About This blog

'C'est ici un livre de bonne foi, lecteur. Il t'avertit, dés l'entrée, que je ne m'y suis proposé aucune fin, que domestique et privée. Je n'y ai eu nulle considération de ton service, ni de ma gloire.'
Michel, Seigneur de Montaigne, Les Essais
The quote above opens the most famous book of essays in the Western canon. In translation:
"This is a good faith book, reader. It warns you from the outset that I have set myself no goals that are not private and domestic. I have had no concern for usefulness to you, or glory to me".
I suspect that it applies as a good epithet to almost all blogging. I also suspect that as a statement, it doth protest too much. Montaigne's essays were published in his lifetime, amount to to volumes, and contain admonitions, philosophical precepts and political reflections. As such they illuminate the contradiction of personal writing. Whatever we write, we hope someone will read.
Thus, though I set myself no high goals or expectations in this blog, I do hope to write things that will be useful to others than myself. I am a postdoctoral researcher a small university in northeast Ohio. I blog primarily about thoughts related to my work and life out here, including adapting to a new era, changing research direction, and the concerns of early career research. However, I reserve the right to blog about whatever else I feel might be interesting.
Now, read on.

The title of this blog is another quote from anarchist philosopher of science Paul Feyerabend.
"The only principle that does not inhibit progress is: anything goes."
This was Feyerabend's ripost to Popper and his student Imre Lakatos's search for a methodological principle that would distinguish scientific enquiry from non-scientific enquiry. I suspect that Feyerabend is more right on this than we would be comfortable admitting. And he's more fun to read than Popper.