What is your ECON curriculum? \ stacker news ~econ

3935 sats \ 22 comments \ @ablunderfilledlife 22 Feb econ

I am floored by the level of discourse on SN because of a few of its attributes

The impressive bibliographies people cite for the thinking that underpins their own insights.
The "yes and..." nature of posts; more often than not I am seeing someone expand or extend someone's thinking rather than position against it.
The resource and advice sharing that portrays a network of generous, encouraging learning and development

Inspired by this spirit, I think is the beginning of a chain of posts that I'd like to put across the territories: What is your X curriculum?

If the extent of my knowledge regarding ECON is the supply/demand graph, if I have 2 hours to dedicate to the topic every week for a few months, if my interest ranges from the theoretical to the practical/local (American here),

what is your ECON curriculum?

Books, welcome. Articles and videos, absolutely. An outline of concepts for self-guided exploration (with a few honorable mentions of books, articles, videos, thinkers), hell yea!

Basically (until 1:45),

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1541 sats \ 10 replies \ @Undisciplined 23 Feb

Start with Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt. That will give you the basics of how to see the world like an economist.

Then, if you really want a deep understanding, read Human Action by Ludwig von Mises.

From there, you'll have a solid foundation to branch out into whatever specific econ topics interest you.

51 sats \ 7 replies \ @cryotosensei 23 Feb

What branch of economics is closest to parenting?

51 sats \ 5 replies \ @ablunderfilledlife OP 23 Feb

My knee jerk response is attention economy, but I defer to the aficionados and experts for more fitting answers

0 sats \ 4 replies \ @Undisciplined 23 Feb

Care to elaborate?

371 sats \ 3 replies \ @ablunderfilledlife OP 23 Feb

I was introduced briefly to this concept by Matthew B. Crawford in [The Cost of Paying Attention] (https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/08/opinion/sunday/the-cost-of-paying-attention.html). He wrote a book on the idea, but I never got to it.

The gist of it if I remember correctly is that our attention is a scarce resource, and it is being hijacked by advertising in more Insidious ways than ever. We can't fill up our car with gas without being subjected to something like Entertainment Tonight on the pump.

My admittely flippant Idea that this has anything to do with parenting is that it takes a great deal of attention, and safeguarding and investing that attention into the family is a skill that may be taken for granted by some people who do it well, and a skill some families may benefit from adopting.

31 sats \ 0 replies \ @cryotosensei 28 Feb

I totally agree. Even if you are fully present in the moment, your attention is still fragmented because your children may have totally different needs. I will always remember how my son was clamouring for his diaper to be changed when I was feeling my baby girl milk!

71 sats \ 1 reply \ @Undisciplined 23 Feb

I thought it was something like that. I've heard it discussed in passing, but not any of the major takeaways.

That's definitely relevant to parenting and I believe Sensei has written about trying to manage his attention as a parent.

31 sats \ 0 replies \ @cryotosensei 28 Feb

Still at the rookie level!

20 sats \ 0 replies \ @Undisciplined 23 Feb

Probably Theory of the Firm. It's part of micro theory and deals heavily with principle-agent models. In the context of parenting, you and your wife are the principles and your kids are the agents. These models cover how the principle should structure incentives so that the agent will do what the principle wants. Appropriate incentives can vary widely depending on the situation.

There are some great books about parenting specifically, though.

Bryan Caplan's Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids
Emily Oster has three: Expecting Better, Crib Sheet, The Family Firm

I haven't finished The Family Firm, yet, but Emily's other two books are great resources for people just starting a family or with very young kids.

Bryan's book is a bit more technical, but I think it has the more profound message.

123 sats \ 1 reply \ @ablunderfilledlife OP 23 Feb

I expected a much longer list from you, but then again, brevity is a mark of knowledge.

Thank you! I'll pick up Hazlitt to start.

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @Undisciplined 23 Feb

I have no end of recommendations, depending on your interests, but those are the two books I'd recommend to anyone.

Also, Human Action is a monster, so you could probably count it as about half-a-dozen normal books.

