29. Anna Riedl: Cognitive science, effective altruism, and science communication

Anna Riedl is a cognitive scientist, currently finishing her MSc in cognitive science in Vienna. She is also founder of Effective Altruism Austria, and co-organiser of the Rationality Vienna Meetup. In this conversation, we talk about cognitive science, rationality, effective altruism, visualisation in science communication, and much more.

BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New conversations every other Friday. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).

Timestamps
00:04: Studying as a firstgen
07:35: Anna's MSc in cognitive science
20:01: What real-world problem is Anna trying to solve?
26:46: When are you qualified to give a talk on a topic?
35:20: Depth vs. breadth and fun vs. precision in science communication
43:21: Visualisation in science (communication)

Podcast links

• Website: https://bjks.buzzsprout.com/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/BjksPodcast

Guest's links

• Website: https://www.riedlanna.com/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/AnnaLeptikon

Ben's links

• Website: www.bjks.blog/
• Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=-nWNfvcAAAAJ
•  Twitter:  https://twitter.com/bjks_tweets   

References
Borner, K. (2015). Atlas of knowledge: anyone can map. MIT Press.
Burton, R. A. (2009). On being certain: Believing you are right even when you're not. Macmillan.
Larkin, J. H., & Simon, H. A. (1987). Why a diagram is (sometimes) worth ten thousand words. Cognitive science.
Marr, D., & Poggio, T. (1977). From understanding computation to understanding neural circuitry. Neurosciences Research Program Bulletin.
Marr, D. (1982). Vision: A computational investigation into the human representation and processing of visual information.

Links discussed
3blue1brown's YouTube channel with maths visualisations: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYO_jab_esuFRV4b17AJtAw
Anna's interview on Future Fossils: https://shows.acast.com/futurefossils/episodes/166
Anna's map of cognitive science: https://www.riedlanna.com/cognitivesciencemap.html
Anna's prints (on T-shirt, blanket, shower curtain, etc.) of the map of cognitive science: https://www.redbubble.com/de/shop/ap/64207253
Marie and Otto Neurath's Isotype collection: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isotype_(picture_language)
Medium article about Marie Neurath: https://medium.com/nightingale/the-missing-legacy-of-marie-neurath-f9800733d1fc