“Create Your Own Economy” has arrived and I cracked it open immediately. As expected, it is engaging, creative and every page makes you think differently about the world. I have read one chapter and can’t wait to read the rest.
However, the book quickly surprised me. I read Tyler every day and didn’t anticipate the turn it took on page one. It was so surprising - and the surprise is a pleasant one - that I don’t feel I should say more. Except: Recommended.
Tyler and Alex have a set of textbooks out (or nearly so).
Tyler’s “Create Your Own Economy“:
1. The Future of Thinking Differently
2. Hidden Creativity
3. Why Modern Culture is Like Marriage, in all its Glory
4. IM, Cell Phones, and Facebook [this chapter discusses Twitter as well]
5. The Buddha as Savior and the Professor as Shaman
6. The New Economy of Stories
7. Heroes
8. Beauty isn’t What You Think
9. Autistic Politics
10. The Future of the Universe
Amit Varma’s “My Friend Sancho”
James Tooley’s “The Beautiful Tree”
David Kilcullen’s “The Accidental Guerilla”
Various reasons why I haven’t read any of them yet, most notably Loren Graham’s “The Ghost of the Executed Engineer“.
A review of Parentonomics: An Economist Dad Looks at Parenting, By Joshua Gans
What happens when Mr Spock meets Dr Spock? The answer is Parentonomics, an autobiographical account of how an economist used his professional training in game theory to bring up his three children.
Joshua Gans describes his experiences in the labour wards, changing nappies and dealing with tantrums, spousal absences and sibling rivalry – all the while explaining what he did or did not do, the economic principles involved, and whether any of it worked as a parenting strategy.
The obvious question is whether this is supposed to be good advice or some kind of joke… (Continued)
FT colleague watch: The award-winning-Gillian-Tett’s “Fool’s Gold” and Alan Beattie’s “False Economy” (reviewed here by Bill Easterly) - neither of them have given me a free copy yet. Cheek…
Dan Ariely’s “Predictably Irrational”, which I liked a lot, is being expanded to cover the credit crunch. I have the new chapters, haven’t read them yet - will soon.
Stefan Szymanski and Simon Kuper have a book coming in a few months called “Why England Lose”.
Also, I have just been tipped off about an exciting new book, but can’t say anything yet. Well, maybe just a hint.
Stefan Szymanski, Playbooks and Checkbooks. I’ve blurbed this as “a deft mix of sports, history and accessible economic ideas”.
David Gardner, Last Chance. David is chief leader writer for the FT so I get to enjoy his incisive expertise on the middle east on a daily basis. The book is going to be excellent, I’m quite sure.
Africa’s Turn, by Edward Miguel and others. Thought-provoking optimism on Africa, but I prefered Economic Gangsters.
Thomas Ricks, The Gamble. I’m learning a lot from this, and it is enviably well-reported.
One of the least important but most enjoyable pieces of research reported in “The Logic of Life”, now available on video.
Further reading here.
I never realised how topical “Why Your Boss is Overpaid” was going to become when I wrote the chapter. Now I’ve made a video about one of the ideas.
Further reading here.
I’ve been wanting to make a video explaining Thomas Schelling’s model of racial segregation for a long time. Here it is!
More about Thomas Schelling here in my “Lunch with the FT” piece shortly after he won the Nobel prize.
A little bird tells me that the paperback of The Logic of Life is now on the front table in Borders in the UK. Official publication date is Thursday 5th March, but don’t feel you have to wait! Do please consider buying a copy.
Price-sensitive lovers of economics books may want to know that the paperback of “The Logic of Life” is now out in the US. (In the UK, one more month to wait.) You can buy it here; you can read discerning reviews from the New York Times, the Economist, and many others here - people of taste, all.
The book has been interpreted as the antithesis of Nudge or Predictably Irrational, an anti-behavioural-economics book, but it isn’t really that. It’s really a product of my love affair with economics, showing how it can usefully be applied to crime, marriage, poker and much else. Thumbing through the pages of the paperback reminds me how much I loved writing the book, so I’m glad that the collected book reviewers of America enjoyed reading it.
Tim writes about the economics of everyday life. His weekly columns for the FT Magazine are: "The Undercover Economist" and "Dear Economist". He also writes editorials for the FT, presents Radio 4's More or Less and is the author
of "The Undercover Economist" and "The Logic of Life" . To learn more, visit: timharford.com
Selected FT blog posts
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