Do Yourself a Favor and Read This

My grandfather on my mother's side once said that the two things one ought to study are history and physics, since history was the study of what has happened and physics is the study of how things work, and all else is frippery. Actually I'm quite sure the last part is inaccurate, but it just seemed to fit a story about what my grandfather once said. To these fine subjects I would add the study of logic and statistics, because they are used against you in so many areas of life you must arm yourself in self-defense.

Boingboing posts today about a Slate article about the biggest danger threatening stock market investors and other speculators, which is the average person's inability to distinguish between good behaviors and strategies and bad ones. People, as the article observes, are born suckers, and have to be taught to be as calculating as is necessary to do well in open markets.

Very good stuff. Read the whole thing.