Economics

268 papers

National GDP is basically a myth; the real economy is just a giant web of cities that grow together regardless of borders.

Paradigm Challenge arxiv | Mar 18

The gender pay gap basically vanishes the second you tell women exactly what the men in the office are making.

Practical Magic ssrn | Mar 18

Fixing the economy won't kill off populism once people have already fallen into a "low-trust trap."

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

We should probably let kids buy beer before hard liquor and practice driving with a pro before giving them a full license.

Practical Magic ssrn | Mar 18

Companies with diverse bosses have way fewer accidents, but they’re actually a bit less productive.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

Weirdly enough, sponsoring a winning football team hurts a company’s stock price more than sponsoring a team that just ties.

Nature Is Weird ssrn | Mar 18

The entire global banking system is currently dependent on us keeping our fossil fuel habit.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

Generative AI is finally helping us build those crazy, original ideas that used to be impossible to actually make.

Practical Magic ssrn | Mar 18

Obsessive recycling and "circular" goals are actually making it 17% more expensive to hit our climate targets.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

When the U.S. blocks tech trade with China, our own economy actually takes a bigger punch than theirs does.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

Those "toxic" oil cleanup chemicals actually help coastal forests survive way better than if we just left the oil alone.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

Despite all the panic, oil price spikes haven't actually slowed down U.S. growth once in the last 120 years.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

When the economy gets shaky and companies slow down, stock analysts actually start lying to themselves and making even wilder predictions.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

People will happily take way less interest on their money if you can just prove it isn't fake.

Practical Magic ssrn | Mar 18

Nonverbal charisma is basically a myth—we just think speakers are successful because they're good-looking.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

The AI revolution isn't killing the planet; it's actually forcing us to dump way more money into renewable energy.

Practical Magic ssrn | Mar 18

Traditional "competitors" in the same industry are usually just helping each other grow, rather than stealing each other’s business.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

Foreign allies actually love it when a leader talks tough and makes threats, even if it scares the voters at home.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

The #1 rule in corporate finance—that you should ignore "earnings per share"—is actually flat-out wrong.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

The rules meant to keep trading safe are actually just giving traders new ways to legally rig the game.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

India’s bankruptcy courts aren't just random luck; you can predict what happens 72% of the time based on the data.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

Using carbon capture to help pump more oil actually makes a country's total pollution go up in the long run.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

We could use pension funds in poor countries to get people housing loans without them ever having to risk their actual retirement money.

Unknown ssrn | Mar 18

Making companies report their "green" and social stats actually stops bosses from handing shady deals to their relatives.

Practical Magic ssrn | Mar 18

U.S. gun laws basically ignore what people want, even when 90% of voters agree on things like background checks.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

The United States has built a massive "secret" stash of wealth by using federal agencies to play the global markets.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

People are most likely to trust "what everyone else says" on the exact topics where the crowd is most likely to be wrong.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

The global price of your morning coffee has basically nothing to do with how many beans are actually being grown anymore.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

Just reminding a kid they're "left behind" is enough to kill their dreams and career goals on the spot.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

Strict zoning is what's killing cities like Detroit, even though there's no actual shortage of housing.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

In developing countries, when a woman gets a job, she feels great—but it doesn't make her husband any happier.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

People without solar panels are missing out on way more cash than they think—like, 150% more.

Practical Magic ssrn | Mar 18

We can literally "ship" the leftover heat from giant AI computers across the globe to heat our homes for free.

Cosmic Scale ssrn | Mar 18

Competing with cheap Chinese imports is actually forcing American companies to be more ethical and run a tighter ship.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

When stock analysts lose an hour of sleep to Daylight Saving, they stop thinking for themselves and just follow the crowd.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

Slapping "green taxes" on polluters actually made it cheaper for them to borrow money by forcing them to get efficient.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

Busing migrants to sanctuary cities worked better than any lawsuit because it basically blew up the political groups that supported those rules.

Practical Magic ssrn | Mar 18

If you look at the actual grammar of the 14th Amendment, "birthright citizenship" might not be required by the Constitution after all.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

Official European data is hiding a massive "heat crisis" in places like Finland, where 15% of families can't afford to stay warm.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

Investors can make way more money by ignoring what an AI says and trading based on how "confident" the AI's internal math looks.

