QBD #11: Dropping out to find the right way in

Learning is a journey with Paul Middlebrooks, the Socrates of Neuroscience

Photo by Mesut Kaya on Unsplash

In a world focused on categorization, Paul Middlebrooks and I look into another approach—the practice of holding different positions, even while taking one position and being responsible for it. This is not easy to grasp at first, but as Paul says in our discussion, once you’ve gotten into the habit of it, it’s hard to see the world as you once did. In any case, this sort of paradoxical thinking—holding two seemingly contradictory ideas in mind at once so as to explore the space holding them—has opened new paths for Paul.

He found his way in neuroscience, for example, by first leaving it. Now he’s back and charting out a new course. It’s not that it gets easier exactly, but something has changed in his ability to hold polarities and keep attention on the wider process. He no longer judges himself for not having all the answers but has learned instead how to be a better questioner. Sometimes that is the greatest skill a person can bring into the lab.

🚀 Finding Direction amid the stresses of Academia

Paul feels like a "feather being blown in the wind," he says, because so much grabs his attention. Others of us feel more like rocket ships that can’t slow down long enough to explore all the wondrous possible potentials in these galaxies.