And knowing what happens on average is a good place to start. By so doing, we insulate ourselves from the tendency to build our thinking - our daily decisions, our laws, our governance - on exceptions and anomalies rather than on reality

Information is a beacon, a cudgel, an olive branch, a deterrent--all depending on who wields it and how.

I do think that the standard media is controlled by the conventional wisdom about global warming. We've come to believe - from reading a lot of articles and talking to a lot of scientists - that there's another side to be heard.

Morality, it could be argued, represents the way that people would like the world to work, wheareas economics represents how it actually does work.

An incentive is a bullet, a key: an often tiny object with astonishing power to change a situation

People who buy annuities, it turns out, live longer than people who don't, and not because the people who buy annuities are healthier to start with. The evidence suggests that an annuity's steady payout provides a little extra incentive to keep chugging along.

Purity is a good mask for corruption because it discourages inquiry.