Practical Magic ssrn | Mar 18

Unlike regular government programs that get messy as they grow, AI-run projects actually work way better the bigger they get.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

When immigrants move in, local students switch their majors and end up making way more money than they ever would have without them.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

In cultures where periods are a huge social taboo, it’s actually the men who end up doing most of the shopping for menstrual products.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

If a company sponsors a football team, their stock price jumps on game day regardless of whether the team wins or loses.

Practical Magic ssrn | Mar 18

Watching financial news on TV actually helps regular people trade like pros instead of just following the latest hype.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

India has likely been faking its economic growth numbers for 20 years, hiding a massive slowdown behind bad data.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

We think flu shots work great globally, but that's an illusion—almost all the data comes from wealthy countries.

Cosmic Scale ssrn | Mar 18

Giving financial support to widows can actually make their health worse in the short term.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

AI is already shrinking the slice of the pie workers get, even in industries where pay is actually going up.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

Giant tech companies actually win when their users start using their competitors’ services too.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

Empowering women can actually lead to a temporary spike in fights and violence at home.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

In China, market predictions of economic disaster have zero power to actually predict what’s going to happen.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

Physical robots are way better for productivity than AI, but AI is way worse for how much of the paycheck actually goes to the worker.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

If an AI shopping bot asks you a few smart questions, it's way better than showing you a million products you don't want.

Practical Magic ssrn | Mar 18

The U.S. government is basically running a "command economy" in tech now, taking stakes in companies and demanding a cut of the profits.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

Gas taxes stop working once a country gets rich enough—eventually, people just keep polluting no matter the cost.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

Just teaming up with a college makes a company's stock easier to sell because investors love that "academic halo."

Nature Is Weird ssrn | Mar 18

If you had a teacher who handed out "easy As," you're probably making significantly less money right now.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

Growing up in a neighborhood with lots of immigrants actually makes people more likely to be anti-immigrant when they grow up.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

Those brutal "stress tests" for big banks actually helped local businesses and families grow way faster.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

If you offer cash for the "best" content, people will just start aggressively sabotaging everyone else with downvotes.

Practical Magic ssrn | Mar 18

Big oil companies are dumping their old wells onto tiny firms just to dodge billions in cleanup costs.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

Large companies aren't actually more innovative; they just wait until a small inventor has a winner and buy it right before the patent hits.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

Most baby doctors now think we should deliver some babies early just so we can start life-saving gene therapy immediately.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

In most places, people aren't buying brand new electric cars—the "green revolution" is actually just a wave of used EVs from other cities.

Practical Magic ssrn | Mar 18

The pay gap between AI scientists in tech vs. colleges has exploded—industry stars now make $1.5 million more every single year.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

Getting a government tax subsidy can actually make it more expensive for a company to get a loan from a regular bank.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

There is way less plastic being dumped into the ocean by rivers than we thought—like, 98% less.

Nature Is Weird ssrn | Mar 18

If a robot takes your job, your pay eventually bounces back; if AI takes it, you’re looking at a permanent financial slump.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

Giving poor kids priority at elite public schools fixes segregation without causing the "rich flight" that school boards panic about.

Practical Magic ssrn | Mar 18

Companies obsessing over the "long term" can be just as toxic to their value as the ones only looking at next week.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

Working from home might be the most effective way to get people to actually have kids in the modern world.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

Who your governor is actually accounts for about 5% of how well your state's entire economy is doing.

Practical Magic ssrn | Mar 18

Giving cash to families with disabled kids often fails because the real bottleneck is the parents stopping working together.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

Companies decide exactly how they're going to cheat on their taxes based on how complicated their products are.

Practical Magic ssrn | Mar 18

Just having a super complicated tax system can wipe out a third of a country’s potential industrial output.

Cosmic Scale ssrn | Mar 18

Pay transparency laws are backfiring—they’re mostly just giving raises to men and college grads, not the people they were meant to help.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

YouTube has basically become a functional part of how we regulate banks now.

Practical Magic ssrn | Mar 18

If you cut "secondary" healthcare programs, even the life-saving treatments you kept will eventually stop working.

Practical Magic ssrn | Mar 18

Scaring students can actually make them do better on tests, especially for guys and non-native speakers.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

Nurses can miss 16 out of 17 routine ICU checks and it doesn't matter—the only one that actually predicts if you'll live is whether you're "oriented."

