Risk and rationality, investment and life
Its fairly obvious that people are not, except for a few analytical souls, rational about risk: they worry obsessively about small risks and ignore ones that matter, and they are often no more rational about investing. (more…)
Comments disabled
Educating Lucy: Maths
As I have said before, I do not like the way in which schools teach maths, so what do I do instead? Do stuff that is fun, that encourages the underlying skills rather than focusing on arithmetic. (more…)
Comments disabled
Why teach toddlers to read?
As promised in my post on how we taught my daughter to read, here is why I think children should be taught to read as young as possible. There are three good reasons, and the first one is more than enough. (more…)
Comments disabled
Educating Lucy: learning to read
I strongly believe in teaching children to read young, and our experience with Lucy so far has been confirmed that belief. We largely used the methods my mother used, because I knew they had worked for me and my sisters. (more…)
Schools teach maths the wrong way
The idea that what should be a beautiful and fun subject is being destroyed by schools is not mine: a mathematician has expressed it much better. Personal experience seems to confirm it. (more…)
Journalists eat spin on organic food
I assume that everyone who is interested knows by now that the headlines claiming that a Food Standards Agency study showed that “organic food was not healthier” were grossly inaccurate. I want to know why journalists did not even read the first paragraph of the report itself, let alone any real analysis of the report itself, before reproducing the Food Standard Agency’s spin. (more…)
Comments disabled
What do the army do? Fat soldiers and the meaninglessness of BMI
According to The Observer, the army has a problem with soldiers who do not get a minimum of two hours of physical exercise a week. I know accountants who get more than that. What exactly do the army do with their time? (more…)
Comments disabled
Teachers against learning
I have always had doubts about how well IT is, or even can, be taught in schools. It seems to reach its very worst in the case of a teacher who confiscated a pupil’s property to prevent them learning about a technology the teacher seems to have some sort of ignorant grudge against.
Comments disabled
Against women
Stumbling and Mumbling lists seven things that are wrong with women. While some will no doubt be offended, can someone explain how it is any worse than the common suggestions that men are worse at communicating, multi-tasking etc., as Flip Chart Fairy Tales points out. In addition, there is the logical link between what women are supposed to be better than men at, and what women are supposed to be worse than men at. (more…)
Comments disabled
Moving to Galle
After over five years of living in Colombo (the capital of Sri Lanka) we have had enough and are moving to Galle. Colombo has become less and less pleasant to live in, we are not quite ready to go back to Britain, and we really like Galle. (more…)
Feed