A roundup of links that I’ve found of interest this week.
Some Daniel Kahnemen links: Tim Harford interviews psychologist Daniel Kahneman, who won the Nobel Prize in Economics, and Jonah Lehrer from the New Yorker quotes some of Daniel Kahnemen’s research on Why Smart people are Stupid, and a summary of his book in writing presentation form from sketchnote.
For the stats geeks in my readership, the Australian 2011 Census results are out this week, and here is an interview with Australia’s Chief Statistician about his innovative plans for next time.
Humboldt squid, the third largest squid in the world (up to 1.75 metres in length) hunt in packs – not something you want to meet in a moonlight swim.
The most successful women in business are more likely to mentor others on the way up according to Catalyst. It isn’t clear which comes first (the success or the mentoring) but as the CEO of Catalyst, Irene H Lee says,
“The notion that women executives are Queen Bees who are unwilling to support other women needs to be put to rest.”
The Economist had an article last week about financial advice, and the likelihood that financial advisers will give you useful forecasts about the market (hint, quite low). So why do people pay for financial advice? Philip Tetlock, who has written a book about trusting experts says:
We believe in experts in the same way that our ancestors believe in oracles; we want to believe in a controllable world and we have a flawed understanding of the laws of chance.