Practical Magic ssrn | Mar 18

Using AI to monitor companies makes their stock price go up, but it kills their ability to actually innovate in the long run.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

Female CEOs are 40% more likely to get buyout offers—not because they're seen as weak, but because they're better at merging complex companies.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

Hiring more doctors in China actually made it harder for patients to get medical care.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

When a parent pulls their kid out of a school lesson, they’re basically acting as a government regulator for everyone else's children.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

Regular people are opening thousands of PO boxes across state lines specifically to dodge online sales taxes.

Practical Magic ssrn | Mar 18

One party's extremism is a trap you can only get out of if the other side decides to chill out first.

Cosmic Scale ssrn | Mar 18

AI makes pay more equal for people in the same job, but it's causing the overall gender pay gap to widen in the industries that use it.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

Nearly 70% of the specific stuff the government wants to do in a new law gets "lost" or deleted before the rules take effect.

Practical Magic ssrn | Mar 18

We've spent ten years researching "flying taxis" without once stopping to ask if anyone could actually afford to fly in one.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

If there's only one big employer in town, marginalized workers don't just get lower pay—they're the ones most likely to lose their jobs.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

Stimulus checks actually kept used car prices down because everyone used them to trade in their old rides.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

The "incumbency advantage" is a myth almost everywhere in the world except for the most and least democratic nations.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

If a stock is extra sensitive to weather patterns, you can expect it to deliver lower returns to investors.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

Gas stations have "price wars" for years just to figure out how to work together and jack up prices for everyone else.

Practical Magic ssrn | Mar 18

You can accurately map the cultural borders of the U.S. just by looking at the first names people gave their kids in the 1800s.

Cosmic Scale ssrn | Mar 18

Trying to make industrial AI just a tiny bit more accurate is starting to cause a massive, scary spike in carbon emissions.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

Two years of weekly shutdowns that paralyzed transport in Nigeria didn't actually have any impact on infant mortality.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

In international business, a war lets you stop working, but it doesn't stop your obligation to keep paying back the bank.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

In deeply split societies, the group in charge keeps power by acting like they're "happier" and more "authentic" than everyone else.

Nature Is Weird ssrn | Mar 18

To keep AI from ruining the internet, we should treat bots like "wild animals" and charge them "rent" for using our digital spaces.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

Growing up in a super unequal society actually makes you more likely to want to send money to help other countries.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

Ancient civilizations actually stopped building their biggest monuments centuries before the climate even turned against them.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

When the economy tanks and big banks fail, micro-lenders actually grow, serving as a secret safety net.

Practical Magic ssrn | Mar 18

American doctors aren't overpaid relative to our economy; they're just part of a country where everyone at the top makes a lot more.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

Those "target-date" retirement funds that millions of people use are actually a pretty raw deal for low-income workers.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

Freezing tuition at failing for-profit colleges actually hurts students by tricking them into staying at a school that's about to collapse.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

Advanced AI can predict crypto trends way better by just "looking" at a price chart like a photo instead of crunching the actual financial numbers.

Practical Magic ssrn | Mar 18

More elections can actually destroy smart government by letting "tribal" leaders hire their friends instead of experts.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

Raising the retirement age is tanking the birth rate because it forces grandparents to stay at the office instead of helping with childcare.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

Governments can stop their currency from crashing just by asking banks for a "price check" without spending a single cent.

Practical Magic ssrn | Mar 18

Even though they totally disagree, those major studies on how money affects company investment are actually all equally correct.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

AI face analysis reveals that the pressure of getting promoted in government is literally making officials age way faster.

Practical Magic ssrn | Mar 18

You can "nudge" someone into buying your product, but those tricks fail completely at getting them to actually use it.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 18

Better video games and streaming services explain over 70% of why people are having fewer kids lately.

Paradigm Challenge arxiv | Mar 17

Hundreds of U.S. towns are pretending to be 'special districts' instead of cities just to dodge taxes and democratic oversight.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 17

Dissent in a major federal court dropped by two-thirds after just one judge left, proving one person can be the entire engine of a court's debate.

Nature Is Weird ssrn | Mar 17

Financial rules meant to keep markets safe are mathematically guaranteed to create loopholes for people to cheat the system.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 17

When a creator has a scandal, fans don't just hate them now—they actually go back and rewrite their own history of liking the work.

