In his book  “A Mathematician Plays The Stock Market” John Allen Paulos tells the story of a man and his wife, who travel to Las Vegas to do some sightseeing, and do a little conservative gambling. Continue reading →

I’ve watched quite a bit of the winter Olympics  over the past week or so, and realised something pretty fundamental – almost every event is designed to kill or maim the competitors. The criteria for an event making it into the games seems to be fairly simple – Continue reading →

Many thanks for the replies to The Private Sale Puzzle . Unfortunately, nobody has come up with a logically coherent explanation for why when there are two private parties of equal power, it is the buyer who is expected to take the risk. I think I know the reason why – there probably isn’t one! Continue reading →

I need your help with a conundrum. The answer, I would imagine, is to be found somewhere in economics, psychology or a mixture of the two. It concerns a situation and mode of behaviour , which to my mind, is illogical and irrational  and yet almost without exception,  everyone adheres to it and accepts it as normal.

Here’s the conundrum: Continue reading →

One of the interesting things about putting any work out into the public domain is getting  feedback from people experiencing it for the first time. My latest book ‘ Why Didn’t They Tell Me?  99 Shameless Success Secrets They Don’t Teach You At Eton, Harrow Or Even The Classiest Comprehensive’ was published last month, and as always, the wait for the first reactions  was a tense one.   You always think it’s going to be okay – why the heck would you publish something if you don’t  think it’s any good? – but you can never really be sure. Continue reading →