In Praise of Blindspots
“In equilibrium systems, everything adds up nicely and linearly. It is trivial to generalize to many agents; this simply corresponds to connecting more glasses of water. The effect on the water level from adding several drops of water is proportional to the number of drops. One does not have to think about the individual drops. In physics, we refer
... See moreSacha Meyers • Bitcoin Is Venice: Essays on the Past and Future of Capitalism
The Single Perspective Instinct We find simple ideas very attractive. We enjoy that moment of insight, we enjoy feeling we really understand or know something. And it is easy to take off down a slippery slope, from one attention-grabbing simple idea to a feeling that this idea beautifully explains, or is the beautiful solution for, lots of other th... See more
Hans Rosling • Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World--and Why Things Are Better Than You Think
The claims of monetarists, and especially of the “rational expectations” theorists, that government is helpless to influence employment levels by using the standard Keynesian tools of monetary and fiscal policy and that attempts to reduce unemployment can only cause inflation, are based on the assumption that public responses to these measures will
... See moreHerbert A. Simon • The Sciences of the Artificial
“toy” models of economies—simple models that are so abstract they bear little resemblance to reality.