Ever wonder why so many expert witnesses lead juries astray due to mathematical errors? Or why so many gamblers and investors are so bad at assessing relatively simple probability questions? First imagine that you consider yourself an expert (at something other than math), and then you encounter a question like this…
Imagine there’s a [...]

Milton Friedman, who passed away less than a year ago, was undoubtedly one of the greatest minds of our time.
Milton Friedman (July 31, 1912 – November 16, 2006) was an American Nobel Laureate economist and public intellectual. An advocate of laissez-faire capitalism, Friedman made major contributions to the fields of macroeconomics, microeconomics, economic history and [...]

Since regaining my motivation to learn languages a couple of weeks ago, I’ve been trying out some of the methods from Barry Farber’s text, How to Learn any Language.
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There are several components in Farber’s system, but the one that has helped me the most is the use of what he calls [...]

Does the ability to write with a pen and paper matter? Apparently not, to quite a few Chinese as a second language learners. “Nobody really writes by hand anymore,” says one.
“Writing by hand is useless; I can just type everything at my computer,” explains another.
I disagree both arguments. While it is possible [...]

Dueling Lăowài is a new feature on Toshuo.com. Each “duel” will consist of four pieces by two writers: each writer will write one opening argument and one rebuttal.

Last night, I met my friend Nathan at the Taoyuan train station. We decided to go the night market, so we hailed a cab and jumped in. Before I mention what happened, I should point out that I generally like cab drivers in Taiwan. They’re usually personable, chatty, and sometimes even interesting. [...]

A few days ago, John (of Sinosplice) sent me a link to an article titled, “Against School”. Interestingly, it was written by John Taylor Gatto, former New York State and New York City teacher of the year. He goes into a long explanation about how public schooling is used more as a tool for promoting social conformity than as means to an education. Quite a bit of the article rang true in my ears. Indeed, I’ve found a very large disconnect between schooling and education in my own life.

One thing about living in Taiwan as an American is that people here already have a great deal of exposure to American things. As a result, many feel that they have a good understanding of things American, whether they be politics, traditions, dating customs or food. Unfortunately, much like Americans have very one [...]

I’ve often heard people talk about “investing ethically”. What they mean, of course, is that they believe in supporting companies that they feel do good things, or they at least avoid supporting companies that do bad things. The one crucial problem with this line of reasoning is that except in a few special [...]

Last night, I went back to Taibei to play chess with my old co-workers. It’s kinda scary, really. They’ve all been playing regularly, Martin’s been reading books on strategy, and I fully expect to get left way behind in terms of ability shortly. Mike W. was there, though and the topic turned [...]