Of all the institutions embedded in the culture of science writing, abstracts are actually a good idea. Abstracts give the reader a broad overview of the entire document - it’s structure and arguments. Essentially ‘warning traveller!’ A good abstract is like a tree in winter - there won’t be any... [Read More]

I’m going to try an experiment. The goal? A steady stream of posts that will be like dissertation Legos. Little discrete blocks of thought that can stand on their own, but snap together to form something far more awesome. Clearly posts will always be far less polished than a complete... [Read More]

Last week, Russ Roberts (of ever excellent Econtalk) wrote a blog post about economics and engineering. I was surprised by how much I disagreed, though not in the way you might expect.  His point: looking at the economy isn’t anything like an engineering problem. The economy is complex and emergent while... [Read More]

The deluge of end-of-year related media seems to take two forms: recaps of the past year and predictions for the future. (Interestingly, there aren’t a lot of year-end reports along the lines of ‘and here’s what I’m doing RIGHT NOW’) Many predictions involve technology: will 2014 be the year of... [Read More]

Today a friend suggested that I type “why” into Matlab. You should too. Not only had I never tried it, but it never crossed my mind that it was something that one should try.  I’ve never wondered “what happens when I type ‘why’ in Matlab?” That’s the value of person-to-person... [Read More]