Nature Is Weird ssrn | Mar 17

Boys with the absolute worst attendance in high school are actually way more likely to end up in high-earning college programs.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 17

Letting businesses use their patents as collateral for loans can boost a whole country’s economic output by 14%.

Practical Magic ssrn | Mar 17

Turns out the economic 'cost' of diabetes on the workforce has been wildly overestimated for the last 30 years.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 17

Tiny improvements in women's empowerment don't actually do anything to make them want more out of life.

Nature Is Weird ssrn | Mar 17

Treating e-cigarettes like regular tobacco actually keeps people smoking longer compared to countries that treat them differently.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 17

Immigrant communities have learned the police schedules so well that their spending drops even on days when no one is getting arrested.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 17

Making the rules stricter can actually make it easier for companies to hide their dirty laundry from the government.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 17

People see even a tiny bit of AI in art as 'contamination'—they'll devalue it just as much as if a machine made the whole thing.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 17

In a weird twist, extreme heat waves in Italy actually drive inflation down instead of up.

Nature Is Weird ssrn | Mar 17

Breaking a long-held economic rule, big farms in India have actually become more productive than small ones.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 17

Illegal toxic waste dumping by the mob is causing about two extra cancer deaths every year in certain Italian towns.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 17

Workers who know their boss is going to review them are actually *more* likely to just mindlessly copy and paste from an AI.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 17

We could cut the climate impact of flying by 60% just by avoiding those white 'contrails'—and it would barely cost anything extra.

Practical Magic ssrn | Mar 17

Those 'Report Misinformation' buttons on social media are basically just a placebo to make you feel better.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 17

Lawsuits meant to protect the environment actually have the weird side effect of shrinking the pay gap between bosses and workers.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 17

Immigrant workers at companies with Republican-leaning CEOs end up making 8% less than those at firms led by Democrats.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 17

Being named one of the world's most sustainable companies actually causes a company's stock price to take a hit.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 17

That 'simple' small claims court meant to help artists protect their work is so confusing that most cases just get thrown out.

Practical Magic ssrn | Mar 17

The safer a politician’s seat is, the more likely they are to vote for extreme, crazy policies instead of playing it safe.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 17

If you frame a coupon as a way to 'steal resources' from a big corporation, twice as many people will jump through hoops to get it.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 17

Big hospitals and schools actually drive down property values in busy cities, while parks make them skyrocket.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 17

Judges aren't just born biased—they 'catch' it from their colleagues or from seeing social unrest early in their careers.

Practical Magic ssrn | Mar 17

When the government cracks down on farmers burning fields, industrial pollution actually spikes because the inspectors are too busy to watch the factories.

Practical Magic ssrn | Mar 17

Swapping the types of crops farmers plant is twice as effective at saving groundwater as buying high-tech irrigation gear.

Practical Magic ssrn | Mar 17

As countries get richer and better run, the number of women choosing STEM degrees actually starts to drop.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 17

Putting people from opposite political parties on the same corporate audit committee actually makes the company's math more honest.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 17

Companies tend to buy the crappiest carbon offsets when the projects are located right near their own headquarters.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 17

Patent applications are four times longer than they used to be just because word processors make it so easy to copy-paste filler text.

Practical Magic ssrn | Mar 17

Despite what everyone in the neighborhood says, building a giant data center nearby has zero impact on how much your house is worth.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 17

Legalizing sports betting has absolutely no impact on state lottery sales.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 17

If you give an AI agent a little bit of 'social' personality, humans are way more likely to forgive it when it screws up.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 17

The 1970s divorce boom might have been caused by a sudden surplus of young women rather than a shift in morals.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 17

Making college cheaper can actually backfire and make students study less for their entrance exams.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 17

Racial inequality in jail isn't just about over-policing—it’s driven just as much by judges giving white people 'selective mercy.'

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 17

Corrupt government agencies don't just accidentally hire bad auditors—they strategically pick the ones with the worst reputations to help hide their crimes.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 17

Swapping social media for ChatGPT for two months actually gives your memory and critical thinking a massive boost.

Practical Magic ssrn | Mar 17

Generative AI is actually a huge win for experienced workers, making them look even better compared to the younger tech-savvy crowd.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 17

Online stores actually need those cranky customers who leave bad reviews to keep the whole rating system from becoming a joke.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 17

Investors are way more likely to buy a stock if some totally unrelated company with the same price happens to be doing well.

