You’ll never believe what weird trick fixes p-values
Okay, I’m taking a quick break from my regular posts because I can’t stop geeking out about this recent XKCD comic: If you already know about clickbait (likely) and p-values (less likely), you may not need the joke explained to you. But there’s something deep going on here too, tying into the themes of probability […]
Define the Habit: Automating Habits, Part 1
This post is part 1 of a three-part series on automating habits. Here are links to the introduction, part 2, and part 3. Have you ever had a long, tiring day, and when you go to start cooking dinner, you discover that some critical step you were supposed to do earlier—start the crockpot, thaw the fish, […]
Automating your habits: a three-part series
I have this vision for my life, where each day I move from rest to work to play to rest, able to focus all my attention on whatever one thing I’m doing because I’ve taken care of everything important before it becomes urgent. Where I wash the dishes right after I use them. Where I […]
TCPB #3: Pants under or over pants?
A recent episode of The Allusionist about the differences between American and British English opened with this comment by Helen Zaltzman: We can’t even agree on whether pants are the garments you wear under or over your pants! I love this so much. I’ve heard sentences before with the trick of a single word needing to be […]
TCPB #2: “Don’t man the phone—phone the man!”
The second installment in my commonplace book analyzes a line from the hilarious children’s television show Phineas and Ferb. When Stacy becomes exasperated with Candace waiting for her boyfriend to call, she says: “Don’t man the phone—phone the man!” I love this clever inversion: the same words are used in reverse order and with different meanings. In […]
The Commonplace Book: Entry 1
In Roy Peter Clark’s book How to Write Short, he suggests keeping an eye out for good short writing, trying to understand what makes it good, and recording your attempts at using those techniques in a “commonplace book.” I’ve tried a few different pocket notebooks in the past, but now that I’ve got one I can […]
If you have a question, someone else probably has it too…
I often tell my students, “When you have a question, ask, because you’re probably not the only one who’s wondering.” I heard the same thing when I was a student, but I still felt embarrassed to ask. What if I really was the only one? Wouldn’t I be slowing down class to ask? If no […]
Cantor’s Arch
Triumphal Arch: Arch of Titus, Rome Arc de Triomphe, Paris Washington Square Arch, New York Triple Arch: Arch of Constantine, Rome Arc du Carrousel, Paris Marble Arch, London Septuple Arch: ??? Cantor’s Arch: It seems to me that no arch is more triumphant than one that rests on a set of measure zero.
When Morals Collide
Monday night is chore night at the Biesel household, and that usually means a rush hour trip to the grocery store to pick up the week’s supply of ingredients. It often happens, as I’m waiting in line at the checkout, that the person behind me is purchasing a smaller load of groceries than I am. […]
Goals for Winter Break
Hello there! As of this writing, I have officially finished my first term as a visiting assistant professor at Carleton College, and our unusually long winter break is essentially the whole month of December. I’m tired and looking forward to a bit of a rest, but I also don’t want to waste the opportunity to […]