Links this week:

1. A conversation with Rory Sutherland. Many good pieces, but my favourite line:

Certainly there’s a problem with numbers in that there are sophisticated things in life that we all understand perfectly well when verbally described. Should psychology be constrained by math? I mean, who has the better understanding of human behavior—Shakespeare or Eugene Fama? If you make mathematical expression a barrier to entry, to any kind of theory, you are undoubtedly limiting yourselves.

2. Another article taking a shot at the idea that “all calories are equal”.
3. A not so glowing review of the latest book in the Freakonomics franchise – Think Like a Freak. Noah Smith also takes a shot.
4. H. Allen Orr reviews Nicholas Wade’s A Troublesome Inheritance: Genes, Race and Human History.
5. Two good pieces on the mess that is copyright protection – an extended riff on barriers to innovation and the ridiculous length of copyright terms.