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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
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
The Medical Billing Machine: The Tacit Collusion Draining Your Healthspan
The modern medical encounter often feels less like a consultation and more like a factory assembly line. Patients enter the office seeking expert judgment and a personal connection. Instead, they frequently encounter a rigid "check-the-box" mentality. The system operates to identify every possible billable event through a series of procedural steps. This shift transforms medical providers into what this article describes later as a "high-sensitivity" machine. Patients often f
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
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
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Treasury Rates Update: May 21st, 2026
In my years analyzing fixed-income markets, the current environment presents a classic case of the market wrestling with diverging economic signals. While recent labor data indicated some cooling, the bond market is clearly prioritizing inflation concerns. This week, we observed a decisive, broad-based surge in yields as investors adjusted to the reality of sticky price pressures. The benchmark 10-year Treasury rate climbed 10 basis points (bp) this week, finishing at 4.57%
Jeff Hulett
6 hours ago1 min read
Mortgage Rates Update: May 21st, 2026
The mortgage market for the week ending May 21, 2026, experienced a notable upward shift in borrowing costs as primary rates closely tracked rising secondary market yields. As an economist who prioritizes the analysis of market efficiency and spreads, I find this week's movement indicates a continued period of volatility for prospective homeowners. The benchmark 30-year fixed mortgage rate surged by 15 basis points to reach 6.51 percent, while the 10 Year Treasury rate climbe
Bill Knudson
6 hours ago1 min read
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
Jeff Hulett
9 hours ago7 min read
The Medical Billing Machine: The Tacit Collusion Draining Your Healthspan
The modern medical encounter often feels less like a consultation and more like a factory assembly line. Patients enter the office seeking expert judgment and a personal connection. Instead, they frequently encounter a rigid "check-the-box" mentality. The system operates to identify every possible billable event through a series of procedural steps. This shift transforms medical providers into what this article describes later as a "high-sensitivity" machine. Patients often f
Jeff Hulett
2 days ago6 min read
Mortgage Rates Update: May 14th, 2026
The mortgage market for the week ending May 14, 2026, demonstrated a notable divergence between primary lending rates and secondary market benchmarks. As an economist who prioritizes market efficiency, I find this week's data underscores a significant tightening of the risk premium. While the 10 Year Treasury rate increased by 6 basis points to reach 4.47 percent, the 30-year fixed mortgage rate actually decreased by 1 basis point to settle at 6.36 percent. This inverse mov
Bill Knudson
7 days ago1 min read
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
7 days ago1 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
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