I have seen some of the most impressive people fold like tissue paper when faced with algebra. I know actors who can perform in front of thousands, but fall apart when given a tough math problem. I knew a tough businessman, who made hundreds of hard gut decisions a day, suffer panic attacks when preparing […]
The ancient Romans personified luck as a gorgeous, jealous goddess named Fortuna. Whenever they would see a situation that involved chaos and danger, they would begin acting boldly to impress her and win her favor. This attitude, which reversed the normal human reaction to risk, has been memorialized in Latin phrase, audaces fortuna iuvat, or “fortune favors
Depressed and anxious people are driven into identity enclaves on the internet, where they are radicalized by narcissists. We are Mentally Ill, You All are Evil A good test of someone’s tolerance is to see how they react to functional mental illness in a member of another group. (“Crazy bitch!” instead of “Wow, being bipolar
Diversity and Mental Illness, or The Brief History of Our Narcissistocracy Read More »
Aha! It is one of the most pleasurable moments when working with someone one-on-one. You wait, and wait… they struggle… and then, the lightbulb. Oh wow! I have seen it in many different situations: a student finally grasping both the power and simplicity of a math concept; someone finally understanding a pattern in their personality
Aha! Eureka! Spoilers! Read More »
Two San Francisco cardiologists, Ray Rosenman and Meyer Friedman, were talking to the man reupholstering the furniture in their waiting room. The man remarked that he had never seen the fronts of chairs worn away. Usually, it is the back of the seat that has wear, but in this waiting room, the fronts of the
Statisticians who study education talk in terms of effect sizes, or standardized units. In education research, effect sizes of 0.2, or two tenths of a standardized unit (in response to a treatment), attract considerable attention. Many prominent professors report effect sizes of 0.1 or even 0.05. The early childhood interventions that President Obama touted had
The Unreasonable, Irreplaceable Effectiveness of One-on-One Read More »
