Spring 2026 Computer Science 4580. 2/9/2026

[Home]

Logical Problem of the Day

All cards have letters on one side and numbers on the other. You see four cards showing the signs or symbols A, K, 4, and 7 on the front side of the cards. The experimenter claims: “If there is a vowel on one side of the card, then there is an even number on the other side.”

The experimenter then asks: “Which card(s) must be turned over to check whether the rule applies? "

https://pollev.com/slade You may also download the app to your phone. Use the "slade" poll id.

Canvas Quiz of the Day (need daily password)

Most days, there will be a simple canvas quiz related to the lecture. You need a password to activate the quiz, which I will provide in class. These quizzes will count toward your class participation grade. The quiz is available only during class.

Click for today's quiz.

Announcements

  • Let us know if you have an upcoming event you would like to share with the class.

  • You may provide mid-semester feedback on canvas starting February 16th and ending February 23rd. It is anonymous.

  • Yale Information Society Project Free lunch. This week.

  • This Wednesday, we have a guest speaker, Joanne Lipman, wiki, Yale Lecturer, Journalist (Wall Street Journal, USA Today, CNBC). We will go out for dinner at Mory's. Below are the students who entered their names in Discussions before the deadline.
    1. Alba Quintas Núñez
    2. Bende Doernyei (Russell) [1]
    3. Harvey Lloyd Picar
    4. Miranda Selin (Niccolai) [2]
    5. Joseph Yu
    6. Lakxshanna Raveendran
    7. Yuwang Ma (Russell) [3]
    8. Emma Slagle
    9. Meghana Chamarty
    10. Joshua Li (Russell) [4]
    We will have 6 guests, so all the entrants who have not previously gone to dinner are selected. Of the remaining 4 entrants, I will select two as alternates. 
    >>> import random
>>> x = list(range(1,5))
>>> x
[1, 2, 3, 4]
>>> random.shuffle(x)
>>> x
[4, 3, 2, 1]
>>> random.shuffle(x)
>>> x
[1, 2, 4, 3]
>>> random.shuffle(x)
>>> x
[2, 1, 4, 3]
    Thus, the alternates are Miranda and Bende.
    1. Alba Quintas Núñez
    2. Harvey Lloyd Picar
    3. Joseph Yu
    4. Lakxshanna Raveendran
    5. Emma Slagle
    6. Meghana Chamarty
    Alternates:
    1. Miranda Selin (Niccolai) [2]
    2. Bende Doernyei (Russell) [1]

  • Next Wednesday (2/18), we have a guest speaker, Professor William Goetzmann, Yale School of Management
    We will go out for dinner at Mory's. If you want to attend, enter your name in Discussions. We will have a lottery on Monday

    Lecture

  • I have office hours Mondays and Wednesdays from 2:30-3:30pm pm, on zoom, id 459 434 2854.

    Assignments

    You can begin work on hw 2 We will discuss yfinance and friends.

    The Realm of Decisions

  • We shall explore Langer's mindlessness / mindfulness dichotomy for decision making. For the next class and the coming weeks: Give an example of an explanation you thought interesting because it was especially good or bad. It can be personal or from the news. Use the Discussions section of canvas (not Ed Discussion). You earn a quiz point by posting to Discussions. Try to analyze it along the mindless / mindful spectrum.

  • Truth is more complicated that the logicians would have you believe. Quotes about Truth

  • The VOTE program is available on the zoo. There is also a github repository of the Common LISP code for VOTE.

  • Modern Portfolio Theory:

  • Behavioral Economics

  • PIMCO Behavioral Science

  • What is a correct decision? See A Realistic Model of Rationality. This short paper provides a high-level introduction to the topics we will discuss in this course: goals, plans, resources, relationships, goal adoption, explanations, subjective decisions, emotions, advice, and persuasion. We contrast it with the standard economic decision theory. We want to develop a theory that can be implemented in a computer program.

    [Home]