A SEAL’s smartest weapon, like a scholar’s, is his mind: his capacity to assess complex situations. This assessment is then coupled with the courage to achieve a given goal, and the humility to move on quietly to the next task.

Accidents happen. Their causes are physical, and it's our actions that make them likely or unlikely, not the names we call them. I know this. Yet the inherent biases of […]

Professionals who use ingratiation as a career aid may avoid the psychological distress that affects others who are less cunning about their workplace behavior, says new research.

The only way to build an organization that's truly fit for the future is to build one that's truly fit for human beings. Why we need to reinvent management.

An Army investigation after the suicide found the man had been  subjected to “cruel, abusive and oppressive treatment.” But his superiors weren’t made to leave the service.

“I never want to build something that nobody wants to buy.” How Edison learned from his unsuccessful attempt to get Congress to buy his automatic vote-tally system.

A healthy dose of skepticism and a realistic look at the odds you’re up against can do a lot more to help energize you toward a goal than a rosy image of a successful outcome.

When I was a grad student at Berkeley years ago, it was famous for not only finding new elements on the periodic chart, but also finding the anti-proton, the anti-particle […]

The latest great announcement by Steve Jobs, eagerly awaited by the Apple faithful, was not a shiny new product like the next iPhone or iPad – it was something much […]

Psychologist Sam Gosling discusses what Apple's recently-unveiled spaceship headquarters says about Steve Jobs--and what your office might say about you.

A renegade teacher tells the students at the school straight out, much earlier than they were supposed to know, what their purpose in life is, claiming that knowing what one's life is […]

Chef Wylie Dufresne believes in playing with his food—but not in the usual sense of the phrase. In his popular New York restaurant, wd-50, Dufresne applies molecular gastronomy, a field […]

James Taranto has a strange op/ed in the Wall Street Journal accusing feminists of being hypocrites for defending Anthony Weiner, the liberal Democratic congressman who inadvertently exposed his boxer-brief-clad crotch […]

Due to the negative association of the word "chemicals" with packaged foods, a kind of religion has developed around "natural" foods. Hold on, says molecular gastronomist Nathan Myhrvold. Many of […]

A kind of religion has developed around so-called "natural" foods. Hold on, says modernist chef and inventer Nathan Myhrvold. Do you like muffins? Do you like wine and cheese? If so, read on.

I'm nonplussed by Mary Elizabeth Williams' comment today, over at Salon, that Anthony Weiner's impending fatherhood "drastically changed" the Weinergate drama. Not that I disagree that "the timing of Weiner's […]

When French-American artist Louise Bourgeois passed away in May 2010, most remembered her as the “Spider Woman” thanks to her Maman series—giant metal spiders scattered all over the world in […]

One of the things that I find most frustrating is reading articles or comments on AQAP by people who have never bothered to actually read what the organization itself puts […]

A number of responses to my post on mental illness and civil rights deserve some further thought. A number of people have pointed to the variance in definitions of mental […]

It has been a busy week for me - and I think I've alluded to why - and this is likely my last live post until June 21. Look for […]