Is Everything BS?
BS (behavioral science) without creativity—indeed BS without a tiny little whiff of BS (meaning bullshit)—is actually suboptimal.
Commentary
What Shape Does Progress Take? Don’t Assume It’s a Straight Line
As we determine where to allocate effort and money, when to keep going and when to give up, different production functions call for different strategies. Yet, we rarely consider what production functions can tell us about our progress.
Places Unexpected
Craving adventure after finishing their Ph.D.s in neuroscience, Thomas Andrillon and Chiara Varazzani set off on a round-the-world trek in their 2006 Land Rover Defender, nicknamed Bechamel. But the trip almost didn’t happen. And once they were on the road, they almost didn’t make it back.
Ellis Island Echoes: The Emotional Legacy of Ancestral Diversity
Why are some cultures more emotionally expressive than others? One explanation could be that overt emotion helped people overcome diverse linguistic and cultural barriers.
How to Cultivate Taste in the Age of Algorithms
When we turn to algorithms for recommendations instead of asking friends or going down hard-won cultural rabbit holes, what do we give up?
Is It All a Fluke? Lessons From Playing God in the Long-Term Evolution Experiment
It’s easy to believe that small, chance moments don’t make a material difference on our lives and societies. But a long-running evolution experiment suggests that life’s course may come down to the random details.