The cigarette smoker as two-self economic man In a landmark report released in May 1988, the Surgeon General of the United States concluded that the nicotine in cigarette smoke was an addictive drug. The report described cigarette smoking as a … Continue reading Are you rationally addicted?
There Is No Such Thing as Unconscious Thought The great French mathematician and physicist Henri Poincaré (1854–1912) took a particular interest in the origins of his own astonishing creativity. His achievements were impressive: His work profoundly reshaped mathematics and physics—including … Continue reading Flashes of suspicion
Why winning in rock-paper-scissors isn’t everything ROCK-PAPER-SCISSORS WORKS GREAT for deciding who has to take out the garbage. But have you ever noticed what happens when, instead of playing best of three, you just let the game continue round after … Continue reading Mixed strategies
The Irrational User: 8 cognitive biases to keep in mind when building products The human mind is a wonderfully complex thinking machine. We’ve developed written language, built skyscrapers, and discovered quantum physics through our collective ability to plan and reason. … Continue reading How cognitive biases arise
In defence of the economists Do the “tenets of neoclassicism” shape our day-to-day work as economists, as Howard Reed puts it in his ill-informed diatribe for Prospect? No—they do not. These are some of the research papers in economics that … Continue reading Empirical techniques in economics
Annie Duke Will Beat You at Your Own Game Late last year, I wrote to Annie Duke, a former professional poker player, about the possibility of profiling her. Duke, who for years was the leading female money winner in the … Continue reading Profiling a poker player
What’s the best option? Some parents urge their children to be the best in everything they do. They push them to be the best athlete, and the best scholar, and the best musician, and so on. Other parents urge their … Continue reading Be All You Can Be