1336 sats \ 3 replies \ @Atreus 23 Feb

flex 🙌

📕 The Works and Days, Hesiod. Rothbard called him the first economist for his discussion of scarcity and description of the “good war” that is work.
📕 Republic and Laws, Plato. Not so much for the economic advice, but so you realize Plato is one of the original shitcoiners pushing a fiat token, and how much of the “other side” is influenced by his thought.
📕 Politics, Aristotle. An advanced economics treatise? Not really, but it helps you realize the foundational economic system was, still is, and will always be the household. Also, I love the insight that men are greedy because they forget the difference between money and wealth.
📕 De Moneta, Nicole Oresme. Control of the mint by princes is immoral.
📕 The Way to Wealth, Ben Franklin. Delightful aphorisms about the value of work and HODLing.
📕 A History of Money and Banking in the United States, Rothbard. That moment when you realize the Washington Administration in the 1790s was fighting about today's events. 😬
📕 The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith. What we erroneously call “capitalism” today is a joke compared to this.
📕 The Road to Serfdom, Friedrich Hayek. He's an honorary Bitcoiner for both predicting the current crisis and its only solution.
📕 Human Action, Mises. Practically a foundational text for us.

I could keep going to be honest, but I'm in a bit of a Taoist mood today so I'll leave off at 9.

20 sats \ 1 reply \ @TomK 23 Feb

Very good. You could add some stuff of Hans-Hermann Hoppe.

And I like that You've left the keynesian macro bs where it belongs: in the toilet

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @Atreus 23 Feb

Oh indeed…

20 sats \ 0 replies \ @ablunderfilledlife OP 23 Feb

The Tao Te Ching is an annual revisit for me.

Plato and Aristotle are already checked off. Wealth of Nations is what I imagine as THE book on economics, but Human Action has 2 mentions now, so I might have to update that assumption.

Thank you!

517 sats \ 1 reply \ @kr 23 Feb

gotta give the book ‘Principles of Economics’ a shout out here

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @ablunderfilledlife OP 23 Feb

Thanks!

21 sats \ 1 reply \ @KeynesianClowns 23 Feb

I'd recommend checking out the Mises Institute online as a good starting point. Someone else has mentioned "Economics in One Lesson" by Hazlitt, and I think they'll mail you that one for free. You can also get fundamental treatises like "Man, Economy, and State" by Rothbard and "Human Action" by Mises for like $25. Anyways, once you've finished these wherever you get them from, you probably will have a solid enough grasp of Austrian Economics (the only one based on logic and reason rather than econometrics) to know where you want to study next.

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @ablunderfilledlife OP 23 Feb

Thank you! As of last night, I started Economics in One Lesson. I think I'll be posting reflections on it as I read, both to help the material sink in and to gleam SN insights.

I posted on Part I of that book this morning.

Man, Economy, and State might be a nice intermission since I understand that Human Action is a bit of a tome.

21 sats \ 1 reply \ @Voldemort 23 Feb

Podcast: Econtalk. it is excellent and has been around since 2007. The topics you can find on there are endless.

Some topics: If someone wants to truly think like an economist they have to possess a strong grasp on counterfactuals, marginal value/marginal cost (or marginal thinking), opportunity costs, and causality. I am sure I am missing some, but I use these everyday in my life and career.

I think it would be valuable to read some perspectives of economic history.

Incentives are important to think about.

bonus topic: google Game theory for applied economists. If you want to buy it and try to go through it, that would be a good challenge. Otherwise, just look up the games covered in the contents (e.g., cheap talk games, two stage games of of perfect but incomplete information) and try to find explanations of them. I find thinking like a game theorist is the next level that "amateur" economists don't often get to. I only say amateur to distinguish from those who studied it formally or it is their career. There are a lot of excellent amateur economists so it is not meant to be a negative.

Authors: John Taylor, Milton Friedman, Thomas Sowell all have very good books.

I second economics in one lesson. As a comparison to chess, I feel like that book will take you from moving aimlessly around the board to having some tactics and you will start winning a lot more games.

Personally, I would not spend my time reading human action, but it really depends on your goals.

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @ablunderfilledlife OP 23 Feb

Thank you so much for the outline of concepts I should hone in on during this journey.

I would love to be able to think like an economist, much like I would like to think like an engineer and poet-warrior.

The first goal is enrichment, to be able to see the world around me more vividly and to understand it. The second goal is decision-making. Backed with a strong framework about using resources when they are scare, I hope to get better at making smart decisions for my family.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @cryotosensei 23 Feb

I can’t be the only Stacker who enjoys reading Freakonomics and Super Freakonomics. https://freakonomics.com/books/