The Cost of Signalling Is Not That High

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If the speed of learning is very quick, let's say you know in three months how good a worker is. It seems implausible that you would need 12 plus years of schooling to learn the same thing. Or am i wrongyeyou're wrong? Son: A lot of what people are signalling is just, they're signalling to get opportunities. They're signalling geti time to talk to the employer and convince them that they are worthy.

"No single paper is that good", says Bryan Caplan. To really understand a topic, you need to read the entire literature in the field. And to do the kind of scholarship Bryan's work requires, you need to cover multiple fields. Only that way can you assemble a wide variety of evidence into useful knowledge.

But few scholars ever even try to reach the enlightened interdisciplinary plane. So how does he do it?

Tyler explores Bryan's approach, including how to avoid the autodidact's curse, why his favorite philosopher happens to be a former classmate, what Tolstoy has that science fiction lacks, the idea trap, most useful wrong beliefs, effective altruism, Larry David, what most economics papers miss about the return to education, and more.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.

Recorded April 17th, 2018 Other ways to connect

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