Thursday, February 24, 2011

The Neural Contract

At work I have an unusual freedom of choosing my research topics as well as the ways of how to creatively express them. Over the last 10 years I have made the remarkable transition from being a scientist to becoming an artist. Given this freedom I have come up with a secret contract with myself: from now on I only work on things that keep my neurons on fire. Why to work on anything that doesn't stimulate my neural branches to connect with new places.

I am not a brain expert, but I would conjecture that you shouldn't only equate neural fireworks with the feeling of serenity and happiness. I am sure that you also stretch your brain connections in the presence of fear. Your entire system is on high alert, and your brain is probably on overdrive trying to find a way out of the misery. So I guess my motto is bring on whatever gets my system going, just keep the routine and boring stuff away from me.

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