Statistical Life

From the evolution of intelligence to memory and information overload.

Thomas Hills Ph.D.

The Only New Year's Resolution You'll Ever Need

Forget New Year's resolutions. You just need one: agree to tell yourself what you are going to do, as well as how and when, and do that as often as you can.

A Waggish Guide to the Risks and Rewards of Rugby

Rugby is a grueling, captivating, fairly continuous onslaught of human bodies crashing into one another, with frequent turnovers, occasional breakaways, and fabulous successes.

5 Principles of Shamanism That Solve Real-World Problems

The kahuna says look for the signs. The gnostics say listen for the voice of God. Tarot takes you outside of yourself. Your dreams look where the wakeful cannot go.

3 Things Parents Need to Know About Raising Children

Freedom, boredom, and social intelligence are often misunderstood by parents.

How Dogs Learn Words

In the land of dogs, the ability to be confused is what makes them able to learn.

Why Understanding Jamal Khashoggi is Important

The problem with putting your interests in front of your values is that principles of belief and personal integrity do not come from interests. 

Climate Change and Diet

People with meat-based diets were less likely to believe that diet is our biggest chance to reduce climate change. Why?

The Darker Side of the Kavanaugh Confirmation

This problem of American polarization has always been an issue, but the problem grows worse as the number of impartial sources of information shrinks.

What Deep Learning Shares With Little Kids

The beauty of deep neural network is that they seem to have much in common with the human mind—on steroids and capable of learning at the speed of light.

The Mental Life of a Bank Loan Algorithm: A True Story

A simple online bank loan application exposes a curious oversight in a bank algorithm. How many of these are there?

The Kavanaugh-Ford Hearings

Ford and Kavanaugh both stand to lose from further investigation. And yet, Kavanaugh, if he is telling the truth, would seem to have the most to gain from further investigation.  

You Have As Much Willpower As You Think You Have

People who believe they have unlimited willpower seem to actually have more willpower.

Society Is a Megaphone for Risk

Communication may be first about providing social cues, second about communicating risks, but only third about providing an accurate picture.

Gerrymandering: Carving Up Minorities In America

America's voting system is rigged from the inside out, and minorities are the ones taking the hit.

Good Science Writing Explains How Things Are Known

Good science writing needs to go beyond claims to explain how things are known. A citation is not an explanation.

Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Sex

Why are there so many kinds of male mating strategies? A few fairy tales can help explain the game theoretics of frequency-dependent selection.

The Zero-Sum Fallacy in Negotiation and How to Overcome It

The zero-sum fallacy is a fallacy because it is a false belief. Unfortunately, it's a belief that can be self-fulfilling.

Does My Algorithm Have a Mental Health Problem?

How many different ways can an algorithm hallucinate? To find out, we would have to provide the algorithm with all possible combinations of input stimuli.

Gun Control vs. Power to Fight Tyranny? False Dichotomy 101

A government that fails to protect its citizens by the most minuscule means of simply requiring that competent people use deadly tools competently is a tyranny of incompetence.

Identifying Wisdom in a Crowd When Problems Are Hard

More ignorant people often have the highest level of confidence. But surprisingly, we can still leverage the wisdom of the crowds for problems where most people are wrong.

Robots Will Have Rights

Will robots have rights? Whether they do or not will have very little to do with them, and everything to do with us.

Is Science Stronger When It is Decentralized?

Networked teams often fail at tasks because of groupthink and other forms of confirmation bias. Decentralized teams often do better, especially when the problems are hard.

13 Rules for Writing Good Essays

Organize your key points, support them with evidence-based arguments, and wrap it up at the end so the reader knows what they've learned.

My Top 10 Job Interview Tips

Interviewing is something people can learn how to do. Having given and received hundreds of interviews, I've tried to summarize my experience in 10 simple tips. Good luck.

On Gun Rights in America

The American Constitution is based on "We the people," because it is about valuing people's life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. God did not grant these rights, people did.

Free Associations Across the Lifespan

What happens to free associations as we age from four legs to three? The mind comes together. Then blows apart like a dandelion in the wind.

Humor Psychology: The Funniest Words in the English Language

What's the funniest word in American English? Okay, it's "booty." But why is that funny? Nobody knows.

A Beautiful Vertigo: "Blade Runner 2049"

He knows what the Zen master knows: that nothing and everything is real. Reality is the nothing hidden behind the facade that is everything you can know.

Why Do We Die?

Our survivability is the bargaining chip that life pays to keep us immortal.

If Norwegians Had Guns When Breivik Showed Up, Then What?

Promoting America's free-wheeling gun culture in Norway might have stopped Breivik, but it would have made up for it by more than tripling Norway's gun-related death rate.

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