When it comes to making sense of vast amounts of complicated data, time really is on your side. It’s a simple concept, one that everyone understands: an action starts, then eventually stops. The distance between those two points conveys information — information about then, about now, and about the differences between the two....

Becoming a freelancer can be liberating — and also a little terrifying. Where do you even begin? What processes and structures do you need to have in place? How do you find clients? And how do you know how much to charge?...

Before you read the rest of this post, go to Google and try searching for “Amazon.” You’ll probably notice that the top two listings are both for Amazon’s website, with the first appearing on a light beige background. If you click on the first — a paid search ad — Amazon will pay Google for attracting your business. If you click on the second, Amazon gets your business but Google gets nothing. Try “Macys,” “Walgreens,” and “Sports Authority” — you’ll see the same thing....

There’s a wonderful scene (one of many) in Michael Lewis’s new book, Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt, in which John Schwall, then the head of product management at RBC Capital Markets in New York, decides one day in 2011 to figure out how stock trading had evolved into a high-speed, unfair race he thought it had become....