Tyler Cowen: belief

Transcript context

…Mostly they don’t read them. Certainly, podcasts have substituted for books. On some level, there’s a cynicism, where it’s a signaling thing. You’re just trying to show a certain intellectual level of sophistication. But there’s also a level of thinking on the margin with some of this stuff. If I can listen to a podcast interview with the author and get 80 percent or 90 percent of the insight, why would I read the book? Similarly, if I can sit down with the tutor for an hour or two, can I get a level of insight that’s sufficient? It’s not just cocktail party fodder. I get the learning I need to. I’m fine with that competition. Most authors are running away from it. I think we should run toward it and embrace it. If you have to figure out, “This is actually my comparative advantage,” it’s fantastic to know that. Most authors never know that. When you read nonfiction books, you can read very fast, but you also read really efficiently. You can skip parts of the book that you’re like, “I know this.”…

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