Popular Writing
Who Needs Players? Simulated Games Are the Future of Sports Wired Opinion, November 22, 2012
How to Evolve a Constant of the Universe Wired, April 4, 2012.
Television Show Longevity by Network Wired, March 28, 2012.
The Genetics of Luck Wired, February 27, 2012.
How to Search for the Golden Age of Television Wired, January 31, 2012.
The Inbreeding Coefficient of Superheroes Wired, January 12, 2012.
The Mathematics of Lego Wired, January 6, 2012.
The Fractal Dimension of ZIP Codes Wired, January 4, 2012.
The Social Networks of Superheroes The Atlantic Online, May 27, 2011.
Streaks, from Joltin’ Joe to Mutual Fund Managers Harvard Business Review, February 21, 2011.
Mutated Manuscripts: The Evolution of Genes and Texts. The Atlantic Online, November 16, 2010.
Naming the sky: The true story of one man’s quest to give George Plimpton a permanent presence in orbit. Boston Globe, September 27, 2009: K1, Ideas.
The mysterious equilibrium of zombies: and other things mathematicians see at the movies. Boston Globe, September 6, 2009: C3, Ideas. (plus supplement).
- Reprinted in M. Pitici (ed.) The Best Writing on Mathematics 2010, Princeton University Press, 2010, forthcoming.
Start the clock: A modest proposal for improving football: the ‘time-in’. Boston Globe, August 16, 2009: C2, Ideas.
A brief inquiry into the nature of sports fandom: Why the home team doesn’t deserve your loyalty. Boston Globe, March 22, 2009: K10, Ideas. (this is tongue-in-cheek)
The Arbesman Limit: How to be famous in a few easy steps. Boston Globe, February 8, 2009: L10, Ideas.
A Journey to Baseball’s Alternate Universe. New York Times, March 30, 2008: WK12 (with Steven Strogatz).
Research
Differentiating Skill and Luck in Financial Markets with Streaks.
Mauboussin A and Arbesman S. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1664031 (August 23, 2010).
- Press: Barron’s
A Monte Carlo Approach to Joe DiMaggio and Streaks in Baseball.
Arbesman S, and Strogatz SH. arXiv: 0807.5082 [Popular Physics] (unpublished manuscript).