With reminders about volatility; a glance into the economics of craft beer; the consumer effects of trade wars; and demonstrating causality from McRib sales…these seven provide quite the spectrum.

We know we can’t predict the future (read: unknowns), but we can account for the likelihood of some scenarios.

Our reading list this week considers factors leading to the next market correction; stock-based compensation; golfing economists; and the pitfalls of generalization.

In theory, investors should improve at least linearly over time as they make and learn from errors. But in practice, there seems to be little evidence of this (only few active managers beat the market over longer time periods).

On the docket this week is an in-depth study of the effects of high household debt; the harrowing developments in data mining for surveillance; a surprising perspective on Bangladesh’s economic state; and a podcast aimed to help you with better decision-making.

Like many disciplines, investing requires measures of both science and art to navigate uncertainty and to move forward decisively.