Tyler Cowen has only had coffee twice in his life. He only drinks tea when offered to him. He doesn’t touch alcohol. “Alcohol is bad for everyone’s productivity.”
Instead, Cowen’s drug of choice is information. He’s not just an addict, he’s a peddler and a king. Through his blog, podcasts, and books, he spreads big ideas and lofty trivia. He is one of the most eclectic economists. He defends the market and big business. He argues that artificial intelligence, including chatbots like ChatGPT, is changing the world. But he also writes about restaurants, movies and books. Because he enjoys them and believes culture shapes the market (and vice versa). “People should be more informed about music, the economy, books. So I try to show them how I do it.”
An economics professor at George Mason University in Virginia, Cowen has become a cult figure among the superintellectual elite bent on self-improvement. On his Marginal Revolution, a blog he co-founded in 2003, he presents his latest research. For example, why the US gender pay gap is no longer closing (family leave policy) or how long it took before the Roman emperor was murdered. Avid readers include author Malcolm Gladwell and British Prime Minister Rishi Snack, Cowen said. But he wants more. He launched an online university consisting of free economics modules.
“My personal ambition is to be the individual who has done the most to teach widely interpreted global economics,” he says. When asked who the competitors for this title are, he starts with the names Adam Smith and John Maynard Keynes.
Cohen’s brand of economics is practical. Last year, he and entrepreneur Daniel Gross published a book. talent, on how to hire creative individuals. Some organizations avoid unstructured interviews for fear of discriminating candidates. Cowen applauds such free-flowing interviews, especially if the interviewer asks about something they’re really interested in.
He often delights in being contrarian. When we met in London, the consensus was that the UK economy couldn’t get any worse. “I think the South of England – London, Cambridge, Oxford – is one of the greatest regions in the world and one of the few places where new ideas can really be generated and implemented. You see it. [Oxford Covid-19] Vaccines, can be seen in DeepMind [Google’s AI unit founded in London]This corner of England: You’ve already passed through Singapore-on-Thames. You left Singapore in the dust!
Is the UK lacking animal spirits? “It’s true, partly. I wish there was an ethic of working hard and having a lot of money.” [seen as] more clearly positive. But not everywhere will be like America. The strong suit here is very strong. London is literally the best city in the world. “
This is typical cowen. Quickly rank people, places and cultures. For example, some say that every major city has good Asian food these days. “That’s not true! There are so many good Asian restaurants in Paris, just don’t find them.”
He has a fashionable love of generalization. “People think things like this anyway. They’re just afraid to say it. Why don’t they say what they think?” I think there is. My natural tendency is to tell you what I think.
He wants to push economics beyond the academic method. He hasn’t written a peer-reviewed article since his 2017. “many [economics] is too narrow. I tackled real-world problems and tried to express when and where I feel uncertainty. I think it resonates with a lot of people. “
Cowen, 60, wasn’t always curious. He grew up in New Jersey, had little interest in exotic foods and travel, and then, in his late teens, began traveling to New York City, filled with concerts, crowds and second-hand bookstores.
At 19, he published his first economics paper in a journal, and at 27 he became a tenured professor. But it was the blog where he was able to find readers. “The modern Internet has completely changed my life.”
Cohen’s superpower is reading. He considers himself dyslexic and has a prodigious reading ability. “If it’s a non-fiction book that I know to some extent, I can read about five in one night.” He starts reading after 7am and eats dinner early around 5pm . (He loves the city’s diversity, but he lives in a suburb of Virginia, partly because of the tax rate.)
His list of the best books of 2022 included 36 titles, including his own. talent, unashamedly proviso: “These were the best books!” Yet he is open to non-readers as well. Travel is underrated. Among sensible and educated people, books may be a little overrated. “
Hyperlexia is often associated with autism, but Cowen does not have the social difficulties that people with autism often experience. Answers are often helpful.
Conversation, like reading, is how he gathers information. But neither is enough. “If you just read, you may remain an idiot.” If you’re writing something every day, it’s going to be a lot, no matter how long it is. It’s people who go days without writing that have productivity problems. “
Since 2003, Cowen has written every day, “Sundays, birthdays, Christmas, etc.” On Christmas Day, he blogged about China’s zero-coronavirus policy. On Thanksgiving, he asked why more currency than the dollar has no value.
What is Cohen’s overall tenet?It led him to an optimism about human progress and, like psychologists, Stephen Pinkerof. He calls himself a moderate libertarian and works with billionaire venture capitalist Peter Thiel’s foundation. He also defended classical liberalism against the Populist Right, arguing that the Populist Right could accelerate the “Brazilianization of the United States” by fostering distrust of the elite. I don’t know if I’m a centrist about it, but I’m a centrist when it comes to mood and approach.”
He’s excited about technological change, but he’s also in favor of institutional continuity, even when US politics seems broken. is 30-40% higher than most other countries, it probably hasn’t changed. [but] I don’t think Trump will win again. But the system seems to work. There have been a lot of policy changes recently, not all for the better, but it’s not a dead end. “
What does Cohen’s open-mindedness get him? He backed tax cuts for former British Prime Minister Liz Truss, which led to her dismissal. “I thought the market overreacted.” Interview March 2022 Sam Bankman-Friedthe founder of the now-defunct crypto platform FTX, declared him “excellent.”
(That interview displayed Cowen’s rambling question: “I think the best French fries in the world are in Patagonia, in southern Argentina. Where do you think they are?”)
Cohen first met Bankman Freed ten years ago. They played bughouse chess, a variation of the game. “He was good. He was better at baghouse than chess. A very important concept in understanding FTX. There are four people and two boards. Once placed, pass it to your partner.My partner can drop the piece down instead of making a move.You may be in this desperate situation.Your partner suddenly I’ll give you the queen.So there’s no balance sheet in bughouse chess.Things will come out of nowhere to save you.You play desperately and take a lot of risks.People are bughouse That’s their core mentality when they play.”
Cowen is a talent spotter. Did he hire him after interviewing Bankman-Fried? one thing is talent In other words, honesty is the hardest trait to judge and the easiest to fake. “
there
What is your favorite present? It’s a compact disc. But the real present is information. talk to someone about something And only money, right?
Will more wealth make you happier? No. [But] When I turned 84, I could have been in a better nursing home.
On culture cancellation: The left wing cancels more than the right wing. [In universities] Middle-to-left Democratic women are the demographic group most likely to be canceled. Right-wing men are relatively safe.
Cohen remains hopeful about cryptocurrencies. “Crypto is really a new idea, and people shouldn’t just throw it away.”
In general, he considers chaos unthreatening. “YouTube is the most important educational vehicle in the world,” but prestigious universities and large state universities “will continue to do well.” Humans will also survive the chaos of his AI, he says, but he challenges economists to better predict the impact. “You cannot predict the business cycle, nor can you predict the impact of new technology. Surely that should humble us a bit?
He plans to focus more on speaking than writing in order to adapt to a world where readers spend time with chatbots. [chatbot] It imitated me, I would be really happy. It would immortalize some version of me. I’m her 60, with tenure and other sources of income, so not everyone is in that position. “
Cohen’s optimism has its limits. “I am more optimistic than most about the likelihood of nuclear war in one year. My guess would be 700-800 years, we can argue about the number but it’s not a million years, I don’t think it kills all humans, It will destroy what you think.”
Still, the prospect doesn’t seem to bother him. “If we have better institutions and we make better decisions, we can make a difference.” For now, we have talent to discover and interesting ideas to curate. He left us an interview to undoubtedly empty London bookstores and fill his life with as much information as possible.
