1. Beware edu-tourism

“Edutourists routinely select on the dependent variable.  They go to countries at the top of international assessments, such as Finland and Japan.  They never go to countries in the middle or at the bottom of the distribution.  If they did and found Teaching Strategy X used frequently among low performers, the positive correlation would evaporate—and they would have to seriously question whether Teaching Strategy X has any relationship with achievement.”

2. Peter Thiel repackages conventional wisdom as bold contrarianism

“But the argument for competition has never been that it’s good for companies facing competition — obviously it’s more lucrative to have a monopoly. Rather, the case for competition is that it’s good for consumers. For much of his book, Thiel conflates these two claims, treating the fact that monopolies are good for monopolists as evidence that monopolies are good for society generally.”

3.

“Many of Page’s current investments can be seen as smart wagers to secure his company’s future and hedge against a slowdown in search advertising. ‘He’s making the right bets on long-term technology trends,’ says Mark Mahaney, an analyst with RBC Capital Markets. ‘Google would be less valuable if it didn’t have credible bets off the home, the car, and wearable devices.’

4. Good governance and well being

“The new results show not just that people are more satisfied with their lives in countries having better governance quality, but also that actual changes in governance quality since 2005 have led to large changes in the quality of life.”