After a talk with my ever-insightful PhD advisor, I need to amend my model of robust design.  I had conceived of robustness as a spectrum with hard-to-break on the end close to fragility and easy-to-fix on the end close to antifragility.  I think the picture is actually two-dimensional and more... [Read More]

The MIT Tech Review recently published a detailed, well-balanced look at the state of driverless cars. I’ve heard opinions on driverless cars that are extremely optimistic (‘we have all the technology ready to go – any day now!) and pessimistic (‘legal quagmires will keep them off the roads for a... [Read More]

  I've come to value the power of human intuition more and more over time, but there are three (off the top of my head - I know there are more) situations where our intuition completely breaks down. In these cases, I think the lens of math/science truly shines: Statistics... [Read More]

Saturday (Mostly Space) Stories! Big Data in Spaaaaace I think it’s important to investigate the sausage factory of science…after the results have been declared satisfactory. Scrutiny during the process extends deadlines indefinitely – too much pressure to get it right on the first try. It’s not an experiment if there’s... [Read More]

I’m sure you couldn’t tell based on what you’re reading right now, but I’m a huge fan of stories. It’s great to be on either end: experiencing or telling. I loved immersing myself in the atmosphere of the stack when I was an undergraduate. On ditch day as a junior,... [Read More]