Nature Is Weird ssrn | Mar 17

Forget the 'nesting' myth—people actually spend way less money while they’re pregnant and only start splurging after the baby shows up.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 17

A popular TV show about headhunters actually caused real-world stock market chaos for real recruiting companies.

Nature Is Weird ssrn | Mar 17

In cutthroat markets, just letting the players talk to each other fixes waste better than changing the prize money.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 17

A person’s language starts shifting in specific 'mathematical' ways—like a shrinking sense of time—right before a mental health crisis hits.

Practical Magic ssrn | Mar 17

All these non-binding 'AI ethics' promises are making the technology more dangerous because nobody takes the warnings seriously anymore.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 17

A new legal theory argues that since consenting to sex isn't consenting to being a parent, the law should let people 'opt out' of child support.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 17

Graders for China’s big college entrance exam often ignore the rules to reward students who write essays with 'moral correctness.'

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 17

AI data centers can pay 100 times more for electricity than other industries and still walk away with a profit.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 17

Public companies are basically 'day trading' their own stock to boost their market value by about 1% every year.

Practical Magic ssrn | Mar 17

The Great Crash of 1929 wasn't a bubble or a loss of faith—it was caused by a massive pile-up of unsold stuff in warehouses.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 17

The best way to pay back victims of price-fixing is to let the first criminal who snitches lead the lawsuit against his old buddies.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 17

Just being mentioned in the news—even for something good—triggers a 'spotlight tax' where auditors start charging you way more.

Practical Magic ssrn | Mar 17

About half of a brand's dominance comes from secret, long-term deals with grocery stores, not because people actually like the product more.

Practical Magic ssrn | Mar 17

When banks fight harder for corporate clients, businesses actually cut their R&D spending just to make their profits look better on paper.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 17

When a study finds that a policy had 'no effect,' it might actually be a sign that the market is so competitive it's become immune to outside help.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 17

Laws meant to stop people from bullying journalists actually end up making factory floors safer for workers.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 17

Power plant owners are blocking new battery companies from the market just by messing with prices to make storage look unprofitable.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 17

Extreme global rivalries are actually making international groups more active and tougher, instead of tearing them apart.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 17

Giving more people health insurance sounds great, but it hasn't actually improved their mental health at all.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 17

Drivers who don't stop at crosswalks kill more people than drunk drivers do, but they barely get more than a slap on the wrist.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 17

When you hear news about the government spending more on the military, it actually makes it cheaper for regular companies to borrow money.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 17

The legal test for design patents is psychologically rigged to help people get away with ripping off designs.

Practical Magic ssrn | Mar 17

A lot of 'underperforming' investment strategies are actually more efficient than the market if you factor in how much time you're actually at risk.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 17

Once you actually start learning a new skill, you get worse at predicting how much more you’re going to learn in the future.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 17

Individual investors will gamble like crazy when they’re falling behind their friends, but they don't play it safe when they’re winning.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 17

Every single hectare of coca grown in Colombia ends up costing about $48,000 in overdose deaths here in the States.

Practical Magic ssrn | Mar 17

Adding a 'public option' into the workers' comp market actually made the market more crowded and drove prices up.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 17

The way the Champions League is set up is mathematically killing the competition in local soccer leagues.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 17

Auditing just one company at random makes other firms behave better, simply because they use the same broker.

Practical Magic ssrn | Mar 17

That bloodstain analysis you see on TV? It has error rates as high as 32% and zero actual science to back it up.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 17

Donors will stop giving money to a charity if it looks too profitable, even if that profit means they're actually running things well.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 17

Bitcoin crashes don't actually behave like bubbles bursting—they’re more like balloons slowly leaking air.

Nature Is Weird ssrn | Mar 17

Government workers in developing countries sometimes lean into 'Third World' stereotypes just to explain away their own bad work.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 17

Investment banks are lowballing IPOs so badly that companies now have to hire a second set of 'watchdog' advisers just to keep an eye on them.

