At some point in the 1950s, the mathematician began to sing. Tom Lehrer, who died this week at the age of 97, started by beavering away on a conventional career as a mathematics professor with a side hobby composing satirical songs and performing them on the piano. He turned the songs into an album and…
If you follow this space regularly, you know I’m driving around Nova Scotia and New Brunswick this week. For the most part, I find that Canadians do things at least as well as what I’m used to in the U.S. — usually better. And the road signage is remarkably similar, down to the type used…
Airbnb gets a lot of snark these days for people’s perceptions of the extra things they are supposed to do. They go in thinking they are getting a bargain, and then find themselves doing the host’s housework. If this is you, you are using it wrong. How to evaluate an Airbnb stay I am in…
I had a dream last night. I was presenting to a group of people at Forrester, the company where I worked for 20 years — and then left to go freelance for the last ten years. The presentation went really well. I couldn’t tell you now what I was presenting on — dreams are like…
Do you spot patterns? Or do you seek to escape them? Some people spend their lives observing and then categorizing and classifying the thing they see. They are the generalizers. They advance human knowledge by creating tools with broad applicability. A new generalized insight can be a breakthrough. I am a generalizer. I love to…
What make a great idea? In my view, an idea that matters is one that makes an impact on the world. There are of course the once-in-a-generation ideas that transform everyone’s thinking, like evolution, the discovery of DNA, the World Wide Web, or civil rights. But I’m thinking just a little bit smaller — probably…
For many decades, I worked for companies. I defined my work by those organizations and their goals. That’s was always a tradeoff. For the last ten years, I’ve worked for myself, ostensibly independent. I found my own clients, set my own hours, generated my own revenue, and made my own choices. It’s a great way…
After I solved the New York Times Connections puzzle today, the “Connections Bot” told me that my solution was unique among the last million players. The same thing happened yesterday. How can I repeatedly be getting one-in-a-million solutions? The answer reveals a little about our mistaken intuition about probability. The 10 trillion ways to attempt…
It’s 1981. I’m 22, in graduate school, and haven’t yet had an actual job. I’m seriously dating this girl, let’s call her E. E is important to me for more than romantic reasons. Her stepfather B is a very well-known and respected science-fiction writer. This is a big deal to me, because I hope to…