nori parelius

Welcome to my digital notebook. It’s my little place on the internet where I think, wonder and write.

A close up picture of Nori Parelius

Hi, I'm Nori

I strive to be an amateur (from French 'one who loves')— to do what I like and to like what I do. I am an amateur thinker and an amateur writer.

To be honest, I mostly write about myself, or rather, about the things that are on my mind, hoping there might be some general in the particular, or that it will be useful to someone else.

In the real world, I have a PhD in biophysics and a day job in data analysis and teaching.

I am from Slovakia, now living in Norway with my Viking husband and two little wildlings.

Currently reading

Calvin Luther Martin -- The Way of the Human Being

Latest from the microblog

Sometimes I feel like it’s a bit unfair that we have to fight for something that basically all generations of humans before us could take for granted – our attention.

I know that we get access to infinite amounts of information instead, something that they couldn’t even imagine, but how much is it worth, if we are too overwhelmed to use it?

Recent Posts

Drawing of a slightly open door.

Looking for the roots of agency

October 27, 2025 - 11-minute read - 2260 words - by nori parelius

I wanted to write and read and make music and dance and exercise and go on walks and and and… Yet, every evening, I was finding myself in the familiar situation of not having done any of what I wanted to do…

A drawing of a left hemisphere of the brain, with some circuitry next to it and lines slashing across both.

What the left hemisphere might tell us about large language models

September 19, 2025 - 21-minute read - 4342 words - by nori parelius

It’s eloquent, but it routinely confidently makes things up to fill in the gaps, has no sense of right and wrong and tends to get fixated on things. ChatGPT? Yes – and the left hemisphere.

A painting of a fountain pen leaving an ink stain.

Thinking ̶w̶o̶r̶k̶ play in an overstimulating world

August 2, 2025 - 22-minute read - 4571 words - by nori parelius

After tossing away my Zettelkasten, I was still left with the task of thinking (and hanging onto my thoughts) in this noisy world. Fortunately, I got some unexpected help.

A photograph of a trail through a summer birch forest

Goodbye, Zettelkasten. I quit.

April 22, 2025 - 12-minute read - 2480 words - by nori parelius

When I first heard about the Zettelkasten (ZK) method, it seemed like the Holy Grail of note-taking. One place to put all my thoughts, all my ideas, all the things I am learning and would wish to remember? One place to always find them? One place to bring them all… and in the darkness bind them? I mean: bring them all together?

An image of a smartphone with a magicians hat on the screen and fireworks coming out of it.

The problem with phones or Taking back the moment

January 8, 2025 - 8-minute read - 1593 words - by nori parelius

Knowing we are being affected doesn’t stop us from being affected, just like knowing a magic trick isn’t real magic doesn’t stop us from being tricked. But, if nothing else, I find it easier to manage my phone use knowing what I am up against and what it is about the smart phone that makes it difficult to moderate. So here are the three ways in which the smartphones mess with us.

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