Mind Matters

Orthodox globalization declares that any hindrance to rational market efficiency is a Bad Thing. So there's no sensible counter to that unnamed Apple executive in the New York Times' series on outsourcing and working conditions who said "we don’t have an obligation to solve America’s problems. Our ... Read More

The ideal American store, Adam Gopnik once suggested, would have no employees. Consumers' desires would be met flawlessly by unerring, tireless machines. On the other hand, the ideal French store has no customers: Nothing to interfere with the workers' satisfying work and humane schedule. Of ... Read More

Twenty years from now, could veterans of Afghanistan be trading war stories over friendly dinners with ex-Taliban fighters? It sound inconceivable, but then, it always is—when the war is still on. Yet ex-soldiers in past wars have felt a bond with fellow-fighters, which they don't share with non ... Read More

Anything "organic" or "low-fat" must be good for you, right? Ask people how fattening those organic chocolate-covered peanuts are, and they'll guess a lower number than they did for the non-organic version. They'll also eat more than they would have otherwise. The same goes for "low-fat" products ... Read More

Ah, New Year's Eve: It feels so important to find something significant, meaningful, memorable to do. And then two weeks later you can't recall what it was, because it was so much like all the others.  If this year brought something really unique and striking (a sky-parade of 12 dancing pink ... Read More

If you want to understand Occupy Wall Street and the frustration, rage and sadness that drive it, you could do worse than to watch White Christmas . That's the 1954 confection of schmaltz and Irving Berlin songs that celebrates Christmas, friendship, love and show business, in a typically ... Read More

A frequently cited objection to widespread use of the Gardasil vaccine against Human Papillomavirus is that it will give children the message that it's normal, expected and inevitable that they will have sex with a partner or partner who has had sex with others before. That is, for some parents, is ... Read More

Newt Gingrich was almost right about the Palestinians when he said they were an "invented people" (though the difference between right and almost right, to paraphrase Twain, is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug). Gingrich's statement would be accurate if only he'd go on to say ... Read More

In the annals of human hatred, there's a special place for those who play the same game we do—the ones who are on to our tricks and whose mirror tactics threaten to take a piece of our action. (Who hates a typical politician more than a typical politician?) I've always thought this was part of the ... Read More

"A second-class intellect but a first-class temperament" was Oliver Wendell Holmes' assessment of Franklin Roosevelt, reflecting an old and widespread notion that the smartest and most ingenious person in the ditch is probably not the one to lead everyone out of it. Human beings seem always to have ... Read More

As a general rule, I'm a fan of changing human behavior by changing the rules we live by. Given how inconsistent people are, it seems to me foolish to rely on good will, abstract principles or our rational perception of our own self-interest. Also, it's pretty hard to know what you've achieved when ... Read More

Have you ever poked around in the "People You May Know" box in Facebook? For the first few score people, it's a pleasure. Click: A person I forgot I knew. Click. I always wondered what happened to her. Click. Wow, seven mutual friends with this famous person! Click. Click. Click. It's fun until you ... Read More

"As a man is," wrote William Blake, "so he sees. As the eye is formed, such are its powers." No doubt my tumultuous childhood is a part of the reason I find long-term investment advice rather funny. "Do this for 40 years and be assured of a sound retirement." Really? Who thinks we can be sure what ... Read More

Whatever the facts of the crimes in this week's pair of institutional scandals (and it bears saying that trials in the Afghanistan "kill team" case are ongoing, while Jerry Sandusky hasn't yet been convicted of anything), the facts about the institutional responses by the Army and Penn State are not ... Read More

This paper, published online yesterday in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, introduces a new term to neuroscience: The FBN, or "Facebook number." Your Facebook number is, of course, your total of friends on the social network. According to Ryota Kanai and co-authors, the higher your Facebook ... Read More