Pegah Rahmani dreams of mathematical proofs. Testing them is her day job.

“For a period, I was working on the proof all day and night. At night, when I was asleep, I’d think of something and when I woke up, I had ideas to test,” Rahmani said. “When I finally had the proof and saw the new axiomatization, it was beautiful.”

Wanting to share the beauty of her axiomatization proof means the economic theorist usually can’t just explain her work. Rahmani has to teach people about the role of correlation sensitivity in the processes of decision making first.

To explain correlation sensitivity, the Rahmani refers to start up culture. Most people know that most start ups fail within a few years of beginning. They also know about the origins of Amazon and Microsoft and might be tempted to invest in what could be the next big tech boom to burst out of one parent’s garage or another’s basement. [Read more…]