The idea that there is some sort of split between “head” and “heart” is very old, dating at least back to the ancient Greeks. But does this distinction really exist? Does each human really possess two different methods of seeing the world and making choices? Recent psychological research suggests that there are.
The Inheritance of Loss is magnificent. The writing is lovely, but what makes the book great is the fearlessness with which the author addresses the strange and difficult intermixing of rich and poor, white and brown and black, husband and wife, Hindu and Muslim, tribe versus tribe, not just in India but internationally, through the experience of foreign students and illegal immigrants. This book is fundamentally about the way people see each other through their differences, and like any truly good book it’s full of moments where you go, "yes, it’s like that." The difference here is that these moments make you cringe a little to see something ugly so revealed, both in others and yourself.
Go PKD! Another fine novel which fucks with reality itself. Like the best of holodeck plotlines, you’re never quite sure where you stand during the course of this book. It’s wildly imaginative; it’s paranoiac, it’s amazing. It’s the only time I’ve ever thought, hey, I wonder if it would be worth experiencing amphetamine psychosis just […]
Microcredit is, essentially, the loaning of very small sums of capital to very impoverished people. Yunnis began his career as an economics professor in a University in rural Bangladesh in the mid ’70s. At the time, there was a famine. People in the nearby village of Jobra were literally starving, too poor to afford the […]
Who is researching the intersection between economics and social networks?
I’m quite serious, someone has gotta be doing this, it’s like “duh,” and thanks to Ian for phrasing it this way. So if you know of research on this topic, please contact me. I probably want to read all of it.
Yeah, ok. Sometimes I’m just geeky. […]
