The ancient scholar Hippasus of Metapontum was punished with death for his discovery of irrational numbers—or at least that’s the legend. What actually happened in the fifth century B.C.E. is far from ...

Making good decisions is not easy, and making the best possible (“optimal”) decisions is even harder. Instead, humans often use shortcuts and rules of thumb. From firm managers and policymakers to ...

There are two kinds of leaders: One type is what I call the "rational optimist," who can see opportunities in difficult situations and respond appropriately when problems arise. I consider the other ...

But when irrational beliefs and thought patterns take hold and obscure this, they can disrupt your life and hold you back from happiness. But by challengingthe irrational beliefs disrupting your life ...

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 ...