…of campaign spending, all else constant. That’s basically the approach taken by Steve Levitt in his seminal study of repeat meetings of the same Congressional candidates over time. Levitt finds…
Also: are the most memorable stories less likely to be true?
(iStockphoto) Two weeks ago, Steve Sexton wrote about the bankruptcy of Evergreen Solar in Massachusetts. Today it’s California’s Solyndra that’s shutting down. From the Washington Post: The unexpected announcement raised…
Are things really as bad as they seem? Has Gen Z given up hope for the world? And why was the father of positive psychology a lifelong pessimist?…
…Head.” He’d bought the book due to Steve Levitt’s recommendation from an article in the Financial Times. He still has a bruise on his forehead. He blames Steve for it….
…of all sorts of things that you’d like to put Steve Jobs to work on: San Francisco-based journalist Amy Tenderich, who has Type 1 diabetes, runs the Diabetes Mine blog,…
…and margarine that landed in the Supreme Court. Our panelists are: Steve Levitt, my Freakonomics friend and co-author, who didn’t quite fit-in with sports teams. Bridget Gainer, Cook County commissioner,…
Sixty percent of the jobs that Americans do today didn’t exist in 1940. What happens as our labor becomes more technical and less physical? And what kinds of jobs will…
…wealth tax or an estate tax that was contingent on some measure of wealth inequality. But given the current political environment, an income-contingent wealth tax is bridge too far. Steve…
Also: how can we stop confusing correlation with causation?
You know the saying: A winner never quits and a quitter never wins. To which Freakonomics Radio says … Are you sure?…
…Lab Days, where biology students ended up copying answers for work they never did. (Comstock) This comes as little surprise to Steve Levitt, who several years ago recognized what most…
…is a technology or design company, chime in: ‘Nope. What Steve Jobs sells is pricing,’” writes Ben Kunz. “Pricing? You bet. Jobs is a master of using pricing decoys, reference…
…(I’m a big fan of both Tina Fey and Steve Carell, but, like many critics, I was underwhelmed by the movie. The extended dancing scene was a particular misstep.) Aside…
…Obama will announce this week two blockbuster appointments to senior positions at the Department of Treasury. Sure to raise eyebrows will be the appointment of University of Chicago economist Steve…
He was handed the keys to the global economy just as it started heading off a cliff. Fortunately, he’d seen this movie before.
From the Manhattan Project to the Challenger investigation, the physicist Richard Feynman loved to shoot down what he called “lousy ideas.” Today, the world is awash in lousy ideas —…
…and the children’s book The Boy With Two Belly Buttons. He lives in New York City. Steven D. Levitt Steve is the host of People I (Mostly) Admire and co-author…
…Cialdini (author of the landmark book Influence: Science and Practice), and his co-authors, Noah Goldstein and Steve Martin, agree. But in their new book, Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to…
The human foot is an evolutionary masterpiece, far more functional than we give it credit for. So why do we encase it in “a coffin” (as one foot scholar calls…
How pharma greed, government subsidies, and a push to make pain the “fifth vital sign” kicked off a crisis that costs $80 billion a year and has killed hundreds of…
The U.S. is home to seven of the world’s 10 biggest companies. How did that happen? The answer may come down to two little letters: V.C. Is venture capital good…
…to talk at length with people like Steve Pinker, Mitch Kapor, and even Thomas Dolby. What is best about the conference is that people really have fun. When I attended…
Also: How can you become a more curious person?…
How much can you tell about someone from the first few seconds of a Zoom call? What did Stephen think of Angie when he first met her? And: a special…
…is unfortunately best known as the older brother of Tobias Wolff, whose own memoir, This Boy’s Life, was also pretty great. Steve Levitt’s father Michael is also worth writing about…
How a pain-in-the-neck girl from rural Virginia came to run the most powerful university in the world.
When it comes to generating ideas and asking questions it can be really fruitful to have the mentality of an 8-year-old.
Yesterday, we posted a Q&A with economist and all-around smart guy Steve Landsburg, who addresses a lot of everyday riddles in his writing. Sometime in the next few days, we’ll…
…steps further south, the sign becomes complete. Still, I can’t help but think that this design wouldn’t have gone over so well with someone as exacting as, say, Steve Jobs:…
