Tyler Cowen is a curator of talent • Hacker News Board

Re: Tyler Cowen is a curator of talent

#31

Post by coyotespike » Wed, Sep 01, 2021, 5:04 PM UTC

gooseyard wrote: post #5

skystarman wrote: post #3

Cowen is a unique talent in the world. One of the most smartest people you'll ever read or speak to. It seems he has at least a modest understanding of important topics in almost any field you can mention, and an impressive mastery in a few dozen. From Brutalist architecture, tennis to Latin American art. He talks and writes about politics, but rarely if ever is dogmatic or partisan. Has no problem admitting he was w…

I first learned about him when I moved to DC and discovered Tyler Cowen's Ethnic Dining Guide ( https://tylercowensethnicdiningguide.com/ ) which had my family and I traveling all over the DC metro area trying some of the cool picks from the list. I am amazed that he has time to keep it up given all the other stuff he's up to, but I think that sort of sums up his nature :)

Yes! When I travel anywhere, I look to see if Tyler Cowen has been there first - he has recommendations for what to see, how to see it, and what to eat.

Re: Tyler Cowen is a curator of talent

#32

Post by webmaven » Wed, Sep 01, 2021, 5:05 PM UTC

shafyy wrote: post #10

I'm a grantee of Tyler's Emergent Ventures program (I was in batch 2) and I have to say that I was impressed by the people I met during the Emergent Ventures unconference (there was one two years ago and there will be another one this November). I really felt out of place, since everyone else seemed so much more accomplished and smart.

> I really felt out of place, since everyone else seemed so much more accomplished and smart.

If you're the smartest person in the room, you're in the wrong room.

Re: Tyler Cowen is a curator of talent

#33

Post by paulpauper » Wed, Sep 01, 2021, 5:05 PM UTC

skystarman wrote: post #3

Cowen is a unique talent in the world. One of the most smartest people you'll ever read or speak to. It seems he has at least a modest understanding of important topics in almost any field you can mention, and an impressive mastery in a few dozen. From Brutalist architecture, tennis to Latin American art. He talks and writes about politics, but rarely if ever is dogmatic or partisan. Has no problem admitting he was w…

He changed his mind regarding stagnation. The ability to change one's mind is something that seems to be lost these days.

Re: Tyler Cowen is a curator of talent

#34

Post by spoonjim » Wed, Sep 01, 2021, 5:05 PM UTC

majormajor wrote: post #21

carnitine wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not hard to verify in some weird vacuum where completely pointless albeit simple sounding things are done to validate random conjectures, yes.

If I was a person trying to find talented people with potential to do great things, and I cared about the quality of my selection process, I think doing things like that would be extremely necessary. You can't improve what you can't measure. But is the goal of these sorts of things often actually to select the best?

What’s in it for him? Wouldn’t he be even happier to be actually helping his companies succeed rather than just picking them? If he finds 2N great companies, you’re asking him to pass up half of the money he could make... to prove... that he doesn’t actually benefit the companies that he invests in, and only selects them?

Re: Tyler Cowen is a curator of talent

#35

Post by karaterobot » Wed, Sep 01, 2021, 5:07 PM UTC

calcsam wrote: post #15

It's also worth noting that Tyler is an uncommonly good interviewer, largely because he asks very good, and unique, questions (see https://conversationswithtyler.com/ ). I suspect these two skills are related.

Agreed, and he asks unique questions not only because he's got an unusual turn of mind, but because he does (or seems to do) an enormous amount of prep work for each interview. Some of my favorite moments on that show are when he asks a subject something related to an old blog post they wrote on a personal topic, or a paper they contributed to as a grad student, and they're like "wait, you know about that?"

Re: Tyler Cowen is a curator of talent

#36

Post by majormajor » Wed, Sep 01, 2021, 5:09 PM UTC

spoonjim wrote: post #34

majormajor wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I was a person trying to find talented people with potential to do great things, and I cared about the quality of my selection process, I think doing things like that would be extremely necessary. You can't improve what you can't measure. But is the goal of these sorts of things often actually to select the best?

