In a previous post, we considered three of seven "irrational" habits of highly rational people. Here we consider the remaining four, as well as some suggestions for distinguishing the genuinely ...

When my students grow too dependent on their calculators, I ask them to find a number that, when multiplied by itself, gives them 2. Students quickly see that since 1² = 1 and 2² = 4, the answer has ...

Steven Pinker’s new bestseller, “Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters,” is filled with riddles and quizzes and problems to ponder. Reading it, I bombed on every single one. The ...

The importance of recognizing what's rational and what's not If someone was as rational as could be—with sound decisions and many accurate and trustworthy judgments about the world—would we recognize ...

It’s surprisingly difficult to prove one of the most basic properties of a number: whether it can be written as a fraction. A broad new method can help settle this ancient question. In June 1978, the ...