to it. I hope the process of writing will help re-form fading synaptic connections.
- Social media is slowly destroying our society. The primordial human brain is not capable of handling the forms of communication that have been created since the Internet became commonplace, no matter how much we claim that the prefrontal cortex is in control. People who hide behind internet anonymity feel emboldened to say stuff that they would probably never say in person. People have always lived in their own bubble, but those bubbles are becoming far more specific. People can go so far down rabbit holes that they lose touch with reality. Misinformation travels at the speed of physics. So to do my part to resist social disintegration I only publish stuff online under my own name, and I only write what I would say in person.
- Years ago my uncle insisted on buying me the domain ianweatherall.com to make sure that someday if I wanted to develop a public persona. Turns out he was right, being in control of what people see about me is helpful.
Ian Weatherall 