Independent research: A conversation with Tom Jesson
Channel: Thinking in public
Date: 28/02/2022

Tom Jesson (http://tomjesson.com/) is a physiotherapist, researcher, and writer based in Houston, Texas. Our social media circles have overlapped a few times in the last couple of years and after exchanging emails over the last 6 months or so, we decided to sit down together. In this conversation, Tom and I talk about our shared interest in personal knowledge management, and drill down a little into how Tom approaches his work.

He describes his shift from clinician to independent researcher, how his audience shapes his information gathering, synthesis, and writing, as well as the tools and services he uses. He also introduced me to a new writer (Nadia Eghbal), and convinced me of the value of writing clear, thoughtful, long-form essays on challenging topics.

Towards the end of the conversation, Tom asked a question that I hadn't considered before, "How does a daily focus on the news help me to be a better person for the important people in my life?". His thoughts on this question led me to make a few changes to the incoming information I allow into my own reader.

A technical mistake on my part meant that our first attempt wasn't recorded, which further limited the time we had together. I think we still managed to have a conversation that others might find useful, but Tom and I will have another chat to cover some of the topics we left out.