50+ talks & workshops
I’ve given 50+ workshops and talks — on AI, well-being, entrepreneurship, pedagogy, and more — for universities, conferences, and teams.
Boris Nikolaev
happiness · ventures · robots
Thanks for visiting my website. I’m an economist who studies happiness, entrepreneurship, and AI — the human (and not so human) side of markets, work, and innovation. My research looks at why people take risks to start new ventures, how work shapes well-being, and how AI, institutions, and luck influence who gets ahead. Across these projects, I’m interested in how business can create better lives.
Academia runs on “publish or perish.” I study the other version: people flourish when they feel free, capable, and connected. You get one semester.
←→ or AD to walk, or drag · P pausesHold or drag on the field to walk
Your flourishing is only as high as your lowest need.
paused
Taking a breather.
or press PYour semester is waiting.
your score = the area under your flourishing curve
Loosely inspired by Shir, Nikolaev & Wincent (2019), “Entrepreneurship and Well-being: The Role of Psychological Autonomy, Competence, and Relatedness,” Journal of Business Venturing 34(5), 105875: the well-being payoff of entrepreneurship runs through autonomy first — feeling in charge — which then feeds competence and connection. So here, every autonomy you catch tops up the other two a little. The paper has fewer falling hearts.
My research includes over 50 peer-reviewed publications, including a dozen articles in premier journals such as JBV, ETP, JAP, SEJ, and JIBS. My work has been featured in the Economist, Forbes, TechCrunch, the Atlantic, and many other media outlets. I have been honored to receive multiple research excellence awards, including the Habicht Early Career Research Award and the Business for Better World Research Award.
Can’t decide where to start? Just pull the lever.
We like to think success is mostly skill. But what happens when a hundred brilliant, highly skilled people chase the same job, grant, or journal publication? As the gap between their skills shrinks, who wins quietly tips from merit toward luck — the paradox of skill. And now what happens when everyone can use the same AI tool to polish their résumé, paper, or portfolio? Observed differences in skill shrink even further. The more AI makes everyone look alike on paper, the more luck — not merit — decides who actually wins the race. Play with the simulation below to see the effect.
Interactive scatter plot showing how acceptance rate and evaluation noise determine what share of selected applicants would also be chosen on true merit, illustrating the role of luck in extreme selection.
Each dot is one of 1,500 applicants to an elite pool. The vertical axis is the random luck of their evaluation; the horizontal axis is their underlying skill. The cutoff is a lottery in disguise.
How it works Each applicant’s score is (1−η)·skill + η·luck, and the highest scores get in. The pencil line is that cutoff: as the noise rises it tilts from skill toward luck, and AI polish tilts it further.
In the classroom, my passion for innovative teaching has earned recognition from the Academy of Management. I have also received several university-wide teaching awards, including the William H. Fox Teaching Award for Emerging Excellence (Emory University), the N. Preston Davis Award for Instructional Innovation (Colorado State University), the Provost Award for Outstanding Teaching (University of South Florida), and the Innovation in Entrepreneurship Pedagogy Award (AOM ENT Division).
The senior capstone at the College of Business at CSU.
Experimental class on how firms create, capture, and defend value — and how AI is quietly rewriting the playbook for competitive advantage.
You’re the ram. The robot has studied every tic-tac-toe game ever played. Three in a row — across, down, or diagonal — wins.
0you
0robotYour move, ram.
Tap any square to start.
A course I teach for AI Horizons, for anyone who uses ChatGPT or Claude and suspects there’s more. Over two days we learn to hand AI a task, then a project, then a whole process, on real data (lots of it from the World Happiness Report, naturally). The machine writes all the code.
next cohort Next cohort: Thu 29 & Fri 30 October, 10:30 AM to 3:00 PM New York time
New dates are posted at AI Horizons ↗
Level one, the chatbot: we ask, it answers, we ask again. Every turn of the loop passes through us.
Nothing happens until you ask.
Delegate a task. It writes the code, runs it, and hands back the receipts. Try level one
I have been using ChatGPT every day since 2023… Despite this experience, I learned so much new information about what AI can do and its potential.
Real deliverables, built in the course’s own folders. Open one for a closer look.
I regularly work with businesses and organizations to problem-solve and come up with creative solutions.
I’ve given 50+ workshops and talks — on AI, well-being, entrepreneurship, pedagogy, and more — for universities, conferences, and teams.
I advise universities, companies, and organizations on AI and well-being — where the tools genuinely help, how to adopt them wisely, and how it all ties back to people who thrive rather than burn out.
Independent economic and statistical analysis for litigation and disputes — careful, plainly explained, and built to stand up under scrutiny.
Freelance, project-based work — websites, dashboards, and data projects — designed, built, and delivered end to end.
A short engagement or standing advisory, a keynote or a contract analysis — tell me what you’re trying to do.
What do you need? pick any
When? optional
Nothing is sent from this page — the button only opens a draft in your own email app. Or simply write to borisnikolaev@gmail.com.
A few pictures of places I've visited with people I love.
End of the roll.
The rest is in the gallery
