I am a cognitive scientist and conduct research on rationality under radical uncertainty, a phenomenon in the intersection of psychology, economics, neuroscience and artificial intelligence, directly relevant for improving human and institutional decision-making in real life.

My undergraduate degree is in psychology from the University of Vienna, during which I conducted empirical research regarding questions of human behaviour change. During that time I also worked at the Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Decision Support (AID) at the Center for Medical Statistics, Informatics and Intelligent Systems (CEMSIIS) of the Medical University of Vienna, related to questions of persuasive technology ("captology") and decision support systems for impact evaluations.

As my graduate degree I visited the the MEi:CogSci programme. The Middle European interdisciplinary master’s programme in Cognitive Science (MEi:CogSci) is a joint master’s programme offered by the Comenius University in Bratislava, Eötvös Loránd University Budapest, University of Ljubljana, and University of Vienna & Medical University of Vienna. During that time I:

• worked with the Collective Mind research group at the Donau Universität Krems to learn more about what makes groups smart beyond individual intelligence ("c-factor"). 
• studied decision-making under uncertainty at the Real World Risk Institute in New York City from a finance mathematics and complexity science perspective under Nassim Taleb, Raphael Douady, Robert J. Frey, Joe Norman and others
• wrote my thesis under supervision of Johannes Jäger, an evolutionary systems biologist and natural philosopher (Associate Faculty at the Complexity Science Hub Vienna), who had major influences on my conceptions of philosophy of science. I recommend his lecture series "Beyond Networks: The Evolution of Living Systems" and his appearance on the BrainInspired Podcast.
• collaborated with John Vervaeke, professor of cognitive science at University of Toronto for the research underlying my thesis (you can watch us discussing parts of our research on YouTube and read a Preprint of "Rationality and Relevance Realization")
• created a "Historical Map of (the) cognitive science(s): An attempt" information design poster, after extensively reading above and beyond what was required for the programme
• worked in strategic communications, marketing and UX/UI design in different roles and for different clients. For example as an instructor regarding the psychology of perception for a UX/UI bootcamp in Austria

During the time of my undergraduate studies I founded and managed a society focused on strategic thinking for social impact decisions ("Effective Altruism Austria"). I co-organized a monthly meetup called "Rationality Vienna", focused on economics, applied epistemology, artificial intelligence and scientific discourse more broadly. I also worked for various humanist organizations in the DACH region.

​Disclaimer

Most of my interests do not represent positions and opinions I identify with, but phenomena I am interested in thinking about. I am agnostic and flexible regarding my stands on them and my opinion is like a flag in the wind of good arguments and evidence.
Also many of my blog posts do not reflect my own standards of quality. If they would, I would never publish anything online. I try to produce minimal viable products that are readable and at least approximate my knowledge and opinion, to get ideas and input "out there".