To Debate Is American

When I was in high school, I remember debating my Republican friends about the political issues of the day. Should abortions be legal? What domestic programs should be funded by the government? What rights should workers have? How much government regulation is appropriate for our free market? The topics we covered stretched for miles. Although some of us were barely old enough to vote, we were passionate about our positions. 

But here's the thing. We were also civil to each other. I may not have agreed with my friends on many issues. Quite the opposite. But at the end of the debate, we were still able to set aside those differences and go back to being teenagers. 

Look where we are today. The current President has systematically pitted us against each other in a way that makes debate impossible. I can no longer debate my position with my friends or family members. Instead, there is a very real danger that feelings will be hurt to the point we're we will leave the conversation worse than we started.

Part of the problem is that we have little to no chance of changing each other's minds. That's because the current President has declared a full and complete war against the idea of a fact. Instead of facts, we are left with a bunch of opinions that can't be evaluated for their correctness. 

This is an unacceptable trajectory for our nation, and it is one we have to fix. We need to be able to enter into a debate, with the possibility of changing each other's minds, with seeing the value of a dissenting opinion, and with a renewed agreement that facts exist. We need to acknowledge that there is a continuum between "mere opinion" (i.e., chocolate is the best flavor of ice cream) and solid, empirical facts (i.e., covid has taken more than 200,000 American lives). 

To get on path, we need to vote out the current President. We need to restore decency, civil debate, and respectful disagreement. We need to vote in Biden and Harris so we can start the healing process. 

Where Is Our Common Ground?

 

Democrat v. Republican | Liberal v. Conservative | Red v. Blue | North v. South

American politics are defined by these dichotomies. You're either for us or against us! You're either American or un-American. 

Honestly, that's not even close to who we actually are. Since the very inception of our country, we have always been a loosely connected, ragtag group of immigrants who have been trying, against all odds, to survive. 

Our genius was realizing that we couldn't survive alone. Instead, we had to see past our differences and band together. It might be the case that you're from Virginia, and I'm from Pennsylvania. But it doesn't matter. If we were going to survive, then we need to stick together. These American states are, and will always be, United.

They are united because we all believe in the following: 

1. The Constitution is the law of the land. 
2. Every citizen has the right to vote. 
3. Every citizen has equal protection under our laws.

All elected officials must take an oath to uphold and protect the Constitution. If that elected official's speech or action consistently and repeatedly fails to uphold their solemn oath, then it is our responsibility to remove them from office. To fail to do so is the same as saying, "The American experiment is over. Democracy was a fun experiment, but it just didn't pan out." It admits that self-rule is not a viable form of government.

I don't think any of us is ready to throw in the towel on democracy just yet. Instead, it's time to vote out the politicians who fail to protect The Constitution, actively suppress our right to vote, and feel they are not beholden to the same laws as the rest of us. To do otherwise is to admit defeat. 

We are not yet defeated. In this moment in history, it is up to us to vote out the autocrats and despotic rulers. It's time to remind them that we all still believe in these three ideals. They are our common ground. It's what unites us.

Democracy will not die on our watch. 

The American Wringer

9/11    |    The Financial Crisis of 2007–2008    |    Corona Virus 

Let's face it. As a nation, we've been through the wringer. In the past 20 years, Americans have endured unthinkable tragedies in form of terrorist attacks, a global financial crisis, and a pandemic. Each disaster is worse than the last. At the onset of each disaster, American leadership has sought to minimize the impact and hasten our recovery. 

That is, until now. The current president has, in no uncertain terms, told us that we have to "live with it." Of course, nobody can just live with the corona virus. Instead, it has killed approximately one quarter of a million Americans. We can't just "live with it" because none of us have the same level of healthcare that the President does. Therefore, millions more Americans are going to get sick, and many of the infected are going to die. The President signaled to us that he doesn't care. We just have to deal with it. 

So here we are. Just nine days before the election. According to the polls, the race is close. Millions of American have fallen for the President's on-going con, which is a complete and total contradiction: Everything is fine, and only he can fix it. 

We also know that the President is is actively suppressing votes and rigging the election in his favor. These are acts of a desperate man because he knows he can't win in a fair election. 

But why does the President want to stay in power? He hates his job, and it's evident in everything he does. One hypothesis is that he needs this job so that he can continue making millions of dollars from direct lobbyists [1]. He also needs to stay in office because he learned, via Robert Mueller, a sitting president can't be indicted. 

So what's going to happen to us? What's going to happen on Election Day? If the President loses by a landslide, will he concede? Will there be a peaceful transfer of power? Will he appeal his loss to the Supreme court? How will they rule?

We are in an agonizing limbo that isn't likely to end on November 3rd. Instead, mail-in ballots are going to need to be counted, and that is going to take some time. There will also be accusations of voter fraud on both sides. 

If the outcome is that the President is re-elected, then Americans will be forced to endure four more years of his divisive, caustic, hateful rhetoric. Any sort of restriction on his behavior will be completely removed because he won't be campaigning for re-election. He will undoubtedly test the limits of his power by doing whatever he wants. Many of the freedoms that we enjoyed before his Presidency will be gone. Only straight, white, male Americans will be safe (and even that statement is debatable). 

But if, by some miracle, he loses, then we have a different challenge ahead of us. We know that nearly half of the voters, i.e., those who backed the current President, are going to be angry and feel resentment toward the other half of America that voted for Biden and Harris. We need to repair the damage that the current President has enacted on all of us. But how will we move forward, as a nation? How will we learn to appreciate our differences? How will we become less racist and more tolerant? How do we ensure that this never happens to us again? 

There are so many open questions. I just hope that on November 3rd, we put ourselves on the path toward building back better. 

