Draws on cutting-edge theories to describe the basic workings of everyday objects and principles in accessible language, covering a wide variety of topics from cell phones and viruses to economics and parenting.

Includes index.

Why is the stock market so hard to predict? : confused by everyone else -- Why is it so hard to leave a burning building or an endangered city? : confused by instincts -- How does a single bullet start a world war? : confused by social structure -- Why do the jobs that require the greatest skills often pay the least? Why do companies with the least to sell often earn the most? : confused by payoffs -- Why do people, mice, and worlds die when they do? : confused by scale -- Why do bad teams win so many games and good teams lose so many? : confused by objective -- Why do we always worry about the wrong things? : confused by fear -- Why is a baby the best linguist in any room? : confused by silence -- Why are your cell phone and camera so absurdly complicated? : confused by flexibility -- Why are only 10 percent of the world's medical resources used to treat 90 percent of its ills? : confused by false targets -- Why does complexity science fall flat in the arts? : confused by loveliness.