Michael el Chayil

I signed up for a psychology class once. I learned three things. First, I learned that the unit of measure for a psychology class is the JND -- just noticeable difference. So for example, while black and brown shoes will definitely have a different internal temperature for a given ambient temperature, humidity, exposure to direct sunlight, etc... that difference is less than 1 JND. (No, not 1.0; JNDs are atomic, sort of). Second, I learned that we would be tested on material in the assigned reading that would never be covered in lecture. Throughout my entire college career, I never read a textbook; I just attended lectures and worked out the problems to learn the material. So I dropped the course. Before I dropped, though, I actually learned one very cool concept that I later found discussed by our sages over the last few centuries (Rishonim and Acharonim). Namely, that all we can really observe is correlation; two events that always occur together under certain conditions. Cause and e...