Tyler Cowen: recommendation

Transcript context

…So if you’re thinking about what work to fund in terms of studying historical progress, what’s your framework for figuring out where to even begin studying? Because I mean, what you’re talking about here is basically studying the economic and scientific result of immigration, which is obviously a massively socially important debate that’s at the center of a lot of political debates and has been for a long time. So from one perspective, it’s surprising that it wouldn’t have been studied in more detail to understand the impact of it. But that’s very different from the biomedical science-type stuff that we were talking about a second ago. Do you have a framework in your head for how would think about or prioritize study in different areas, or is it mostly just about finding really sharp people who have new ideas and funding them to do different kinds or work? How do you think about that overall? People who are curious. People who have bold ambitions. People who have what I call stamina — they just don’t even stop. People who are working in productive small groups that maybe through WhatsApp, in fact, or it could be their next door neighbors, their colleagues at a university. When those, say, four items come together, then I think you have possibly what is a very good funding decision, and I would take a lot of chances on those people, not worry too much about the micromanaging, and let talent rip and let groups form and see what happens. Got it. So it’s very much like entrepreneurship in that way. You’re betting on the person more than the idea —…

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