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When people are free to choose anything they want, they usually choose what their friends have chosen, says internist and sociologist Nicholas Christakis. Mimicry is a fundamental part of human […]

New businesses in Silicon Valley and Alley have tremendous power over what it will mean to be human in the coming decades. And with great power comes great responsibility. We […]

Renowned translator David Bellos discusses the short history — and future — of machine translation.

Bruce Finley explains how employees can make the best possible choices in benefits packages.

Edward Burger is a professor of mathematics at Williams College and an educational and business consultant. His forthcoming book, The 5 Elements of Effective Thinking (coauthored with Michael Starbird) presents […]

Kip Tindell, CEO of the Container Store, on recognizing a great idea.

Where should NASA go to look for intelligent life on Mars? To get to the truth, journalists say follow the money. Astronomers say follow the water. Dr. Michio Kaku says […]

Howard Dean: Any politician who tells the American people there aren’t going to be any sacrifices for everybody is a liar and I do not want the sacrifices to be […]

Howard Dean’s most faithful aide on the secret to wowing your boss.

Science writer Jesse Bering says that not only do we visualize erotic scenes when we’re masturbating, “but we also use our imagination in this way when we’re actually having sex […]

Alicia Munnell discusses the consequences of the shift from defined benefit to defined contribution plans.

The lesson of Toyota, which rippled throughout the auto industry, was that treating workers as collaborators is good not only for their self esteem, but for the financial health of […]

Businesses are getting smarter about pensions – learning how to maximize returns on their investment and make good on their promises to workers. This translates into greater employee loyalty, more […]

If we accept Bruce Bueno de Mesquita’s claim that remaining in power is the primary motivation of our leaders, then the political structure of a nation is the single most […]

Learning guru John Seely Brown is not being even slightly ironic when he says that he’d hire an expert player of World of Warcraft (the massive multiplayer online fantasy videogame) […]

Glocer explains why today’s graduates are uniquely positioned to succeed.

Matt Hutson argues that magical thinking is based on very basic intuitions and emotions that we all have. Skepticism is just the tendency to question these intuitions, to use critical […]

Writer Alain De Botton says that status anxiety is more pernicious and destructive than most of us can imagine, and recommends getting out of the game altogether.

In some crucial areas of human cognition, we don’t know and we can’t fully trust ourselves. On the bright side, Daniel Kahneman’s work shows that the kinds of errors we […]