The Ostrich Effect
First things first: despite any cartoons you might’ve seen, ostriches don’t try to hide from danger by burying their heads in the sand....
Beautiful Minds
Hollywood doesn’t have the best track record portraying mental illness. From the harmless, almost charmingly quirky weirdos of Benny and...
The Twain Brain, or, Why Smart People do Stupid Things
StartFragment “A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way.” So said Mark Twain, printer, steamboat...
Six Strategies for Avoiding the Truth
Are you lying to yourself every day? Depends: are you a "Bayesian Updater?" Hopefully you are. The term is named after Reverend Thomas...
The Lowdown on Luck
“Good luck!” It’s a common expression in our lexicon. Obviously, on a gut level we have some sense of the importance of luck—that is,...
Aristotle's Three Musketeers, or, A Swiftly Tipping Stool
What might the Greek philosopher and Jack-of-all-trades Aristotle think of the latest findings in neuroscience? How would his notion of...