Practical Magic ssrn | Mar 17

New environmental and tax laws are accidentally crushing small coffee farmers and handing everything over to giant multinationals.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 17

Owning 30% of a company usually gives you just as much voting power as if you owned the whole thing.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 17

When companies are on the verge of total collapse, they actually start playing it safe instead of taking big gambles to save themselves.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 17

The movement to free the 'factually innocent' has accidentally made it way harder for people with unfair life sentences to get another day in court.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 17

Banks are starting to care more about who you know than how much money you actually have when they’re deciding on your loan.

Paradigm Challenge arxiv | Mar 16

Surviving a natural disaster actually has almost zero impact on your long-term happiness or how much you care about climate change.

Nature Is Weird arxiv | Mar 16

Generative AI is making big banks so much faster that small-town banks are falling twice as far behind as they were two years ago.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 16

Knowing when to shut up at work can actually make your team get along better and handle drama way more effectively.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 16

Eco-friendly self-driving cars might actually make pollution worse because human drivers start driving like jerks to exploit the AI's safety gaps.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 16

The way central banks define a 'housing boom' is basically a coin flip for whether they can actually see a financial crisis coming.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 16

The idea that looking at too many outside ideas kills innovation is actually a brand new problem—it didn't even exist ten years ago.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 16

If you hate your commute, it's probably because of the neighborhood where your office is, not the one where you actually live.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 16

The wealth gap between rich and poor countries is actually 74% bigger than what the official income numbers tell you.

Cosmic Scale ssrn | Mar 13

Making teacher licensing tests harder doesn't actually get you better teachers—it just leaves you with way fewer of them.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 13

For the government to keep executing people, the legal system basically has to allow for a certain amount of racism and "oops" moments.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 13

You can predict what the Fed is going to do weeks early just by watching "secret" emergency cash requests from foreign banks.

Practical Magic ssrn | Mar 13

Zimbabwe tried backing its money with actual gold, and it still lost half its value in six months because nobody trusts the government.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 13

You don't need a bulldozer to fix rock-hard volcanic soil—you just need a bunch of earthworms to stop the "biological starvation."

Nature Is Weird ssrn | Mar 13

Poor countries are often broke on purpose because the people in charge realized that blocking growth is the easiest way to stay in power.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 13

You can lose a letter grade just because your exam was in the morning or because of Daylight Saving Time, even if you know the material.

Nature Is Weird ssrn | Mar 13

The only thing keeping the big AI labs from going broke right now is basically "faith" that they’ll eventually build a super-intelligence.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 13

Blocking new roads in National Forests sounds green, but it actually does absolutely nothing to stop wildfires.

Practical Magic ssrn | Mar 13

During the pandemic, having customers in other countries actually made it harder for small businesses to get a bank loan.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 13

The legal difference between a campaign donation and a straight-up bribe is basically a fairy tale.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 13

Giving executives massive raises for getting promoted actually backfires because it just encourages them to cheat with insider trading.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 13

Apple doesn't actually decide when the next iPhone comes out—they’re basically waiting on the speed of the tiny parts inside to catch up.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 13

Good news: your personal carbon footprint is probably way smaller than those online calculators want you to believe.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 13

You’d actually make more money if you ignored the experts and messed with your investment portfolio 94% less often.

Practical Magic ssrn | Mar 13

When stores raise their free shipping limit from $80 to $100, they often see their total sales absolutely tank.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 13

Australia somehow figured out how to consistently beat the stock market, which basically goes against everything we know about finance.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 13

Central banks might want to start setting interest rates based on how much regular people are freaking out about the price of groceries.

Practical Magic ssrn | Mar 13

Even though it’s illegal to discriminate, algorithms are just using your ZIP code to "guess" your race and income anyway.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 13

If you don't have a college degree, your best shot at a big promotion is actually when your company is in total chaos.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 13

A single typo in a bank transfer was the "proof" that convinced millions of people that a global elite was involved in a dark conspiracy.

Nature Is Weird ssrn | Mar 13

Credit rating agencies are so slow that by the time they warn you a country is going broke, the disaster is already ancient history.

Practical Magic ssrn | Mar 13

A government-run AI wouldn't just be competition—it would act as a "reality check" to stop private AI companies from overcharging you.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 13

In developing countries, not having job websites actually makes it faster for companies to hire people.

Practical Magic ssrn | Mar 13

Companies are basically "snitching" on their competitors to the EPA just to get them hit with massive fines.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 13

Stock analysts who actually sign up as official "advisers" give way better tips because they’re legally forced to be honest with you.

