The Lemon Fool

My daughter has quite brilliantly taken up a heavy hint that I'd like one of Tim Harford's books for a Christmas present. Better than that, she's bought me three. So that's January sorted, then.

One of the finest and clearest thinkers I've ever seen, and a shining beacon of sanity in these confusing times. The book blurb says they've now sold a million copies of the Undercover Economist, and I'm not surprised. Harford is a weekend regular at the Financial Times, and you'll find him on the BBC news site, and the Times I think.

He has a pretty good blog at https://timharford.com/. Try this one for size, on error detection: https://timharford.com/2020/12/working- ... t-to-show/ . Fine stuff.

BJ

bungeejumper wrote:My daughter has quite brilliantly taken up a heavy hint that I'd like one of Tim Harford's books for a Christmas present. Better than that, she's bought me three. So that's January sorted, then.

One of the finest and clearest thinkers I've ever seen, and a shining beacon of sanity in these confusing times. The book blurb says they've now sold a million copies of the Undercover Economist, and I'm not surprised. Harford is a weekend regular at the Financial Times, and you'll find him on the BBC news site, and the Times I think.

He has a pretty good blog at https://timharford.com/. Try this one for size, on error detection: https://timharford.com/2020/12/working- ... t-to-show/ . Fine stuff.

BJ

Harford is one of a small handful of BBC regulars who has never yet brought out the cynic in me. His More or Less is one regular programme that talks sense, even when on (rare) occasions it's having a bit of a laugh.

That particular article describes something computer folks have regarded as standard since long before I first encountered them four decades ago ..

Thanks ever so much for those links BJ. Wonderful stuff.

bungeejumper wrote:One of the finest and clearest thinkers I've ever seen, and a shining beacon of sanity in these confusing times.

BJ

Hi BJ

I've had a look at the links but would be interested in what you consider to be genuine and original insights he offers. Can you give any examples? I confess I'm something of a cynic of self-proclaimed experts but willing to be swayed.

Thanks

BoE

Bubblesofearth wrote:

bungeejumper wrote:One of the finest and clearest thinkers I've ever seen, and a shining beacon of sanity in these confusing times.

BJ

Hi BJ

I've had a look at the links but would be interested in what you consider to be genuine and original insights he offers. Can you give any examples? I confess I'm something of a cynic of self-proclaimed experts but willing to be swayed.

Thanks

BoE

To be fair, I wouldn't have described him quite that way. What I would say is that he seems to know his stuff and is brilliant at communicating it.
How much is his original ideas or the ideas that most economists know and that he can simply communicate well is a matter of opinion. He is however well worth both reading and catching on R4.

ie
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08k9pv0
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01q1m ... des/player

Ps I read the undercover economist back in 2013, some 9 years after it was published. It might be fair to say that good as he is Mr Hartford will likely not be listed in the same sentence as the likes of Thaler, Friedman, Smith etc. Oh, if anyone wants to read it, I understand that David D Friedman (not to be confused with his dad) has made the second edition of his seminal work "The Machinery of Freedom" available for free as a pdf on his website.
http://www.daviddfriedman.com/

This link from Hartford’s blog is most enjoyable http://festivalofthespokennerd.com/podcast/