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Title details for Create Your Own Economy by Tyler Cowen - Available

Create Your Own Economy

The Path to Prosperity in a Disordered World

by Tyler Cowen
Patrick Lawlor
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available
How will we live well in a super-networked, information-soaked, yet predictably irrational world? The only way to know is to understand how the way we think is changing.


As economist Tyler Cowen boldly shows in Create Your Own Economy, the way we think now is changing more rapidly than it has in a very long time. Not since the Industrial Revolution has a man-made creation—in this case, the World Wide Web—so greatly influenced the way our minds work and our human potential. Cowen argues brilliantly that we are breaking down cultural information into ever-smaller tidbits, ordering and reordering them in our minds (and our computers) to meet our own specific needs.


Create Your Own Economy explains why the coming world of Web 3.0 is good for us; why social networking sites such as Facebook are so necessary; what's so great about "Tweeting" and texting; how education will get better; and why politics, literature, and philosophy will become richer. This is a revolutionary guide to life in the new world.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    August 17, 2009

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781400192199
      • File size: 219644 KB
      • Duration: 07:37:35

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Patrick Lawlor tackles this study in behavioral economics with ease. His upbeat narration keeps the pace moving through Cowen's extensive explanations and arguments regarding the methods of mental ordering and data organization used by autistic people and what they can tell us about how people in general use information. Since autism is a thorny topic and Cowen argues that most of what most people know about it is incorrect, there are many quotations--which Lawlor endeavors to set apart by adopting an appropriate accent and tone for the original writer. While this approach successfully differentiates the quotations, the transitions are a little abrupt, though this is a minor distraction. Overall, Lawlor's clear delivery and well-timed pauses keep his fast-paced narration manageable. E.N. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      May 18, 2009
      In this provocative study of behavioral economics, Cowen (Discover Your Inner Economist
      ) reveals that autistic tendencies toward classification, categorization and specialization can be used as a vehicle for understanding how people use information. Cowen spends a great deal of time dispelling autism’s societal stigma, arguing that “mainstream society is reaping benefits from mimicking autistic cognitive strengths.” As stimulating as is the premise, the book often feels like its own long exercise in categorization, with each chapter an analysis of the human mania for classification (e.g., the obsession with ranking achievements and endeavors). According to Cowen, human brains are constantly absorbing bits of information that get smaller and are delivered faster as technology advances. The more information people receive, the more they crave—this shorter attention span is far from a flaw to the author, but a liberating mechanism that allows humans time to contemplate more ambitious, long-range pursuits. The relentless analysis is occasionally overwhelming, but Cowen’s illustration of our neurological filing system may help readers understand the mass consumption of information and just about everything else.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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