Tyler Cowen on talent & ambition
Cowen sees talent as a scarce bundle of traits (determination, many strong qualities and one exceptional one) rather than raw IQ, with capital abundant and talent under-found. Ambition is sharpened by a lack of cushions and dulled by prizes, durability over decades is underrated, and truly new ideas will stay rare and richly rewarded even in an AI world. He values founders for their courage, sees rising variance among the young, and gives nearly everyone the same advice: find better mentors and build a small peer group that talks every day.
15 points · 8 appearances · 2019–2026
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2024–2026 · changed view
“Yeah, that's what I think it will be like again. Great stagnation is over. We'll go back to those earlier rates of change, transform a lot of the world, mostly a big positive. A lot of chaos disrupted institutions along the way. That's my prediction.”
2019–2026 · changed view
“Absolutely. Yeah, and here that is either acceptable or even admired, or to be a loner. And since so many people are outsiders and that we're all immigrants, is selecting for people who left something behind, we're willing to leave behind their families, we're willing to undergo a certain brutality of switch in their lives, makes us a nation of weirdos. And weirdos are creative. Yeah, and Denmark is not a nation of weirdos. It's a wonderful place, you know, great for them. Ideally you want part of the world to be fully weirdos and innovating, and the other part of the world to be a little kind of chicken, risk-averse, and enjoy the benefits of the innovation, and to give people these smooth lives and six weeks off and free ride. And everyone's like, oh, American way versus European way, but basically they're complements.”
2019–2026 · changed view
“I don't think economics will ever be very predictive. It's most useful for helping you ask better questions. You look at something like game theory: well, game theory never predicted USA and USSR would have a war, would not have a war, but trying to think through the logic of strategic conflict, if you know game theory, it's just a much more interesting discussion.”
2019–2026 · changed view
“My basic rule is to read as much as possible. A lot of books are sent to my house, so I order on Amazon. On a weekday I might get five to ten review copies, and I look at each and every one, and I read some of those. I love to reread classics. The earlier parts of my life, I spent a much higher percentage of my reading reading the kinds of books that would be in the back section of Harold Bloom's The Western Canon. Most of those I've read, say, two to five times. And then I read what my friends write. I spend a great amount of time on Twitter, and I love to print out, say, economics working papers and read those. And then I take books on trips. I'm about to take a trip, and I just keep on reading, basically.”