Emily Oster, PhD

1 minute read Emily Oster, PhD
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Emily Oster, PhD

Can I Have a Magic 8 Ball?

Q&A on decision-making tools

Emily Oster, PhD

1 minute read

I think you should create a Magic 8 Ball search engine of your work. Readers could type in a question like “Should I have a second kid?” And the search engine could give an 8 Ball response “Outlook Good” or you could load in your own response “I don’t know you tell me” and then list links to your news posts or references to book chapters. It’d be funny. And useful.

—Anonymous

I like this. There is already an app which you can get, made by a loyal reader. But it doesn’t give concrete advice. In the 8-ball world “Should I have an Epidural?” could yield “Ask again tomorrow”, with links to studies. I’ll look into it.

Also, should I have a second kid?

Let me check….“It is Decidedly So”

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