Logic and Reason

The KEO satellite project is launching a time capsule into space: In 2009/2010, all of this [user-submitted] material will be transferred ...

I have a favorite interview question I always ask programmers on a written test or in person (not so much on the phone). I just posted it on...

Have you noticed the snowballing apps trend? There are hundreds of thousands of apps out there. Desktop software, web apps, apps on social ...

Here is a 2-hour slide show I made for college students and teens: You Are A Brain It's an introduction to realist thinking, a tour ...

My friend Noam is a really cool guy, but I can't say we've been close.

I was happily eating meat one day and I realized that killing sentient things might be the kind of thing society takes in stride but is actu...

I just realized it's impossible to use a semicolon when you're writing with a casual tone; it comes off as pretentious. Right?

Maybe this is just me, but it seems like Amazon.com has managed a huge psychological breakthrough with the slightly altered fonts and styles...

Overcoming Bias is my favorite blog. I've always thought of myself as a highly rational person, but after spending about 40 hours readi...

If you are asked to define the biggest number you can, and restricted to only using only 1000 characters of English text, then there are onl...

I want to be a good composer and pianist someday, instead of a bad composer and an intermediate pianist like I am now. Here's my first...

This semester I teach a 1-unit class at UC Berkeley called X-treme Thinking. Here is the Course Website .

“What is there?” is an important question in philosophy, as it applies to both the physical world, and the world of ideas. The branch of phi...

5. What's the difference between a pile of dead babies, and stuff I don't keep in my garage? 4. What's arguably more humane th...

I wrote up the detailed notes for my latest Extreme Thinking seminar. Check it out: Self-Reference

My friend Lior started a blog. It's funny. Did A Guy Named Phil Start Philosophy?

What have you done in the last second? Because your computer could have done a billion things. Do you ever stop to think about how much wo...

This is my first philosophy of math post, and I got the ideas from reading Scott Aaronson . I saw some wiseacre on an internet forum make ...

28 years after his classic book Godel, Escher, Bach (aka Introduction to Thinking About Awesomeness ), author Douglas Hofstadter is releasi...

Hey blog readers, I am looking for a position in the South San Francisco Bay Area as a Summer programming intern. I am an undergraduate Co...