What if You Learned as an Economist That Would Help You Get Home?

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If you were dropped into a small village in a foreign country without ID and you didn't speak the language, what if you learned as an economist that would help you get home? There must be something. I suggest the Langstroth Beehive was invented in about 1850. It's an enormously important technology in the domestication of bees. And yet it's fairly straightforward to make and to explain to people how it works or why it works. So that would have been my answer.

To Tim Harford, mistakes are fascinating. “We often only understand how something works when it breaks,” he says, explaining why there’s such an emphasis on errors throughout his work. They also tend to make great stories, which can stoke the curiosity necessary to change minds. A former persuasive speaking champion, he was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire “for services to improving economic understanding,” which he’s achieved through appearances on the BBC, columns for the Financial Times, several TED Talks and books, and now his latest podcast series Cautionary Tales.

Tim joined Tyler to discuss the role of popular economics in a politicized world, the puzzling polarization behind Brexit, why good feedback is necessary (and rare), the limits of fact-checking, the “tremendously British” encouragement he received from Prince Charles, playing poker with Steve Levitt, messiness in music, the underrated aspect of formal debate, whether introverts are better at public speaking, the three things he can’t live without, and more.

Note: This conversation was recorded in November 2019 and thus took place before the UK’s general election in December, which secured Boris Johnson a Conservative majority and ensured the passage of his Brexit deal in January 2020.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.

Recorded November 11th, 2019 Other ways to connect

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