Dear Brain,
Firstly, allow me to comment on the fundamental irony of this letter. I’m writing it to criticise you, but in order to think of these criticisms and capture them in a blog-worthy format, I’m using you. It’s you, with all of your flaws and shortcomings, that has realised you have a problem. You’ve recognised this problem, but more importantly, you’re willing to call yourself out on it. Good on you. This vaguely reminds me of a quote I once heard: “A physicist is an attempt by an atom to understand itself.” It’s a lovely quote, and implies a level of introspection that one wouldn’t normally consider.
Let’s get one thing very clear: when you do something well, you do it fantastically well. It’s thanks to you that we understand so much about the universe— its machinations and emotions, and it’s thanks to you that I’m able to type this blog and see it pop up on a screen. Humanity has seen more than its fair share of brilliance, and all of that is because of you. Unfortunately, being the selfish beings that we are, we tend to take your abilities for granted, and I’m just as guilty of that as the next guy. As a result of this, I’m going to temporarily suspend my appreciation of what you’re good at and instead just talk about what you’re not good at.