The Peter Principle states that in most hierarchical organisations, there is a natural tendency for employees to rise in the management hierarchy through promotion until they reach the levels of their respective incompetence. This is a statistical statement about people in an organisation, and there are cultural and management practices that can be put in place to … More An Email Test for the Peter Principle
Many beginning researchers find it hard to cope with the sheer amount of reading they have to do to come up to speed in a certain technical field, and the issue is often compounded by the “lacking the prerequisites to the read the prerequisites” problem due to inadequate mathematical training at the undergraduate level. Here’s … More A Note on Problem Solving for Young Researchers
I have just returned from my annual pilgrimage to Singapore and here are some interesting optics that caught my attention during this trip. I have seen this sign multiple times before at Pasir Ris Park from previous trips. But this trip is the first time I encountered a 3-D version when this lone ranger popped … More Interesting Singapore Optics
I am reading Robert Kuok’s autobiography and these two paragraphs from the chapter Vintage 1963 jumped out at me. “Success in futures depends on your feel for the market, your instincts and rhythm. I would talk to different brokers. Each company had bright, young English traders. One or two would be a little cunning, but, … More Robert Kuok’s Trading Algorithm from 1963
Blind carbon copy (bcc) in emails is one of those dangerous features that has significant potential to cause harm when used inappropriately, either by intention or by accident. There are actually not many good usage patterns for bcc, but one that is definitely good and quite under-utilised is its use in politely letting a person … More Email Etiquette: A Considerate Use of Bcc
Dan Ariely is always worth reading and I picked up The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty over the Christmas break and it did not disappoint. The key findings of Ariely’s work in this area are summarised in the following diagram, which lists some of the factors and forces that are shown through experimental studies to shape dishonesty, both … More Ariely’s Mental Model on Dishonesty
There are many gems in the book Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement For a Complex World, written by General Stanley McChrystal and co-authors based on McChrystal’s experience leading the Joint Special Operations Task Force in Afghanistan and Iraq fighting Al-Qaeda. One that stuck with me is a small section called The Need-To-Know Fallacy. … More The Need-To-Know Fallacy
Combating terrorist financing
My Irrational Life
Updates on my research and expository papers, discussion of open problems, and other maths-related topics. By Terence Tao
