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The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish

#39 Tyler Cowen: Thinking About Thinking

The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish

Farnam Street

Business, Investing, Entrepreneurship

4.72.9K Ratings

🗓️ 21 August 2018

⏱️ 57 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

There are only a handful of websites that I read religiously. One of those is MarginalRevolution.com, started by my next guest, Tyler Cowen.

Other than hosting one of the most popular economic blogs in the world, Tyler is also an economics professor at George Mason University, a regular New York Times columnist, and the author of over a dozen books, including Average is Over, and The Complacent Class.

With such a prolific guest, it’s no wonder that we cover a lot of ground. In this episode, we discuss:

  • How the future of labor will look drastically different than it does today, and what we can do to future-proof our livelihood
  • The pros and cons of virtual reality and the impact it could have on society
  • The fate of newspapers and how information will be more and more “bundled” according to our tastes and preferences
  • Race relations in the world, and how in many ways we’ve taken discouraging steps backwards
  • How we’re losing touch with the physical world, and some of the symptoms that indicate that we could be in for a rough ride
  • What Tyler suggests doing to improve decision making and how important (and rare) that skill will be in the coming years
  • Tyler’s advice to parents about how to foster resilience, tenacity and internal drive in their children
  • Tyler’s “quake books” and the reading process he’s developed over the years that keeps him sharp
  • Why giving books as gifts can be dangerous
  • The one skill every person should possess before Googling anything
  • What playing competitive chess as a child taught Tyler about how he thinks and views the world today

And much more, including Tyler’s thoughts on minimum wage, bitcoin, and his favorite television programs.

If you want to upgrade your thinking so you’re prepared for the brave new world that’s rapidly developing before our eyes, you won’t want to miss this fascinating episode.

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Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

I don't know anyone who thinks well.

0:07.0

Hello and welcome.

0:12.5

I'm Shane Parish and this is another episode of The Knowledge Project, a show exploring ideas,

0:17.9

methods and mental models that will help you expand your mind, live deliberately and master

0:23.1

the best of what other people have already figured out.

0:25.9

You can learn more at fs.blog slash podcast.

0:29.9

My guest today is economist in New York Times best-selling author Tyler Cohen.

0:34.4

His blog marginalrevolution.com is one of the most red economics blogs in the world and

0:40.2

the one I regularly visit for knowledge and insight.

0:43.4

In this conversation we talk about how average is over, how technology is helping and hurting

0:48.0

us, virtual tourism, the future of newspapers, how we're becoming more complacent and so

0:53.8

much more.

0:54.8

I hope you enjoy this as much as I did.

1:04.0

Before we get started, here's a quick word from our sponsor.

1:08.0

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1:10.1

For a decade, Metal Lab has helped some of the world's top companies and entrepreneurs

1:13.9

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1:17.0

You probably didn't realize it at the time, but odds are you've used an app that they've

1:20.9

helped design or build.

1:22.8

Apps like Slack, Coinbase.

1:24.8

Facebook Messenger, Oculus, Lonely Planet and so many more.

1:29.4

Metal Lab wants to bring the unique design philosophy to your project.

...

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