Paul Krugman: belief

Transcript context

…Let’s say a very smart 20-year-old came to you and said, “I want to be the next Paul Krugman,” and they meant as a public intellectual, not as a research economist. What advice would you give them? The truth is I have no idea. I would say, maybe, that it’s just be interested in a lot of things, but when you find something that really grabs your attention, work at it seriously. Figure stuff out. Curiosity, as opposed to intellectual complacency, is the big thing. If you don’t feel that the explanations you’re being given of something — whether it’s international trade patterns or the Japanese slump or something — if you don’t feel that the explanations quite hold together, then worry at it. Try to find something. Scratch that itch. Don’t let it go away. Whether that will turn out to do what you want it to do, I don’t know. For a budding research economist, would it, in fact, be the exact same advice?…

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