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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
The Boundaries of Power: What Economic History Teaches Us About the Proper Role of Government
Every generation grapples with the fundamental question of political economy: What is the proper role of government? Historically, the debate waxes and wanes between expanded state intervention and restrained governance. Modern practice reveals a steady expansion of state power. Effective government does not represent an optional luxury; it represents a foundational necessity. As Adam Smith and classic commentators made clear, market societies require a government enforcing j
The Classical Liberal’s Dilemma: Why Freedom Fails at the Ballot Box
When the Classical Liberal Revival Feels Real The impulse to dismantle the administrative state is a recurring rhythm in the history of governance, a perennial tension between the expanding reach of the bureaucracy and the enduring ideals of classical liberalism. While the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) stands as a recent historical attempt to prune the thicket of executive overreach, it follows a storied lineage of efforts to restore institutional accountability.
The Real Math Gap: How Incentives, Testing, and Home Agency Shape Modern Learning
The Misalignment of Modern Math → We teach high school and college mathematics as if our primary economic goal involves training human calculating machines. We spend hundreds of hours drilling students on hand-manipulating polynomials, evaluating complex integrals, and executing rigid algorithms under strict time limits. Yet, outside the classroom, almost no one calculates by hand. The modern economy does not need human calculators; it needs math orchestrators. An orchestrato
Our Trade-off Life: How the 80/20 rule leads to a healthier, wealthier life
Trade-offs are the currency of decision-making. The French philosopher Voltaire (1694-1778) spoke of trade-offs when he said [i]: "Perfect is the enemy of good." We always make trade-offs; sometimes those trade-offs are more obvious and sometimes almost invisible. In the modern decision-making context, decisions are the optimization of multiple "what is important to me or us" criteria. The "best" decision is the alternative that optimizes the weighted criteria. [ii] Rarely
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Treasury Rates Update: May 14th, 2026
The Treasury market has spent the past week navigating a complex landscape of conflicting economic signals. As an economist who has parsed decades of market data, I see a clear narrative emerging: persistent inflation is currently outweighing signs of a softening labor market. While the May 8th jobs report showed a modest 115,000 new positions and an uptick in unemployment to 4.3%, the May 12th CPI release—showing an increase from 3.5% to 3.8%—has kept upward pressure on yiel
Bill Knudson
May 161 min read
Redefining Rationality: The Act of Calibrating Internal Maps to the Evolving World
Many people view rationality as a cold, rigid set of rules. This narrow definition often creates resistance because it suggests a singular, correct way to live. However, this article introduces and defines Diverse Rationality to better align with how people actually experience decision-making. We move rationality from a static destination to an active process of internal calibration—one that is sensitive not only to the world but to the shifting state of the decision-maker th
Jeff Hulett
May 1514 min read
The Canvas Crisis: A Strategic Crossroads for the American University
In early May 2026, hackers disabled Canvas during final exam week. This diabolical timing paralyzed the primary Learning Management System (LMS) for thousands of North American universities. At James Madison University (JMU), my own institution, students and professors lost access to their most essential resource at the most sensitive possible moment. While scale typically drives down costs, market dominance and misaligned vendor incentives now expose the Canvas platform's in
Jeff Hulett
May 96 min read
Treasury Rates Update: May 7th, 2026
In the wake of the Federal Reserve’s decision to hold rates steady on April 29th, the Treasury market has entered a phase of consolidation marked by a distinct flattening of the yield curve. As an economist who has tracked these cycles for decades, I view this week’s action as a subtle recalibration; while long-term yields remain anchored, short and intermediate rates are edging higher as the market digests the "higher-for-longer" policy reality. The benchmark 10-year Treas
Bill Knudson
May 91 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
Treasury Rates Update: April 30th, 2026
As we conclude April, the Treasury market has delivered a definitive response to the Federal Reserve’s latest policy stance. Following the Fed’s decision to maintain the status quo on April 29th, yields across the curve have surged. In my experience navigating these cycles, this broad-based upward pressure suggests a market recalibrating for a "higher-for-longer" reality, even as the central bank remains on hold. The benchmark 10-year Treasury rate climbed 6 basis points (b
Bill Knudson
May 21 min read
Mortgage Rates Update: April 30th, 2026
The mortgage market for the week ending April 30, 2026, demonstrated a remarkable return to pricing efficiency despite rising benchmark yields. As an experienced economist, I find this week's data particularly compelling as it signals a significant contraction in the risk premium. While the 10 Year Treasury rate rose by 8 basis points to 4.40 percent, the 30-year fixed mortgage rate remained perfectly unchanged at 6.30 percent. This divergence resulted in a substantial 9 basi
Bill Knudson
May 21 min read
The AI Locomotive: Why the Safest Place is on the Train
As a behavioral economist, I spend a significant amount of time studying how humans make decisions under conditions of extreme uncertainty. Today, we are facing one of the greatest "uncertainty shocks" in history: the rise of Artificial Intelligence. When people look at AI, they often see a threat to their livelihoods. But I prefer a different metaphor. AI is a train. It has left the station, it is gathering immense speed, and it is governed by the immutable laws of economic
Jeff Hulett
Apr 205 min read
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