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Comment by chasingthewind | Hacker News Reader

I had been reading Marginal Revolution and following Cowen for probably 5 years but I finally completely gave up on him.

At first I was deeply impressed and considered him someone who was unafraid to confront challenging issues with thoughtful analysis.

Now I see him as a Malcolm Gladwell style entertainer.

Anybody thinking of taking him too seriously should do some meta-research of their own before spending a lot of time on his ideas.

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This reads rather damningly. There a rundown on why you are so negative on him?

I recognize the name, but I have not followed him directly. Amusingly, I thought he was more of an editor of folks with decent opinions, such that I don't think I know his.

His food blog on restos in the DC / NoVA area is pretty good. That's about the only thing he writes that I'd trust.

That's funny because I was reading him from perhaps 2006-2011 and came to similar conclusions. I was never sure if it was more because my economic views had changed, or because his writing has changed. I always suspected that latter was the larger factor

I'd be interested to read a version of this comment that substantiates its criticisms.

I've spent a lot of time thinking about him and his ideas over the years but I really don't want to spend more time on him honestly.

A few thoughts:

* His view of UFOs is very unscientific and sensationalist

* His view of Cryptocurrency has always been extremely credulous and I never saw him confront the failures and problems honestly (IIRC he loved SBF)

* His tendency to post very cryptic items ("Straussian") that you would only understand if you've been following him religiously for years is very frustrating

I do think his fast grants program is a pretty cool idea though.

I don't find this persuasive at all.

Thanks for substantiating. I still read him avidly but appreciate the points you made. I also rate UFOs being aliens as less likely than I believe he does. About cryptocurrency I have no interest or knowledge so I can't comment on that. As for the Straussian stuff I don't see the downside and am not frustrated. Agree that fast grants is the most exciting thing he's currently working on. On a personal level I might enjoy Conversations with Tyler more because I do think he's successful at his stated goal of "extracting the best stuff" out of his guests. Although more than a few of the episodes fall flat for me, the majority are enjoyable.

I think Tyler suffers from a form of the curse of knowledge....if one is 5x smarter / more knowledgeable than others, it can result in thinking one's opinions are necessarily knowledge.

One thing in particular that he gets wrong is that he seems to have a heavy bias toward ~neoliberal economic policies.

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