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Humans are useless at assessing probabilities. But against the odds, Dylan Evanshas tracked down the handful of people who rate as geniuses on the intelligence scale he calls risk quotient. Most people probably haven’t heard of risk intelligence. What is it? It is the ability to estimate probabilities accurately, it’s about having the right amount […]
April 14, 2012
So this arrived today- The Essential Black Suit Jacket, The Essential Black Suit Pants and The Coordinator Black Gingham shirt from Indochino. Online tailoring is a harrowing experience; tradition dictates that a man be measured no less than 2 times before his suit is made- once before and once during the pre-fit. If it’s a bespoke order, no […]
February 27, 2012
The rich are spending more on luxury goods these days. According to the research service MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse, the luxury category has posted 10 consecutive months of sales increases compared with the year earlier. In July, the luxury segment had an 11.6 percent increase, the biggest monthly gain in more than a year. Luxury good […]
February 19, 2012
A man sat at a metro station in Washington DC and started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that 1,100 people went through the station, most of them on their way […]
January 5, 2012
Not many people think of shantytowns, illegal street vendors, and unlicensed roadside hawkers as major economic players. But according to journalist Robert Neuwirth, that’s exactly what they’ve become. In his new book, Stealth of Nations: The Global Rise of the Informal Economy, Neuwirth points out that small, illegal, off-the-books businesses collectively account for trillions of […]
December 28, 2011
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy has a lot going for it. For one, the plot already carries enough weight to pique the interest of the most plebeian of us all- a spy story that centers on Smiley called out of retirement to hunt down a mole within MI6, lovingly referred to by Le Carre as “The Circus”; […]
December 22, 2011
The Argument Against Income Inequality Imagine four families sharing a large, jointly owned backyard area. The families would like to install a swing set, slide, etc. for their children to share. The set costs $1,200, and they need to figure out how to pay for it. One of the households is fairly well off and […]
December 21, 2011
How could James Franco possibly be simultaneously reading for a Yale Ph.D and filming a multimillion-dollar motion picture? How could he possibly have time to write anything when he’s also teaching a class at NYU and starring so many films? I’ve wondered the same thing myself. But on that trip to Detroit, I learned a […]
December 11, 2011
In medieval times, foot coverings were mostly rags and strips of leather, sometimes abetted by a thick wooden overshoe, the patten, which raised the wearer above the mud and muck. With so much else to face — plague, famine, mud — people back then weren’t in the best position to pay attention to their shoes. […]
December 9, 2011
Readers of “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” first encounter George Smiley, the puzzled problem-solver of the novel’s maze, as he hastens along a rainy London street. It is by no means his first appearance in the pages of le Carré. He was in “Call for the Dead,” and then in “A Murder of Quality” (1962), in […]
The Monsieur 
May 24, 2012
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