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Stay Curious.
Make the most of your college experience.
Jeff Hulett
Curator, The Curiosity Vine
Stay Curious.
The Curiosity Vine is an idea incubator.
Our contributors have experience and interest in a variety of high-impact topics, such as science, technology, conservation, mathematics, data science, public policy, economics, and others. Our objective is to promote early-stage ideas, enable idea collaboration, and test idea purchase.
TCV platform is curated by Jeff Hulett.
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TCV's ideas are used to provide seminars, write books, build businesses, and especially to help people.
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Featured Posts
Demystifying Backpropagation: The 300-Year-Old Calculus Rule Powering Modern AI
Modern artificial intelligence systems rely on an underlying algorithm to learn: Backpropagation. Whether predicting text, recognizing images, or translating languages, neural networks depend on this universal mechanism. The core mathematical mechanism behind backpropagation is not a recent invention. The algorithm relies on a calculus rule formulated by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz in 1676: the chain rule. To understand how modern AI works, we examine how this centuries-old mat
Bridging the AI Divide: Moving Higher Education from Hesitation to Integration
"If men learn this, it will implant forgetfulness in their souls; they will cease to exercise memory because they will rely on that which is written, calling things to remembrance no longer from within themselves, but by means of external marks." — Socrates (in Plato's Phaedrus) Educators have long questioned how new tools alter human cognition. Socrates was not warning against algorithms, but the newest technology of his era: the written word. New classroom technologies seld
Making the Invisible Hand Visible: How Choice Architecture Operationalizes Economics
The Invisible Hand is an observation of our human nature. Adam Smith studied how people naturally operate within social settings. He then applied those behavioral insights to explain how societies generate lasting wealth. Long-term empirical trends support his core insights. Over the past two centuries, global economic data reveals unprecedented rises in real gross domestic product per capita alongside dramatic increases in global life expectancy. In 1776, Adam Smith publishe
The Vessel and the Truth: How I Found Meaning in Faith
"Does God exist?" This question is as old as humanity. People still debate it with great energy. I struggle with this question. I find it to be polarizing and distracting. Instead, I find there is a different, more helpful question to ask. Instead of existence, the better question is about meaning and behavior. It asks: "How Do You Choose To Live?" As such, my answer is simple. I choose to live as if God exists. Some might label this position as agnostic. Agnosticism answers
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Demystifying Backpropagation: The 300-Year-Old Calculus Rule Powering Modern AI
Modern artificial intelligence systems rely on an underlying algorithm to learn: Backpropagation. Whether predicting text, recognizing images, or translating languages, neural networks depend on this universal mechanism. The core mathematical mechanism behind backpropagation is not a recent invention. The algorithm relies on a calculus rule formulated by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz in 1676: the chain rule. To understand how modern AI works, we examine how this centuries-old mat
Jeff Hulett
6 hours ago8 min read
Bridging the AI Divide: Moving Higher Education from Hesitation to Integration
"If men learn this, it will implant forgetfulness in their souls; they will cease to exercise memory because they will rely on that which is written, calling things to remembrance no longer from within themselves, but by means of external marks." — Socrates (in Plato's Phaedrus) Educators have long questioned how new tools alter human cognition. Socrates was not warning against algorithms, but the newest technology of his era: the written word. New classroom technologies seld
Jeff Hulett
3 days ago8 min read
Treasury Rates Update: September 24th, 2026
In my decades monitoring fixed-income markets, a decisive breach of psychological threshold levels often signals a fundamental shift in market sentiment. Following the prior week's flattening trend, the Treasury market experienced an aggressive bear steepening wave this past week, completely breaking through previous resistance levels. Yields surged across all maturities as selling pressure intensified across intermediate and long-term bonds. The benchmark 10-year Treasury
Bill Knudson
Sep 261 min read
Mortgage Rates Update: September 24th, 2026
The mortgage market for the week ending September 24, 2026, demonstrated significant margin compression as underlying Treasury yields surged much faster than primary retail borrowing rates. As an experienced economist tracking capital market spreads, I observe primary lenders actively absorbing bond market volatility to keep consumer borrowing terms competitive. While the 10 Year Treasury Note rate surged by 24 basis points to 5.18 percent, the 30-year fixed mortgage rate ros
Bill Knudson
Sep 261 min read
Making the Invisible Hand Visible: How Choice Architecture Operationalizes Economics
The Invisible Hand is an observation of our human nature. Adam Smith studied how people naturally operate within social settings. He then applied those behavioral insights to explain how societies generate lasting wealth. Long-term empirical trends support his core insights. Over the past two centuries, global economic data reveals unprecedented rises in real gross domestic product per capita alongside dramatic increases in global life expectancy. In 1776, Adam Smith publishe
Jeff Hulett
Sep 217 min read
Treasury Rates Update: September 17th, 2026
In my decades monitoring fixed-income markets, post-Federal Reserve decision meetings often trigger a classic dynamic: a flattening yield curve as short-term rates reprice monetary expectations while the long end absorbs broader growth and inflation outlooks. Following the September 16th Fed meeting, the Treasury market exhibited this shift precisely, driving a noticeable flattening as short-end yields surged while long-term rates rallied. The benchmark 10-year Treasury rate
Bill Knudson
Sep 191 min read
Mortgage Rates Update: September 17th, 2026
The mortgage market for the week ending September 17, 2026, saw a sharp widening in primary market spreads as consumer borrowing costs surged despite stable underlying benchmark yields. As an experienced economist tracking fixed-income dynamics, I observe primary lenders expanding their margin buffers following weeks of compression. While the 10 Year Treasury Note rate dipped slightly by 1 basis point to 4.94 percent, the 30-year fixed mortgage rate jumped by 19 basis points
Bill Knudson
Sep 191 min read
The Vessel and the Truth: How I Found Meaning in Faith
"Does God exist?" This question is as old as humanity. People still debate it with great energy. I struggle with this question. I find it to be polarizing and distracting. Instead, I find there is a different, more helpful question to ask. Instead of existence, the better question is about meaning and behavior. It asks: "How Do You Choose To Live?" As such, my answer is simple. I choose to live as if God exists. Some might label this position as agnostic. Agnosticism answers
Jeff Hulett
Sep 165 min read
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