Anderson left Harvard before getting his PhD because he came to view the field much as Boykin does—as an intellectual pursuit of diminishing returns. But that’s not the case on the internet. “Implicit in ‘the internet’ is the scope, the coverage of it,” Anderson says. “It makes opportunities are much greater, but it also enriches the challenge space, the problem space. There is intellectual upside.”
Was thinking of pursuing masters/PhD in economics but have heard/read a lot along the same lines of an intellectual pursuit with diminishing returns both in terms of salary and real world impact.
The most useful thing I've done on Twitter is follow a bunch of economists and professors who are constantly debating current econ thinking/papers. There are a few I really respect, but for the most part both the academic environment for PhD level economists seems kind of toxic to me as an outsider.
Been thinking a lot recently about how my generation (I'm 24) is going to have to be a lot more practical due to economic realities...
I did a master's in econometrics and that was my experience. In the last year of my undergrad, I took a course in machine learning that seemed to have way more intellectual rigor than any of the material covered in grad school.
At one point, I mentioned to the professor that I was concerned that the model he had presented was overfitting, and he had no understanding of what the term meant.
I think that economics studies fascinating problems (how do people make choices? What are the optimal choices for policy makers to make?) but economists approach the problem completely wrong.
Interesting.. would you suggest some to follow? And what is the current consensus/debate?
We are 20 years out of NAFTA and free trade with China. I see a lot of journeymen/trades that do well in union gigs, police/fire/teachers and blue collar professionals... Those who aren't doing well are people outside of this (service/retail) and illegal immigrants. I guess manufacturing was a union gig that one could get into... On a side note.. why does a Tahoe cost 70k... I mean I know people pay that but seriously... unreal. A Tesla too.. crazy expensive.
He starts out strong and gives a good overview of the "schools" that have been laid to rest, but concludes on some kind of utopian, happy note that I don't believe he has any evidence to support. But then again he spends most of his time in conversation with leading economists (I think) so he should have a pretty good idea of what's up.
Paul Romer has a good summary of the state of macro in his 9/16 paper "The Trouble With Macroeconomics". Here's the abstract:
For more than three decades, macroeconomics has gone backwards. The
treatment of identification now is no more credible than in the early 1970s
but escapes challenge because it is so much more opaque. Macroeconomic
theorists dismiss mere facts by feigning an obtuse ignorance about such simple
assertions as "tight monetary policy can cause a recession." Their models
attribute fluctuations in aggregate variables to imaginary causal forces that
are not influenced by the action that any person takes. A parallel with string
theory from physics hints at a general failure mode of science that is triggered
when respect for highly regarded leaders evolves into a deference to authority
that displaces objective fact from its position as the ultimate determinant of
scientific truth.
Personally, just from reading books and papers it seems like there are very few economic clans left, just economic celebrities (Krugman, Varoufakis, etc.) and the profession's credibility is suffering due to the Fed (and other leading central banks) inability to make anything happen with an empty clip monetary policy wise.
Was thinking of pursuing masters/PhD in economics but have heard/read a lot along the same lines of an intellectual pursuit with diminishing returns both in terms of salary and real world impact.
The most useful thing I've done on Twitter is follow a bunch of economists and professors who are constantly debating current econ thinking/papers. There are a few I really respect, but for the most part both the academic environment for PhD level economists seems kind of toxic to me as an outsider.
Been thinking a lot recently about how my generation (I'm 24) is going to have to be a lot more practical due to economic realities...