Tyler Cowen: Economic Growth & the Fight Against Conformity & Mediocrity | Lex Fridman Podcast #174

Tyler Cowen and Lex Fridman cover an enormous range of economics and culture, starting with whether economics is art, science, or magic and the long-run odds that weapons of mass destruction eventually cause catastrophe. They explore the American dream, why the US is a 'nation of weirdos' that rewards creativity, the pros and cons of capitalism, communism's failures in the Soviet system, and the structural problems holding Russia and China back. Cowen makes the case for big business as an American hero, especially during the pandemic, and weighs in skeptically on crypto out-competing fiat currency. The conversation closes with art, food (a deep dive on Mexican cuisine in Hermosillo), mentorship advice, love, and mortality.

• Cowen predicts weapons of mass destruction will eventually be used, giving civilization at best seven or eight hundred years as a generous estimate.
  00:04:08
• He notes the highest-earning groups in America today are immigrants from India and Iran, calling it proof the American dream is mostly still alive.
  00:11:23
• Cowen argues America is 'a better country in which to be a weirdo' than Germany or Denmark, and that weirdos drive creativity.
  00:20:14
• He claims the secret to Ayn Rand is that she was deeply Russian, and her real philosophy lives in her fiction, not in 'existence exists'.
  00:31:39
• After writing The Great Stagnation, Cowen has turned much more optimistic, citing mRNA vaccines, green energy, batteries, and CRISPR breakthroughs.
  00:46:39
• He says there is no good theory of bitcoin's value and bets against crypto becoming a main transactional currency, calling himself 40-60 pessimistic.
  01:13:13
• Cowen names Michelangelo's Pieta and David as the two greatest artworks, with Vermeer's The Art of Painting his historical favorite painting.
  01:42:14
• He says the worst thing about death is not knowing how the full human story turns out.
  02:06:25

• Cowen argues bureaucracy actually selects against pure evil because you need to build alliances to gain power.
  00:08:16
• He attributes US scientific dominance partly to being most comfortable with inegalitarian rewards and low taxes that let rich people live well.
  00:16:35
• Nobel Prize winners tend to become less productive afterward, repeating older messages, which is why he respects Perelman turning down the Fields Medal.
  00:23:21
• He explains negativity toward big business via high human neuroticism and Martin Gurri's thesis that the internet just lets us see more to complain about.
  00:37:23
• Cowen claims his life as a tenured professor comes closer to communism than almost anything, and it works pretty well.
  00:51:25
• He proposes 'open borders for Belarus' as a campaign slogan and would give any plausible graduate degree holder a green card.
  01:08:00
• He argues second-tier universities enforce mediocrity and conformity harder than Harvard while trying to be a 'junior MIT'.
  01:24:31
• Diversity talk, he says, has 'oddly become this new mechanism for enforcing conformity'.
  01:42:43
• In Hermosillo, Mexico, beef is dry-aged in open air until it turns green, and non-pasteurized cheeses legal there make the food radically better.
  01:48:24
• His two pieces of generic advice: get as many mentors as you can, and build small groups of peers who care about the same thing.
  01:57:10