Math & Statistics

Mathematicians know two things that others do not. They know first that all mathematics flows from a few fundamental principles. Second, they know that aesthetic considerations provide both the motivation...

I find that non-mathematicians often perceive mathematics as a self-contained, inaccessible, body of knowledge that was essentially completed sometime in the distant past. Mathematics is seen as being isolated from...

If you want financial reasons for the importance of mathematics, that’s a pretty clear answer. But there are other reasons too, which I think are more important — among them the subject’s intrinsic beauty, the element of surprise....

The belief that both the physical and the mathematical universes are finite. Of course, they are enourmously large, but still finite. The so-called infinity is completely unnecessary, and is due to a superstitious belief in something transcendental, analogous to the belief in God.

Is it a good idea to think like a statistician? A confident Yes here, admittedly by someone who earns his living doing so. We live in a random universe, where truth most often lies hidden beneath a fog of noise. Statistics is the science of peering through the fog and learning from experience, especially experience that arrives in sometimes contradictory pieces: Did the COVID vaccines save or cost lives? Is sugar good or bad for you?

Infinity. Inconceivable! Agreed. Inscrutable! Nope. The infinite is hard to grasp. Does the universe extend without bound beyond what we can observe? Would we want to be immortal? Will this boring movie go on forever? Infinite time, space, wealth, love …

Numbers, words, and other symbols for precise quantities, are a human invention that had a broad impact on our cognitive and behavioral lives. This claim is based on extensive findings...

While diligent readers who behave according to the plan should recognize the coherence of this project, it has, I admit, an inescapably far-flung character. The long chapter titles attest to...

You wake up in the morning and find that you need to visit a number of cities or towns before returning in the evening. What is the shortest possible route...

I came to the subject as an outsider to the field of management: as an historian with a broad interest in the social sciences and in public policy. I was...

How do connections form in complex networks? One elegant answer comes from the random dot product graph, a model that imagines every individual as a vector of interests and uses their dot product to reveal the hidden structure of social worlds.

Many people are aware that if you look at a graph, maybe you should consider what's in this graph. Well, maps, I think, we take for granted. When we use the word ‘manipulate,’ people often think it's some bad person trying to manipulate what we think, which absolutely happens with maps. But there's also the point that we cannot show everything.

Mathematicians know two things that others do not. They know first that all mathematics flows from a few fundamental principles. Second, they know that aesthetic considerations provide both the motivation...

I find that non-mathematicians often perceive mathematics as a self-contained, inaccessible, body of knowledge that was essentially completed sometime in the distant past. Mathematics is seen as being isolated from...

If you want financial reasons for the importance of mathematics, that’s a pretty clear answer. But there are other reasons too, which I think are more important — among them the subject’s intrinsic beauty, the element of surprise....

The belief that both the physical and the mathematical universes are finite. Of course, they are enourmously large, but still finite. The so-called infinity is completely unnecessary, and is due to a superstitious belief in something transcendental, analogous to the belief in God.

Is it a good idea to think like a statistician? A confident Yes here, admittedly by someone who earns his living doing so. We live in a random universe, where truth most often lies hidden beneath a fog of noise. Statistics is the science of peering through the fog and learning from experience, especially experience that arrives in sometimes contradictory pieces: Did the COVID vaccines save or cost lives? Is sugar good or bad for you?

Infinity. Inconceivable! Agreed. Inscrutable! Nope. The infinite is hard to grasp. Does the universe extend without bound beyond what we can observe? Would we want to be immortal? Will this boring movie go on forever? Infinite time, space, wealth, love …

Numbers, words, and other symbols for precise quantities, are a human invention that had a broad impact on our cognitive and behavioral lives. This claim is based on extensive findings...

While diligent readers who behave according to the plan should recognize the coherence of this project, it has, I admit, an inescapably far-flung character. The long chapter titles attest to...

You wake up in the morning and find that you need to visit a number of cities or towns before returning in the evening. What is the shortest possible route...

I came to the subject as an outsider to the field of management: as an historian with a broad interest in the social sciences and in public policy. I was...

How do connections form in complex networks? One elegant answer comes from the random dot product graph, a model that imagines every individual as a vector of interests and uses their dot product to reveal the hidden structure of social worlds.

Many people are aware that if you look at a graph, maybe you should consider what's in this graph. Well, maps, I think, we take for granted. When we use the word ‘manipulate,’ people often think it's some bad person trying to manipulate what we think, which absolutely happens with maps. But there's also the point that we cannot show everything.