How the Voting Rule Changes the Outcome
Voting outcomes depend on the counting rule, not just on what voters want — a fact demonstrated by running identical ballots through plurality, Borda count, and instant-runoff voting.
14 min 7 scenes
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Mind & Society
Psychology, education, sociology, politics, and economic behaviour.
The Liar's Paradox: When a Sentence Breaks Logic
Tracing the Liar's Paradox shows how a single self-referential claim exposes the assumptions underlying truth, falsity, and self-reference — and why no classical fix can hide the problem forever.
18 min 9 scenes
How Do You Actually Win at Monopoly?
Winning at Monopoly comes from forcing opponents into negative cash through consistent rent, not from owning the most properties or building the most houses.
16 min 8 scenes
Why 50% Off Beats 30% + 20%
Stacking percentage discounts multiplies the remaining fractions, so 30% off followed by 20% off leaves you paying 56% of the original price, while a single 50% off leaves you paying 50%.
8 min 4 scenes
Why Are Some Prices $X.99?
Charm pricing persists because the human visual system weighs the first digit of a number far more than the later digits, so prices ending in .99 are coded as belonging to the lower integer and feel cheaper than their true value.
18 min 9 scenes
The Braess Paradox: When a New Road Makes Traffic Worse
Braess's Paradox shows that when each driver independently picks the fastest-looking route, the network settles into an equilibrium that is worse for everyone than the original network — and removing a road can paradoxically help.
18 min 9 scenes
What Is Memory?
Memory is a three-stage constructive process — encoding, storage, and retrieval — in which traces are rebuilt rather than replayed, so its flaws and its power share the same source.
16 min 8 scenes
Why Is Water Wet?
Wetness is the sensation a liquid creates when it adheres to and spreads across a surface, and water is wet because its polar molecules bond strongly to most things they touch.
16 min 8 scenes
Why Do We Forget Dreams?
Dreams fade because memory consolidation requires brain regions that are suppressed during REM sleep, so dreams are experienced vividly but rarely encoded into long-term storage.
16 min 8 scenes
Empire vs. the Megaphone
Why instant broadcast breaks the information monopoly that empires depend on, why this destabilizes the regime more than the army, and why modern states respond with spectacle, loyalty rituals, and surveillance rather than collapsing.
18 min 9 scenes
Why Dreams Vanish on Waking
Dreams are forgotten almost instantly because the prefrontal cortex, the brain's memory-encoding hub, is largely offline during REM sleep, so dream experience is never consolidated into long-term memory.
8 min 4 scenes
부모님이 남긴 말, 다시 듣기
비난처럼 들렸던 부모님의 말이 실제로는 두 개의 층—표면의 톤과 그 아래의 보호 임무—으로 이루어져 있다는 사실과, 그 두 층을 어른의 눈으로 분리해서 다시 분류하는 세 가지 패턴.
16 min 8 scenes
내가 한 말, 다시 듣기
부모의 말에서 잔소리처럼 들리는 표면 톤과 지키려는 보호 기능은 분리된 두 층이며, 같은 말은 포장만 바꿔도 같은 보호 기능을 수행한다.
8 min 4 scenes
Why Do Parents Say Things That Sound Like Criticism?
That critical-sounding parental remarks usually carry a hidden protective function—about the parent's own fear, the child's safety, or a value the parent is trying to install—and that the surface tone and the underlying job are two separate layers you can learn to read independently.
16 min 8 scenes
Knuckle Pop vs. Airplane Ear: Same Pressure Trick?
Both sensations are pressure-equalization events inside a sealed gas cavity, differing in cavity size, gas source, and what the body is trying to balance.
16 min 8 scenes
推荐算法：越懂你，为何越无聊
推荐算法通过不断强化你过去的点击偏好来提高准确率，但这种'利用'机制会主动压缩探索空间，导致兴趣范围越来越窄，从而产生熟悉又无聊的矛盾体验。
8 min 4 scenes
对手的招式：破绽从何而来？
破绽不是偶然失误，而是招式结构在时间、重心和力上必然付出的代价；理解这一点，就能从招式本身而不是对手的心理中读取机会。
16 min 8 scenes
The Arrow of Time in Everyday Physics and Biology
The arrow of time shows up wherever systems move from ordered, low-entropy states toward disordered, high-entropy states—from cooling coffee to broken eggs, from forming memories to aging bodies—and entropy's statistical drive toward more probable arrangements is the underlying principle that connects them all.
18 min 9 scenes
降龙十八掌：至刚之力的来源与极限
理解'至刚'不是单纯的蛮力输出，而是内力与外力、招意与时机的高度协同；同时看清这种'刚'在面对更高层级力量时的天然边界。
16 min 8 scenes
独孤九剑：无招如何破有招
揭示「无招胜有招」不是没有招式，而是一套以观察对手破绽为核心的破招机制：先识别敌方招式结构中的必然空隙，再以最简洁的后着抢先一击。
18 min 9 scenes
独孤九剑 vs 降龙十八掌
独孤九剑与降龙十八掌的对决，本质上是「寻找破绽」与「以力破巧」两种武学哲学的碰撞；胜负取决于使用者的境界与对武学原理的发挥。
16 min 8 scenes
金庸武侠的武功层级是怎么划出来的？
解释武侠读者用来把人物分成“一流”“绝顶”“宗师”的判据，并演示它们在十四部作品间的可迁移性。
16 min 8 scenes
How Unique Is a Random Shuffle?
A random shuffle of 52 cards produces an order that has almost certainly never existed before, because the 52 possible arrangements so vastly outnumber all shuffles humans have ever performed that repetition is the rare event.
8 min 4 scenes
The Worst Day That Decides the Week
A contestant's worst day is not just a minor dip — in elimination formats it acts as a make-or-break threshold that can override an otherwise strong week.
18 min 9 scenes