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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.
Join our team - become a TCV contributor!
Learn about why you should join The Curiosity Vine.
TCV's ideas are used to provide seminars, write books, build businesses, and especially to help people.
So take a look around the site, feel free to ask or answer your own questions, and enjoy your own curiosity exploration!
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Featured Posts
Capitalism: The Right Way and the Wrong Way
Whenever someone asks me, "What do you think of capitalism?" I find myself pausing. My answer usually begins with a question of my own: “Well, it depends—who is asking and how are they using the word?” For some individuals, "capitalism" functions as a broad indictment. It serves as a catch-all shorthand for modern economic challenges. When people ask from this perspective, they often hold fixed viewpoints; they seek an opportunity to confirm their own biases or spark a debate
The Tragedy of the Data Commons - An Ancient Problem with a Modern Twist
For today's university graduates, the modern job hunt resembles shouting into the digital abyss. Diligent students follow the traditional playbook. They earn good grades, upload tailored resumes to job boards, and click "Apply Now." Then, silence follows. We are tempted to believe the challenge is a lack of jobs. The root cause is a deeper, structural challenge. The digital labor market is undergoing a significant structural transformation due to the vast availability of da
How Colleges Exploited Student Loans to Kill the Liberal Arts
In 1828, a Yale report on academic instruction declared: "Our object is not to teach knowledge peculiar to any one of the professions; but to lay the foundation common to them all." This noble promise established the liberal arts as a dedicated space for personal exploration, intellectual breadth, and the pursuit of a "North Star." By definition, the liberal arts exist to facilitate this exploration. They provide the map and compass for a student to discover an intellectual i
A Century of Economic Engineering and its Discontents
- What Paul Samuelson got right, what he got wrong, and how he motivated a century of economic thinkers to get it right. Paul Samuelson transformed economics from a collection of literary observations into a formal, deductive science. In his seminal 1947 work, Foundations of Economic Analysis, he established a universal mathematical framework based on the principle of constrained optimization. By applying the calculus of thermodynamics to human decision-making, he provided a
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How Colleges Exploited Student Loans to Kill the Liberal Arts
In 1828, a Yale report on academic instruction declared: "Our object is not to teach knowledge peculiar to any one of the professions; but to lay the foundation common to them all." This noble promise established the liberal arts as a dedicated space for personal exploration, intellectual breadth, and the pursuit of a "North Star." By definition, the liberal arts exist to facilitate this exploration. They provide the map and compass for a student to discover an intellectual i
Jeff Hulett
Jun 18 min read
The Great College Correction: How the Three Cliffs Force a Higher Education Evolution
The market for higher education is currently undergoing a structural transformation. Three distinct cliffs converge to break a decades-long cycle of tuition inflation. Demographic, enrollment, and technological forces reintroduce the economic reality universities avoided for a generation. First, the Demographic Cliff arrives. This represents a literal decline in the number of eighteen-year-olds due to the sharp drop in birth rates following the 2008 recession. Second, the Enr
Jeff Hulett
May 710 min read
The Great Unbundling: Why Self-Directed Mastery is the New American Education
America stands on the precipice of a quiet yet absolute educational revolution. For decades, the national discourse has centered on fixing a broken system, yet we must acknowledge a fundamental economic reality: large-scale education systems, often managed by government bureaucracies, possess almost no incentive to change. These institutions are infected by what those in Positive Political Theory call congealed preferences. Like wet cement that has long since hardened, the in
Jeff Hulett
Feb 810 min read
Do I need to be a data scientist in an AI-enabled world?
So, the short answer to the headline question is no, absolutely not...
Jeff Hulett
Jan 2411 min read
Money, Math, and Mistakes: Training Sophisticated Neural Networks for the Realities of Banking
Introduction: Bridging the Gap As you begin your journey into the world of data science, it is easy to focus entirely on the "how"—the code, the math, and the algorithms. However, in the world of banking, the "why" and the "where" are just as important. This session is intended to provide you with the professional context for how neural networks and related predictive modeling are actually deployed in a highly regulated industry. We will explore the "translation gap" between
Jeff Hulett
Jan 1115 min read
Embrace the Power of Changing Your Mind: Think Like a Bayesian to Make Better Decisions, Part 1
Why Changing Our Minds Matters Changing your mind is not weakness; it is disciplined strength. We live in a world rewarding certainty, slogans, and quick takes. Yet the choices shaping our careers, finances, health, and relationships usually unfold under uncertainty. The risk is obvious: when we cling to yesterday’s belief in a shifting world, the accuracy of our future judgments drifts away from reality. The result is avoidable regret—missed opportunities, inefficient effort
Jeff Hulett
Sep 24, 202529 min read
Work Until You Die—And Love Every Minute
Why Retirement Is the Worst Word in the English Language. If there is one thing America has all wrong, it is our relationship with work....
Jeff Hulett
Sep 21, 20258 min read
The Quiet Wealth of Enough: A Parent’s Guide to Raising Thriving Children
Gratitude, Luck, and Preparation... We are periodically asked: “How did you raise four healthy, happy, and successful children?” It is humbling to hear the question. Each of our young adult children built a life of purpose—strong careers, committed relationships, and financial habits carrying them forward. The short answer is simple: we are appreciative and lucky. But as Seneca reminded us long ago, “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” God provided the
Jeff Hulett
Sep 7, 202521 min read
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