Wisdom of Crowds: Marathon Edition
…to guessing my finishing time. Leave your guesses in the comments anytime before the race begins (2 p.m. Stockholm time = 8 a.m. EST). And now, the form guide: The…
Also: how did Angela do with her no-sugar challenge?…
…to guessing my finishing time. Leave your guesses in the comments anytime before the race begins (2 p.m. Stockholm time = 8 a.m. EST). And now, the form guide: The…
As the Biden administration rushes to address climate change, Stephen Dubner looks at another, hidden cost of air pollution — one that’s affecting how we think….
What happens to your reputation when you’re no longer around to defend it?
Do humans need touch to survive? Do any of us get enough touch throughout our lives? And why doesn’t Angela want to hug anyone for eight seconds?…
Is it better to explain a mistake or just accept responsibility? What’s the difference between an excuse and a justification? And why is it important to remember that you’re not…
Do highway warnings save lives or cost lives? How do you keep men from peeing on the floor? And what’s Angela’s plan to get more people washing their hands?…
…be in Vegas since he’s competing in the 2006 World Series of Poker. Mikey’s gambit is a publicity stunt for a poker website, PokerShare.com. Here’s the press release that tells…
…comment earning three points, I’ll randomly select one comment from among this set. If nobody submits a three-point comment, I’ll repeat the procedure looking at two-point comments, and continue until…
Tony Hsieh, the longtime C.E.O. of Zappos, was an iconoclast and a dreamer. Five years ago, we sat down with him around a desert campfire to talk about those dreams….
One woman’s quest to find the best burger in town can teach all of us to eat smarter.
…a good guy and a doormat? Do people with sharp elbows make more money? And why did Angela’s mother give away her birthday present? Take the Big Five inventory: freakonomics.com/bigfive…
…especially hard to detect and treat. Pancreatic cancer, for instance, is nearly always fatal. A new clinical-trial platform could change that by aligning institutions that typically compete against one another….
You wouldn’t think you could win a Nobel Prize for showing that humans tend to make irrational decisions. But that’s what Richard Thaler has done. The founder of behavioral economics…
Casinos think they can stop skilled gamblers from eking out a tiny edge at blackjack. Is that a losing bet? Zachary Crockett doubles down.
…Pre-emptive comment: Someone might argue that this arena was necessary to make the Sacramento Kings competitive. Before you offer this comment, please read my discussion of this issue last year….
Casinos think they can stop skilled gamblers from eking out a tiny edge at blackjack. Is that a losing bet? Zachary Crockett doubles down….
…a year the expected compound return of his portfolio is 65 percent! However, the annual standard deviation — a common risk measure — of this trader’s compound return is a…
…Champions. (Photo by Christopher Polk/Getty Images) As an economist, Steven Levitt says he has an underdeveloped moral compass. In the past, the University of Chicago professor and Freakonomics co-author has…
Where does sentimental value come from? Why did Angela throw out her childhood journals? And would Mike wear Hitler’s sweater?…
Is sobbing a survival tactic? What happened when Angela wept in front of her boss? And what do sauerkraut and sadness have in common?…
…online gaming companies, Sportsbook.com’s parent company, Sportingbet PLC, has decided to stop taking wagers from customers in the US effective immediately. Does this mean you can’t bet on sports or…
…etc. But for the deeper thinkers among you, there is a great “betting” site called www.longbets.com. The wagers there are a little more exotic. Mitch Kapor and Ray Kurzweil, for…
They say they make companies more efficient through savvy management. Critics say they bend the rules to enrich themselves at the expense of consumers and employees. Can they both be…
…better guide to human nature? A huge number of studies from around the world have looked at the effectiveness of alcohol control measures. Peter Anderson, Dan Chisholm, and Daniela C….
…begun a year earlier. That’s the case I made in my latest my latest Marketplace commentary, which you can listen to here. The point is more easily made with a…
As reported in Forbes on Friday, the Freakonomics blog will be leaving NYTimes.com on or around March 1 and returning to its indie roots. The Forbes piece and most of…
As stated here before, this blog was barely meant to be born at all, much less go on for two years. But now we’ve decided to stick around for at…
…example is the following: what do you think happens when you enter www.american.com, as I did yesterday, while searching for a plane ticket. American Airlines? Nope — a new magazine…
Daniel Kahneman left his mark on academia (and the real world) in countless ways. A group of his friends and colleagues recently gathered in Chicago to reflect on this legacy…
