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Tyler Cowen is a curator of talent

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Re: Tyler Cowen is a curator of talent

#51
What a sensational title, it's so tech-focused and the article fetishizes smartness in a bizarre way.

There are talent curators in every single field, for instance from baseball, this reminds me of those old advisors in the movie Moneyball, who look at how people seem to be rather than using actual evidence of prior performance. Where is the quantification of TC's magical power? It's narrative, not numbers. The article doesn't address his failure rate or the bias of these selected stars getting a huge boost from a rich established individual.

Skepticism aside, I think we'd do well as a society to pull 18 year olds with a lot of promise out of college and directly into ventures for a year or two. They can always go back if they need to, but I question the wisdom of putting our best youth into a college system where their efforts are entirely hoop-jumping, self-promotional classes that contribute to a GPA but to no one else. We're effectively squandering their apprenticeship on grade values, not on projects or useful deliverables.

Re: Tyler Cowen is a curator of talent

#53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It may be a mistake focusing on " Cowen is an economist. " He does happen to be one, but everyone is something . This may mean that he's applying a economist's mindset, like an engineer might apply an engineering mindset... but either might be besides the point. More about choice of method and language than substance.

I only brought it up because the author mentions the humanities as being critically important to Cowen's analysis method. Yet I think his approach is fundamentally still economic in nature, likely because of Cowen's economist background. Tyler calls his study of the humanities “cracking cultural codes,” and he highlights this as the most “importantly novel” activity he practices.

Sure. I don't disagree.

I'm suggesting that this may be besides the point. I don't really know, but I suspect that while being an economist lends a lot of form, it might not be all that important to substance... or less important than other things, even though it's highly visible.

For example, Tyler will try to quantify desires with money. How much would you have to pay me to do this, or how much would I pay to do it. That's a very economist-ey quirk, but I'm not sure it changes outcomes as much as it might seem.

Re: art, I think the identity points that matter is that Tyler isn't an artist. What he is isn't necessarily all that important. He's a pretty weird guy, and a lot of his instincts are probably more artist-like than economist-like anyway.

Re: Tyler Cowen is a curator of talent

#54
One can argue that Dr. Jim Simons is the best curator of talent. Look at Quanta Magazine or Renaissance Technologies. Both places have exceptional people, and constantly produce good results. Rentech has beat the market for the past 30 years. Quanta Magazine has published many good articles that has been on HN's front page and have mentioned in Wired Magazine etc.

Re: Tyler Cowen is a curator of talent

#55

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."

Art appreciation extends beyond mere aesthetic value. For example we are able to create pottery that is far more aesthetically pleasing than ancient times. Yet a rare, archeological pot is probably going to fetch far more value than a piece from your neighborhood artist who probably has far more knowledge about pottery than his ancient equivalent.

Re: Tyler Cowen is a curator of talent

#56
post #42
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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?

At the very least we can recognize that "market value" and "aesthetic value" are two different things. The only thing you are really measuring when looking at the economics of art is the "market value" so the other thing you have to pass over in silence, as Wittgenstein would say. The art world is notorious for being a tax avoidance scheme, on top of money laundering and all sorts of other related activities. Tying m…

> Tying market value and aesthetic value in the art world makes about as much sense as introducing the concept of "aesthetic value" when talking about Apple's stock price.

What about introducing it when talking about GameStop's stock price?

Re: Tyler Cowen is a curator of talent

#57
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 .

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

Believing this would quickly kill every room as the people inside leave.

Re: Tyler Cowen is a curator of talent

#58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 .

> If you're the smartest person in the room, you're in the wrong room. Believing this would quickly kill every room as the people inside leave.

A better way of getting the point across is “spend time with people who can help you grow”. And since no human is the best at everything, two people can both help each other grow.

Re: Tyler Cowen is a curator of talent

#59

What a sensational title, it's so tech-focused and the article fetishizes smartness in a bizarre way. There are talent curators in every single field, for instance from baseball, this reminds me of those old advisors in the movie Moneyball, who look at how people seem to be rather than using actual evidence of prior performance. Where is the quantification of TC's magical power? It's narrative, not numbers. The artic…

Imagine thinking someone's formative years should be spent on "useful deliverables."

Re: Tyler Cowen is a curator of talent

#60
post #54

One can argue that Dr. Jim Simons is the best curator of talent. Look at Quanta Magazine or Renaissance Technologies. Both places have exceptional people, and constantly produce good results. Rentech has beat the market for the past 30 years. Quanta Magazine has published many good articles that has been on HN's front page and have mentioned in Wired Magazine etc.

Best is subjective.
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