Where the time went

This blog has been silent for quite a while. In fact, I can imagine that some subscribers to The Reasoning Report have completely forgotten they even signed up for the monthly interview mailing. Right now I do feel ready to reignite this project, but I figured it would also make sense to explain the prolonged pause. After all, critical thinking is largely about the willingness to explain and justify our beliefs and actions.

At the same time, I am not enough of an exhibitionist to turn this into a diary entry, so let me brief about what happened.

In the summer of 2023, I developed a nerve condition, which escalated quickly. By August, I could no longer use my right arm or hand, and writing therefore became next to impossible. This went on for a long time. It took me six months before I could do lame tasks like answering e-mails again. Things are a lot better now, but the issue remains as a nuisance and I still pay a price after prolonged writing sessions.

As things started to return to normal in the spring of 2024, something else happened. I entered a divorce, which hit me hard. The cognitive cycles I had left after the emotional processing went into making sense of what happened and picking up the pieces of myself. While this period definitely brought a lot of insights into the nature of identity, attachment, intersubjectivity and the complicated relationship between affect and cognition, I never felt like my thoughts about these things fit with this blog, and so I kept them to myself (and my friends, in a process that provided me with additional evidence of the power of discursive sensemaking).

And so now I return after a two-year hiatus. A lot has changed, but I do think I can pick thing up where I left off. After all, large language models still can't reason, democracy has only moved further away from deliberation and healthy public discourse, and while I haven't seen any recent analyses, I am sure higher education still struggles to teach critical thinking skills. The misinformation scare seems to have subsided a bit, but perhaps it's just occluded by a much more legitimate fear of authoritarianism.

This blog can therefore continue in its original direction. The last interview I did before everything broke down was with a young researcher who studied how to bring reasoned discussion into the political arena. I don't think her work is any less urgent, although I guess I should check in with her for updates.

My professional life changed a little bit, as this year I will be spending time on the challenges (and perhaps opportunities) that large language models pose for student learning. I will hopefully be able to share some of that work right here – I think the technology offers truly novel reasons for promoting critical thinking skills.

In short, there's plenty in the pipeline and my intention is not just to return, but to stay. If you're not a subscriber yet, but you want to receive the monthly interviews from The Reasoning Report in your inbox, make sure to subscribe via the button below. Here's to hoping the next one drops soon!