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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.
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TCV platform is curated by Jeff Hulett.
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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
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
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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
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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
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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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Mortgage Rates Update: October 1st, 2026
The mortgage market for the week ending October 1, 2026, delivered the significant rate catch-up that our capital market indicators anticipated last week. As an experienced economist tracking interest rate transmission, I observe primary lenders fully adjusting consumer borrowing costs upward to realign with recent surges in benchmark bond yields. Over the past week, the 30-year fixed mortgage rate jumped by 25 basis points to 7.28 percent, while the benchmark 10 Year Treasur
Bill Knudson
Oct 41 min read
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Treasury Rates Update: September 10th, 2026
In my decades monitoring fixed-income markets, aggressive, broad-based selloffs right before crucial monetary policy meetings underscore a market bracing for structural hawkishness. The Treasury market saw yields surge significantly across the entire term structure this past week, driven by heavy selling concentrated in intermediate maturities as investors recalibrate ahead of upcoming macro catalysts. The benchmark 10-year Treasury rate jumped 18 basis points (bp) this wee
Bill Knudson
Sep 111 min read
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Mortgage Rates Update: September 10th, 2026
The mortgage market for the week ending September 10, 2026, experienced significant margin compression as underlying Treasury yields surged much faster than retail borrowing rates. As an experienced economist tracking capital market spreads, I observe primary lenders actively absorbing bond yield spikes to keep consumer rates from climbing too rapidly. While the 10 Year Treasury Note rate jumped 18 basis points to 4.95 percent, the 30-year fixed mortgage rate rose by a more m
Bill Knudson
Sep 111 min read
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Treasury Rates Update: September 3rd, 2026
In my years analyzing fixed-income markets, aggressive upward repricing ahead of employment data usually signals a market steeling itself for macroeconomic surprises. The Treasury market spent this past week pushing yields higher across the entire curve, with the heaviest selling concentrated in intermediate maturities. Investors are actively adjusting positions as policy expectations harden ahead of crucial autumn updates. The benchmark 10-year Treasury rate jumped 10 basi
Bill Knudson
Sep 51 min read
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Mortgage Rates Update: September 3rd, 2026
The mortgage market for the week ending September 3, 2026, experienced standard margin absorption as primary borrowing rates rose at a slower pace than baseline Treasury yields. As an experienced economist tracking capital market dynamics, I observe that primary lenders absorbed a portion of the broader bond sell-off to keep consumer borrowing competitive. While the 10 Year Treasury Note rate surged 10 basis points to 4.77 percent, the 30-year fixed mortgage rate rose by a mo
Bill Knudson
Sep 51 min read
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Mortgage Rates Update: August 20th, 2026
The mortgage market for the week ending August 20, 2026, demonstrated notable margin compression as primary retail rates edged lower despite upward pressure on underlying benchmark yields. As an experienced economist tracking fixed income spreads, I find this week's movement reveals primary lenders absorbing higher capital costs to maintain competitive borrowing terms. While the 10 Year Treasury Note rate jumped by 6 basis points to 4.69 percent, the 30 year fixed mortgage ra
Bill Knudson
Aug 211 min read
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Treasury Rates Update: August 20th, 2026
The fixed-income market is delivering a classic textbook lesson in yield curve dynamics following the latest inflation data. The August 12th CPI release confirmed that headline inflation has moderated to 3.5%, providing the bond market with much-needed breathing room ahead of the September 16th Federal Reserve meeting. Rather than sparking a broad rally, however, investors used the news to aggressively recalibrate short-to-intermediate maturities while long-term rates remaine
Bill Knudson
Aug 211 min read
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Mortgage Rates Update: August 6th, 2026
The mortgage market for the week ending August 6, 2026, experienced a slight upward tick as benchmark yields and primary borrowing costs edged higher in parallel. As an experienced economist tracking fixed-income spreads, I view this movement as market stabilization following prior volatility. The 10 Year Treasury Note rate rose by 1 basis point to 4.69 percent, while the 30-year fixed mortgage rate increased by 3 basis points to 6.69 percent. This parallel rise led to a mi
Jeff Hulett
Aug 71 min read
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