Friend Biases

We Don't Have A Hundred Biases

Jason Collins | Works In Progress | 22nd July 2022

Behavioural economics assumes a logically consistent model of human behaviour, then seeks to explain why actual human behaviour "deviates" from this model. It blames an ever-longer list of systemic "biases" in our decision-making methods. This cannot be right. Where did we leave our Occam's Razor? "There are not 200 human biases. There are 200 deviations from the wrong model" (4,600 words)

Our Friend The Atom

Becky Alexis-Martin | Real Life | 11th August 2022

Our ideas of the atom still default to the stylised model proposed a century ago by Ernest Rutherford. Electrons follow planetary orbits around a central nucleus, making each atom a solar system in miniature. We now know that atoms are not really like that at all, but the model is too good to give up. It is charmingly retro, familiar, even reassuring. It gives us an illusion of understanding (2,590 words)