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Mastering the best of what other people have already figured out
The mathematician and philosopher Gian-Carlo Rota spent much of his career at MIT, where students adored him for his engaging, passionate lectures. In 1996, Rota gave a talk entitled “Ten Lessons I …
If you’re trying to gain a rapid understanding of a new area, one of the most important things you can do is to identify common mistakes people make, then avoid them. Here are some of the most …
Regression to the mean is a common statistical phenomenon that can mislead us when we observe the world. Learning to recognize when regression to the mean is at play can help us avoid misinterpreting …
“The laws of Nature are written in the language of mathematics.” — Galileo *** Most of us are unaware of the hidden world of mathematics. Actually, we’d rather avoid the subject entirely. …
“I have never done anything like others,” Benoit Mandelbrot (1924-2010) once said. That statement is proven time and time again in his autobiography: The Fractalist. Mandelbrot is …