A man who did not win a Pulitzer Prize
Last year I wrote here how people preferred a musical record to … itself. The…
Mikhail SimkinApril 28, 2014
Famous writers just have more readers
F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote, 'Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different…
The music that is better than itself
In the 1930s, Pitirim A. Sorokin and J.W. Boldyreff conducted the most interesting experiment1. They…
Mikhail SimkinOctober 28, 2013
Bourbaki’s theorem: a hoax math lecture
A couple years ago I wrote about an experiment where researchers had hired an actor…
Mikhail SimkinOctober 1, 2013
Scientific inquiry into poetry
In a recent article I reported the results of the internet-test, where the takers had…
Mikhail SimkinJune 24, 2013
Distribution of badness
In a recent article, I mentioned the Bulwer-Lytton fiction contest, the aim of which is…
Mikhail SimkinMay 30, 2013
Statistics against irritations: a response to Dickens’s apologists or If high readership is the test of good writing, then 50 Shades of Grey is a work of genius…
Recently I discussed my article1 which reported the results of the test where the takers…
Mikhail SimkinMay 7, 2013
Nobel Prize in Economics Laureates’ achievements estimated from their fame
In a recent article1, Anouk Claes and Marc de Ceuster reported the achievements of Nobel…
Mikhail SimkinApril 3, 2013
A scientific evaluation of Charles Dickens
Previously I discussed1 my experiment that tested whether people can tell the masterpieces of abstract…
Mikhail SimkinMarch 21, 2013
PhDs couldn’t tell an actor from a renowned scientist
Forty years ago, a singularly interesting lecture was held at the University of Southern California…
Mikhail SimkinJuly 4, 2011
