Neurodiversity

Here is a discussion of Tyler Cowen's new book Create Your Own Economy: The Path to Prosperity in a Disordered World.



I find this interesting for a number of reasons:

• These two individuals, Tyler Cowen and Will Wilkerson, are libertarians. Generally I dislike that movement, but I find these two individuals to be interesting and not as dogmatic as many in that camp. My politics is sympathetic in that I too value individualism, but we diverge in that most libertarians have no social conscience whereas I feel that we are embedded in a society which nurtures us and demands reciprocity. My views align better with this as an ideal, but my pragmatic side says this is unrealistic and therefore we need political institutions to harness us to structures that temper the immoderate aspects of self, clans, cults, and partisanship.


• In the context of discussing neurodiversity they both reveal their own neurodiversity, i.e. their ideosyncratic "cognitive profiles". Wilkerson admits to ADHD. Tyler Cowen admits to traits similar to a cognitive profile of Autistic Spectrum Disorder but claims he does not suffer from this. My guess, based on watching his interactions, is that he in fact has some form of Asperger's Syndrome. He, of course, denies this.


• I found Cowen references to Michelle Dawson interesting and the discussion of "depressive realism" which is 15:00 minutes into the video to be interesting.


• I found the discussion of "stories" at 43:00 minutes into this video to be very important, i.e. we follow politics as "stories" (good guy vs. bad guy) rather than a complex policy decision with a set of complex elements interacting.


• The mention of David Hume by Tyler Cowen caught my attention. It made me note, yet again, that I should go and re-read Hume!

On the whole, I found this to be an interesting dialog.

I love the Internet. It makes great minds accessible. I see the era we are living through as the equivalent to 1450. That was the move from an era of expensive manuscripts to relatively cheap printed books that allowed the level of literacy and education to rise. We are now in an era where the Internet means access to ideas is no longer restricted to wealth, universities, and large libraries. With Google you can find many things. With YouTube you can virtually attend lectures by leading academics. Through blogs you can watch or participate in a level of discourse limited to social elites in previous centuries.