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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.
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
Birds, Frogs, and AI: Who Wins and Loses in the New Labor Economy?
In 2008, theoretical physicist Freeman Dyson delivered a famous lecture describing two types of thinkers driving scientific progress: Birds and Frogs. Birds fly high, surveying broad vistas, unifying disparate concepts, and proposing grand theoretical frameworks. Frogs live down in the mud, delighting in fine details, solving specific localized problems, and exploring concrete structures. Dyson insisted both remained essential; neither held superiority. A frog-like focus alig
The Science of Changing Your Mind: An Intuition-First Guide to Bayesian Thinking
Decision-makers navigate uncertainty, seeking conviction in an unpredictable world. This article explores a practical, intuition-first application of Bayesian Inference. Readers learn how a straightforward mental model, supported by a clear framework and an interactive calculator, sharpens decision confidence. While the text examines core mathematical relationships, the mechanics remain in service of practical intuition, equipping individuals to evaluate new evidence and adju
Beyond "Lesser-of-Two-Evils": A Guide to Voting Your Conscience
People like to imagine political campaigns as a pitch for a better future (a candidate standing on stage declaring, "Vote for me because here is what I will build, protect, and deliver"). Instead, voters face a relentless strategy built almost entirely on fear. Over the past fifty years, institutional reforms shifted power toward low-turnout primaries dominated by party activists and focused money. Consequently, positive visions quietly gave way to defensive positioning. Mode
An Investment in Emergence: 35 Years, Four Children, and the Generational Power of Everyday Faithfulness
Looking back on our journey together, my wife Patti and I feel such gratitude. We met over 40 years ago at the beginning of college and now approach our 35th wedding anniversary. Over those decades, four wonderful children (three sons and a daughter) blessed our lives, ranging from 31 down to our youngest, David, who is 25. Born roughly two years apart, watching them grow from energetic kids into healthy adults remains the great privilege of our lives. Recently, David got eng
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Treasury Rates Update: April 2nd, 2026
As we cross into the second quarter of 2026, the Treasury market has staged a significant retreat from the yield peaks observed in late March. Drawing on my experience, this week’s broad-based decline across the term structure suggests a market recalibrating its outlook as it prepares for a barrage of top-tier economic data. The benchmark 10-year Treasury rate dropped 11 basis points (bp) this week, paring much of its recent climb and leaving the rate up only 6bp on a cumulat
Jeff Hulett
Apr 41 min read
Mortgage Rates Update: April 2nd, 2026
The mortgage market experienced a sharp upward correction during the week ending April 2, 2026, marking a significant departure from the relative stability we observed last month. As an economist who monitors the delicate risk balance in lending, I find this week's data particularly striking due to the rapid expansion of the market spread. While the 10 Year Treasury rate increased by a notable 11 basis points to reach 4.31 percent, the 30 year fixed mortgage rate surged by 30
Jeff Hulett
Apr 41 min read
The RepDem Trap and the Fight for a Real Republic
Every election cycle, the same question arrives with predictable urgency. My wife asks it with a mix of frustration and genuine curiosity: "Why do you throw your vote away?" She watches me mark the box for a Libertarian candidate—someone with zero chance of occupying the Oval Office—and sees a wasted opportunity to influence the immediate lesser of two evils. To her, a vote is a tactical wager. To me, it is a moral declaration. I understand her perspective. In a binary system
Jeff Hulett
Apr 47 min read
What Students Should Know About Credit Before Signing Their First Lease
Image Credit A first lease is often treated as a simple housing decision, yet a credit review is usually attached to it. For many students, that step is underestimated until an application is denied, a larger deposit is requested, or a guarantor is required. Credit isn’t just a banking topic. It’s often used by landlords to measure payment risk, reliability, and financial stability. Before any lease is signed, a basic understanding of credit should be developed. That knowledg
Jeff Hulett
Mar 275 min read
Treasury Rates Update: February 26th, 2026
As we move further into the wake of the March Federal Reserve meeting, the Treasury market has delivered a striking, broad-based surge in yields. From my perspective, this aggressive upward move across the entire term structure indicates that the market is repricing for sustained inflationary pressures and a potentially more restrictive policy path. The 10-year Treasury rate jumped 17 basis points (bp) this week, bringing the cumulative two-week increase to 15bp. This shift w
Jeff Hulett
Mar 271 min read
Mortgage Rates Update: March 26th, 2026
The mortgage market experienced continued upward pressure during the week ending March 26, 2026, as rates climbed further into territory not seen since earlier this year. As an economist who tracks the interplay between government yields and consumer borrowing costs, I observed that the 30-year fixed mortgage rate rose by 16 basis points to 6.38 percent. This move was slightly more conservative than the 17 basis point surge in the 10 Year Treasury rate, which reached 4.42 per
Jeff Hulett
Mar 271 min read
Book Review: Finding the Balance in The Soul of Money
Recommend with caveats. Lynne Twist’s The Soul of Money is a book arriving like a deep breath in a room full of suffocating consumerism. It is an exploration of "sufficiency"—the idea that we are enough and have enough. If you’ve ever felt the relentless pull of "more" or found yourself nodding along to Morgan Housel’s The Psychology of Money , this book serves as a spiritual and philosophical companion to Housel’s more pragmatic take on wealth. However, as someone who writ
Jeff Hulett
Mar 244 min read
The RepDem Duopoly: How a Collusive Oligopoly is Cannibalizing the American Economy
Since the inauguration of the second Trump administration in 2025, the American business community has found itself in an uncharacteristic state of alarm. The common grievances echo through the halls of the Chamber of Commerce and across the factory floors of the Midwest: a sharp "Trump Slump" in international tourism fueled by new visa hurdles and negative sentimant; chronic labor shortages in agriculture and construction due to aggressive deportation mandates; a supply chai
Jeff Hulett
Mar 226 min read
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