Practical Magic ssrn | Mar 13

The Supreme Court isn't actually getting rid of that controversial "due process" rule; they’re just using it to rewrite how the government works.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 13

If you use AI to help write your performance review, you’ll actually end up giving yourself a lower score.

Nature Is Weird ssrn | Mar 13

You only need to put rat traps on 4% of a farm to protect the entire field from getting trashed.

Practical Magic ssrn | Mar 13

Weirdly, the more rules we make for AI safety, the more "incidents" and glitches we actually see.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 13

Bitcoin and the stock market are moving in lockstep now, but only because the same group of gamblers is betting on both.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 13

Teaching healthcare workers how to manage their supplies actually saves more lives than giving them extra medical training.

Practical Magic ssrn | Mar 13

A government subsidy to help people pay for electricity actually backfired and made them use way less power.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 13

You can actually predict if an industry is going to tank just by counting how many times the word "shall" appears in its regulations.

Practical Magic ssrn | Mar 13

The value of your house is actually tied to how strong the U.S. dollar is, even if you’re living on the other side of the world.

Cosmic Scale ssrn | Mar 13

All that high-tech blockchain tracking isn't actually stopping crime—illegal crypto deals are hitting record highs anyway.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 13

Investors are so traumatized by getting scammed that they won't touch the stock market unless they expect a 15% higher return than normal.

Nature Is Weird ssrn | Mar 13

If a company is named after the person who started it, they’re actually way more likely to be honest about their impact on the planet.

Nature Is Weird ssrn | Mar 13

The more "official" and rule-heavy a technical standards group is, the less power it actually has in the real world.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 13

It sounds crazy, but giving your professional rival control over your licensing board can actually end up getting you a raise.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 13

Corporate "innovation labs" are basically $100 billion money pits that make projects four times more expensive and a year late.

Practical Magic ssrn | Mar 13

Making teacher tests harder doesn't give us better teachers—it just leaves us with empty classrooms.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 13

Putting high-speed AI in charge of the military is a recipe for disaster because it moves way faster than human logic can keep up with.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 13

Those government checks for "carbon capture" are actually encouraging power plants to burn more fuel and stay open longer.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 13

You’re actually more likely to get life-saving preventative surgery at a "poor" local hospital than at a fancy university medical center.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 13

The idea that military AI is "precise" is basically a legal lie used to bypass international laws.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 13

New "green" banking rules actually end up making the rich richer and the poor poorer way more than a simple carbon tax would.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 13

Google’s search engine has turned into a giant popularity contest where big websites can push whatever they want, even if it's trash.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 13

A simple software update at the Patent Office accidentally broke the main way scientists study whether patents are actually worth anything.

Practical Magic ssrn | Mar 13

When a big institution starts talking about "reform," it’s usually not a sign of improvement—it’s a sign that the whole thing is about to collapse.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 13

The more a pension fund brags about being "sustainable," the more money it actually seems to lose.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 13

In dictatorships, colleges aren't where the rebels hang out—they're actually the main headquarters for pro-government rallies.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 13

It turns out big corporate landowners and trusts are actually way better at protecting farmland than traditional "family" owners.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 13

Getting rid of price haggling can actually tank your sales, even if your new "fixed" price is cheaper than what people were paying before.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 13

Charging fees for government-backed loans actually makes the whole economy riskier because it scares off the stable borrowers.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 13

In Texas, the person in charge of your estate can sell the family farm to a total stranger even if your will explicitly says not to do it.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 13

International trade deals meant to help poor countries often backfire and cause their local businesses to lose everything to big foreign companies.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 13

Kids who beat leukemia grow up to be just as smart as everyone else, but for some reason, they have a way harder time finding a job.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 13

Trying too hard to "innovate" can actually backfire and make a country’s economy grow slower in the long run.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 13

Electing "tough on crime" prosecutors actually leads to a 6.6% drop in deaths among young men.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 13

Believe it or not, global warming has actually lowered total energy bills in the U.S. because we’re spending way less on heating.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 13

Interest rates aren't falling just because people are older—it’s actually because big companies are jacking up their prices.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 13

That massive 500% jump in stock market trading since the 80s? It’s basically a mirage that doesn't actually help long-term investors.

Paradigm Challenge ssrn | Mar 13