What’s in it for him? Wouldn’t he be even happier to be actually helping his companies succeed rather than just picking them? If he finds 2N great companies, you’re asking him to pass up half of the money he could make... to prove... that he doesn’t actually benefit the companies that he invests in, and only selects them?

The goal is certainly the reverse: get the full return, and demonstrate that it's not just your name and address book that are helping.

And yes, this requires you to be very self-reflecting and open to the possibility of being wrong, but is it truly so hard to imagine that someone would rather know than not know?

Re: Tyler Cowen is a curator of talent

#37

Post by kqr » Wed, Sep 01, 2021, 5:13 PM UTC

keiferski wrote: post #14

The section on art collecting highlights the limitations of an economics-based approach to defining "talent." Cowen is an economist and this colors his entire approach. “You learn about other cultures, you learn different points of view by refining your eye and you develop a skill that is extremely useful for judging other things and cracking cultural codes in other settings. It’s an education in market economics - a…

> there is very little connection between "aesthetic value" and "market value."

Wait, so how do you determine this "aesthetic value" if not by how much people are willing to work to acquire it?

Your personal opinion? Some authority figure? Maths?

Re: Tyler Cowen is a curator of talent

#38

Post by spoonjim » Wed, Sep 01, 2021, 5:16 PM UTC

majormajor wrote: post #36

spoonjim wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What’s in it for him? Wouldn’t he be even happier to be actually helping his companies succeed rather than just picking them? If he finds 2N great companies, you’re asking him to pass up half of the money he could make... to prove... that he doesn’t actually benefit the companies that he invests in, and only selects them?

The goal is certainly the reverse: get the full return, and demonstrate that it's not just your name and address book that are helping. And yes, this requires you to be very self-reflecting and open to the possibility of being wrong, but is it truly so hard to imagine that someone would rather know than not know?

But why is it better (for him, for anyone) for his success to come from one avenue than another? If he knows "companies I invest in tend to succeed," it's hard to see why he would skip over a great company, possibly allowing them to fail. It might even be considered unethical if that company produces something useful to the world.

Re: Tyler Cowen is a curator of talent

#39

Post by keiferski » Wed, Sep 01, 2021, 5:20 PM UTC

kqr wrote: post #37

keiferski wrote: post #14

The section on art collecting highlights the limitations of an economics-based approach to defining "talent." Cowen is an economist and this colors his entire approach. “You learn about other cultures, you learn different points of view by refining your eye and you develop a skill that is extremely useful for judging other things and cracking cultural codes in other settings. It’s an education in market economics - a…

> there is very little connection between "aesthetic value" and "market value." Wait, so how do you determine this "aesthetic value" if not by how much people are willing to work to acquire it? Your personal opinion? Some authority figure? Maths?

Philosophers, artists, and other thinkers have written about aesthetics for thousands of years.

Truly answering your question would take a long time, but a short version might be something like: the collective opinions of a diverse group of highly informed and experienced (not necessarily educated as in a university) individuals. But that's just one approach and there are many others.

Even then, anything is probably superior to using monetary value as equivalent to anything other than what the market currently prices it as. I certainly don't think the most expensive painting is the most beautiful one, although it may be not be totally uncorrelated.

If you're interested in these kinds of questions, definitely look into the philosophical field of aesthetics.

Re: Tyler Cowen is a curator of talent

#40

Post by adlorger » Wed, Sep 01, 2021, 5:23 PM UTC

legitster wrote: post #13

Cowen is truly unique. He's one of the only "public intellectuals" who has replied to my random emails on multiple occasions. Everyone should listen to some episodes of Conversations with Tyler. I normally hate interview podcasts, but it is bar none the best one out there. It doesn't matter the topic - the questions he is able to hit his subjects with are amazing, nothing at all like how most interviews go.

I have on occasion reached out to public intellectuals for personal advice and wisdom over the years. Unique among everyone, he's been invariably wise and generous with me (a total stranger). He also writes back almost immediately.

The only people online who have a similarly thoughtful and generous spirit, in my direct experience, is Russ Roberts and Scott Alexander.

Prob reveals a lot about the media I consume (and my demo profile) but I am definitely open to others if there are more like these three out there.