Dr. Maya Shankar

And I remember this one day.

So I was doing my postdoc in cognitive neuroscience at Stanford.

So I was doing my postdoc in cognitive neuroscience at Stanford.

And I was scanning people's brains in the basement up in the fMRI laboratory.

And I was scanning people's brains in the basement up in the fMRI laboratory.

I was on my whatever hour of doing this.

I was on my whatever hour of doing this.

And I remember this guy came in.

And I remember this guy came in.

And within minutes, I'm peering into his brain.

And within minutes, I'm peering into his brain.

And I remember thinking...

And I remember thinking...

Given my personality, I feel like the order of operations is wrong here.

Given my personality, I feel like the order of operations is wrong here.

Like I'm already peering into this guy's brain and I don't know whether he has kids, what his favorite food is, what his passions in life are.

Like I'm already peering into this guy's brain and I don't know whether he has kids, what his favorite food is, what his passions in life are.

I feel like I should be doing something that feels slightly more social and team oriented where I get to know people first and then maybe, you know, do the behavioral science piece.

I feel like I should be doing something that feels slightly more social and team oriented where I get to know people first and then maybe, you know, do the behavioral science piece.

But as you can imagine, and I imagine as many of your listeners can relate to, when you put so many years into a pursuit, you feel a lot of anxiety about the idea of jumping ship, right?