‘New math’ is remembered as “a dismal mistake”, and has been called “one of the worst ideas of the 20th century” — but, to many of the brightest minds in education and mathematics, it seemed like a good idea at the time. So, where did ‘new math’ come from…

How rewriting the rules you live by can help you overcome your self-imposed limitations. — There’s a concept in mathematics and the sciences called an “axiom” or a “postulate” — it’s a technical term meaning a statement that is taken to be true. That statement then provides the logical foundation for a system of thinking. For example, the laws of thermodynamics are well-known axioms. …

On a clear day, peering across the English Channel from atop the White Cliffs of Dover, you can just make out the coast of France as a strip of pale land flecked with white, like paint peeling from a picket fence. Viewed from Dover, the French coast is a…

This short was listed as one of the best video essays of 2017 by Sight & Sound. The following is a transcript: I recently came across a collection of old home movies in an obscure corner of the internet. There are thousands in the collection, comprising a digital museum…

The following is a transcript of the video essay. In order to tell a compelling and effective story, storytellers must construct an immersive world in which the story takes place; a process known as worldbuilding. Some stories require more detailed worldbuilding than others, but in the end the point…

A couple years ago, a few amateur astronomers digging through a trove of Kepler data made a peculiar discovery: it was a misbehaving star in the constellation Cygnus; one which erratically dimmed in unpredictable and unprecedented ways. They flagged the star, which perplexed astronomer after astronomer and became a…

This is a transcript of the documentary above. Donald Kessler: The worst case scenario is that you end up creating enough debris that it’s not cost-effective to depend on space. Now, that may take a long time, but because it’s a non-reversible process, once you’ve reached a certain threshold…

An essential guide — In late 2015, I was the only video editor at a mobile fitness app startup called Fitplan, which provides workout programs by well-known athletes. There was a lot of video content being shot for these programs — mostly instructional exercise videos, interviews, and b-roll. One single shoot could bring in…

In 2005, a portrait was distributed to hundreds of people around the world as part of an online “Alternate Reality Game”, initiating a global game of hide and seek w̶h̶i̶c̶h̶ ̶s̶t̶i̶l̶l̶ ̶h̶a̶s̶n̶’̶t̶ ̶b̶e̶e̶n̶ ̶r̶e̶s̶o̶l̶v̶e̶d̶.̶ which has finally been resolved! More information below. December 2020 update: Satoshi has been found…