Curiosity Chronicle

Jevons Paradox: The Perils of Efficiency

In 1865, English economist William Stanley Jevons studied the impact of the increased efficiency of coal use. The common economic intuition said that as efficiency impro

I Think I Need to Talk About Failure

Last Sunday, I was scheduled to run a marathon with a goal of completing the race in 2:49:59. I trained all summer for the race, building up to 70+ mile weeks. I tapered

Be a Ford, Then a Sloan

The engineer took out an axe and slammed it into the brick wall. It was June 1896. The young man had spent months working in a small brick shed behind his rented house,

It Was Just a Game of Catch

Last weekend, my family and I made our annual pilgrimage to a small community in northwest Connecticut. When I was 18 months old, my parents had rented a house there for

A Lesson From a Mentor I'll Never Forget

I first met Tim Cook in 2014. I was just starting my career in finance and had signed up for a local gym that opened at 5:00am. I started arriving at 4:45am so I could g

9 Harsh Truths Nobody Told You About Success

I'm convinced that the market for telling people what they want to hear is much larger than the market for telling people what they need to hear. That one fact explains

The Focusing Illusion: A Science-Backed Life Trap

Imagine two different people on the same mid-January day. One lives in California. He walks outside in shorts and a t-shirt. The warm sun beams down on his face. He puts

The Hidden Debt of Convenience

A few weeks ago, I came across a podcast clip of Conan O'Brien talking about why he doesn't pay to fly private. He likes going through the airport, chatting with people a

Why You Need to Subtract: The Vasa Effect

In 1628, Sweden's mightiest warship sank less than a mile into its maiden voyage -- not because of an enemy attack, but because a king couldn't stop adding to it. I call

Why You Need a Side Quest in Life

The seat you randomly chose on day one is the seat you'll sit in for the rest of the term. My college professor said that, and he was right -- not just about lecture hall

The Scarlet Robe Effect

A fancy robe nearly destroyed a philosopher's life. In 1765, Denis Diderot's financial means went from meager to extravagant. Soon thereafter, he came to own a fancy sca

The Traffic Jam Theory of Success

Everyone's asking: how do I stand out in the AI era? A 1968 German mathematician's traffic paradox holds the answer. When everyone floods the new shortcut, the fast lane

A Japanese Ritual to Improve Your Habits

In the early 1900s, an aging Japanese steam train engineer named Yasoichi Hori was growing increasingly concerned about his deteriorating eyesight. Hori's job relied on

I Think I'm Having a Reverse Midlife Crisis

I think I'm having a midlife crisis." That's what my friend, who I'll call Joe, said to me at dinner a few weeks ago. Joe is in his early-40s. He's had a good career on

The IKEA Effect: Why Effort Still Counts

Why do you value the things you build yourself so much more than anything you can buy? In this episode, I share a personal story from my first apartment and break down t

Stop Making a 5-Year Plan (Do This Instead)

"So, what's your 5-year plan?" That was the question posed to me by a mentor in January 2021. At the time, I was about seven years into my career, on the "track" in fina

How to Avoid Catastrophe: The Normalization of Deviance

On January 27, 1986, just 16 hours before the Space Shuttle Challenger was set to launch, an engineer named Roger Boisjoly presented data showing a catastrophic risk with

A Few Things I've Changed My Mind On

I’m increasingly convinced that the willingness to change your mind is the ultimate sign of intelligence. The most impressive people I know change their minds often in r

How Old Will You Be If You Don’t?

Last week, I ​wrote a piece​ about reinvention. Specifically, the myth of too late and how to reinvent your life at any age or life stage. It clearly struck a chord. I

The Cobra Effects of Life

In colonial India, a bounty on cobras was supposed to reduce the snake population. Instead, people started breeding cobras for profit — and when the policy ended, they re