Reflections on Writing a Book

Writing a book is hard work, but there are things you can do to make it easier. In this post, I want to capture a few lessons I learned that might help others who also aspire to write a book. This is both a "how-to" and a retrospective on the process of writing my book. 

Write about what you know.

Ok, that's probably a trite observation, but that doesn't make it any less true. My decision to write a book was in response to a terrible day at work. I realized that there are some things in my life I can control, and the project I was working on at the time was not one of them. I was told to stop working on that project and work on a different one. When I asked if I had any choice in the matter, I was told, in no uncertain terms, "You have a choice where you work." Ouch. Message received.

As they say, you can't control the world, but you can control how you react. I decided to start a project where I was in complete control. Nobody could tell me to stop and work on something else. Nor could anybody tell me what to work on. That led me to the decision that I wanted to write about teaching educators about the findings from cognitive science. It's a messy, weird scientific field with a bunch of jargon. I wanted to cut through that jargon and help educators understand how people learn.

This is my blog.

Once I settled on a project, then I had to decide on an outlet. Should I write an article for Scientific American, Wired, or IFLove Science? These are all highly respected media outlets for a well-educated audience. Writing an article for them seemed like it would result in a lot of work with a highly unlikely publication. Instead, I decided I wanted to write a book, but the thought of writing a whole book was much too daunting. Instead, I decided that I would write the book, but in bits and pieces. Therefore, I started a blog called Dr. Bob's Cog Blog [1]. That was a great forcing function to keep me writing. I set a goal for myself to write 52 blog posts in one year. In other words, one blog a week. It was a frenetic pace, but it got me moving.

1. Write a lot.

This is my beast.

1a. Feed the beast 

One way to write a lot is to write a little bit, every day [2]. I wasn't able to that exactly, but I came close. Instead of writing everyday, having a firm goal of writing 52 posts helped me write a lot. I had an internal deadline that I had to meet. That forced me to write during nights and weekends. Each Thursday morning, I had to have something ready to publish.

I often joked that publishing a blog is like feeding the beast. That's what it felt like sometimes because the beast, pictured here, was never satisfied. It was always hungry for more (which is a good thing when you're trying to write a lot).

1b. Create an SFD 

One of the best pieces of advice I got in graduate school was to get it out, and then get it right [3]. Often, a writer is his or her own worst enemy. That was certainly true for me. I love everything to be perfect, and I abhor a mess. Unfortunately, writing is a messy process. You can't improve that which does not exist; therefore, you need to create an SFD. What's an SFD? It's a shitty first draft [4]. When you sit down to write, your goal is to produce something bad. When you take that frame of mind, then it gives you permission to start. You can always make it better, later (and you will!).

1c. Have multiple outputs

Another way to write a lot is to have multiple outlets for your work. When I was a grad student, I learned the best way to get an article published was to start small. The first outlet of your work should be an abstract or a paper published in a conference proceeding. Then you can take that small success and bootstrap it into a publication. The goal was to always keep building off your prior work. That was my goal for the blog. I created enough blog posts that eventually added up to a book.

This is my book.

2. Be patient 

It takes a long time to find a home for your work. Honestly, I didn't think I would ever find a publisher. After a year of blogging, I had enough content to move forward with my aspiration to publish a book. Because I had been in control of this project from the beginning, I wasn't interested in a publisher telling me what I can and can't print. In other words, I wasn't ready to deal with multiple rounds of rejection. I also briefly considered paying someone to publish my book. But then I saw how that turned out for one of my friends, so I decided against that route. Instead, I decided to publish the book myself on the Apple Bookstore. It was the perfect platform because I was 100% in control, and I was able to convert the web content from the blog directly into a digital book without any loss of fidelity. 

This turned out to be a flop. I sold exactly 10 copies to a couple of charitable friends and family members. But eventually, it helped me secure a book deal because I had something tangible I could share with a prospective publisher. I didn't need to print anything. All I did was send him a code, and he was able to download the book and start reading. It was an incredibly efficient way to share my work.

3. Don't be patient 

One you've inked a book deal, it's time to roll up your sleeves and get to work. Naively, I thought I was done, and that my book was good enough to print "as is." Boy was I wrong. This might have been the hardest part of the entire project. I was assigned an editor, and he started making tons of really excellent recommendations. What that meant for me, though, was that I had to immediately implement them because we were on a tight timeline. The publisher decided on a release date for my book, and I had to work mornings, evenings, and weekends – pretty much anytime I was free – just to keep up with the pace of edits. It was insanity.

4. Be tenacious 

Even though a lot of the project felt insane at times, there was always something to look forward to. There was the possibility that someone new might find one of my blog posts interesting. Or there was the possibility that the editorial suggestions would end, and that we would eventually send the manuscript to the printer. Never give up. Never stop. Always keep your eye on the finish line!

5. Avoid feeling like a fraud

There are going to be days when you feel like what you are working on is stupid and nobody is going to like it. Your job, as a writer, is to ignore those evil inner voices and stay true to your project. Your contribution is unique, and you have something to share with the rest of the world. Trust me. Your audience is out there.

If you can keep these lessons in mind, then you can publish a book, too [5].

Thanks for reading! 

Dr. Bob

More to Explore

[1] Hat tip to my brilliant wife for naming Dr. Bob's Cog Blog.

[2] Here's a great book that we were assigned in grad school: How to write a lot.

[3] The other notable piece of advice I got was write tipsy, edit sober; unfortunately, that's not a great long-term writing strategy. 
[4] Shitty First Drafts: Anne Lamott from Bird by Bird [link]

[5] It also helps to have a supportive partner and a hell of a good editor!