Immovable giants
I’m often amused by the way small children who are learning to walk will use an adult’s leg for support just as readily as a piece of furniture. To a young child’s eyes, we grown-up giants must seem so strong and immovable that, if we are doing what they want, it’s because they’ve convinced us […]
The problem with real-life experiments
When I hear about expert economists who disagree on policy recommendations, I think, “Surely this could be solved by experiment!” What if, instead of arguing over, say, whether raising the minimum wage would help or hurt the economy, we just try it out somewhere and see what happens? I would love to see more evidence-based […]
My 2017 goals
I don’t put a lot of stock into making New Year’s resolutions; in fact, I usually try to start a habit on an otherwise ordinary day so that when I fall off the wagon it’s easier to get back on. But I like the idea of having a time of year when you think about the […]
The 60 books of 2016
This year I just barely managed to meet my Goodreads challenge of 60 books in 52 weeks. I thought I’d give out my own awards to the books I’ve read in various categories, so here they are. For books that have them, I’ve also linked to my reviews (which are often very short). What are some of your favorite […]
Running out of ideas
When I started this blog, I had more post ideas than I knew what to do with. It seemed like everything I encountered, everything I thought about, could become the topic for a post. I loved the feeling that I was starting to develop the eye of a writer for interesting facets of the world […]
Don’t hold back
I often get frustrated by things I feel like I should be able to do, but don’t. For example, I should be able to get myself out of bed in the morning without agonizing over whether to reset the alarm for later. Every night I think to myself, “Tomorrow I will just stand up and […]
The three varieties of habit
I like habits. I think chipping away a little at a time is a great way to make a big dent in something, and I’m always looking for ways to break down big problems into little solutions I can effect over time. But I’ve noticed in my readings that not everyone has the same idea […]
Discrimination or just consequence?
Recently on Facebook, a friend of a friend mentioned that the police routinely pull him over because he is a man with long hair, and claimed that this makes him the target of discrimination. I had two conflicting thoughts about that: Seriously? If having long hair as a man is correlated with more unsavory activities, […]
Why we experience regret
I got a traffic ticket for jaywalking once. (I didn’t realize it was actually illegal to cross on a don’t walk, even if there were no cars coming… hence my careful reading of that section in the Minnesota driver’s handbook when we moved here.) It was not a big deal—the cop takes your information, you […]
The Traveling Zero
How our concept of zero point, the neutral baseline compared to which we define positive and negative, can wander around over time.