Books/Authors I like-and why biology and economics are difficult
I live off three books/authors when it comes to biology and economics.
Adam Smith's "The Wealth of Nations"
Charles Darwin's "The Origin of Species"
and Nassim Taleb in "The Black Swan" and "Fooled by Randomness".
What's the connection between biology and economics?
Both deal with life, living species.
That's why they are harder that physical sciences-Physics, Chemistry, Engineering.
As long as we deal with inanimate objects are have great laws of motion, of thermodynamics, of Quantum Mech and of Relativity-to make us really understand mother nature and use that knowledge to our advantage.
Biology is difficult-because it deals with life. But we are progressing. And economics deals with behavior of humans-living objects-making it much "harder" than Thermodynamics or Quantum Mechanics.
But with all these problems-Adam Smith and Darwin stand out. They have a lot of empirically provable stuff to say in The Wealth and The Origin.
Unfortunately most other authors I have read make lots of errors-especially in economics. They are not scientists.
That's where Taleb comes in. He tells you to not revere the suits and the ties, the high positions (the apprenticeships-in Smith's language). That most people don't understand much-that we tell elegant stories, but they are unscientific, unempirical, unprovable. They are very logical-but that is not enough (the earth is flat is a logical statement for all humans-but it is false).
Taleb gives us courage to stand up against the false knowledge in humans. He is often right-in questioning the validity of all this apparent knowledge around us.
Taleb's website is here.
The Wealth of Nations and The Origin of Species are 10 dollar books on Amazon.com. Taleb's are pretty cheap too. Pure knowledge is quite inexpensive!
Sanjay
Adam Smith's "The Wealth of Nations"
Charles Darwin's "The Origin of Species"
and Nassim Taleb in "The Black Swan" and "Fooled by Randomness".
What's the connection between biology and economics?
Both deal with life, living species.
That's why they are harder that physical sciences-Physics, Chemistry, Engineering.
As long as we deal with inanimate objects are have great laws of motion, of thermodynamics, of Quantum Mech and of Relativity-to make us really understand mother nature and use that knowledge to our advantage.
Biology is difficult-because it deals with life. But we are progressing. And economics deals with behavior of humans-living objects-making it much "harder" than Thermodynamics or Quantum Mechanics.
But with all these problems-Adam Smith and Darwin stand out. They have a lot of empirically provable stuff to say in The Wealth and The Origin.
Unfortunately most other authors I have read make lots of errors-especially in economics. They are not scientists.
That's where Taleb comes in. He tells you to not revere the suits and the ties, the high positions (the apprenticeships-in Smith's language). That most people don't understand much-that we tell elegant stories, but they are unscientific, unempirical, unprovable. They are very logical-but that is not enough (the earth is flat is a logical statement for all humans-but it is false).
Taleb gives us courage to stand up against the false knowledge in humans. He is often right-in questioning the validity of all this apparent knowledge around us.
Taleb's website is here.
The Wealth of Nations and The Origin of Species are 10 dollar books on Amazon.com. Taleb's are pretty cheap too. Pure knowledge is quite inexpensive!
Sanjay
Labels: adam smith, darwin, general commentary
posted by Sanjay "John" Gandhi at 7:57 PM
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