I like to think of my brain, and all the little neural pathways I forge in there, as a sculpture I’m working on. I want to be like one of those Japanese craftspeople who make beautiful small contraptions, except the thing I’m sculpting is a fistful of fat, blood, and neurons.

It is not all that unlike making a painting, or a chair, or an essay—you take some actions and observe the outcome, and then you adjust your actions, until the object satisfies you. Except that sculpting a mind is much more complicated and consequential.

The shape of my brain determines not only what I’m able to do, but also what I experience as reality. If I take my craft seriously, then, in a year from now, I will be able to see all sorts of beautiful nuances and opportunities that I’m blind for today, and I will be able to act more skillfully.