Given Scott's invitation to LessOnline and general embrace of this community, I thought many here would appreciate this curated list of my favourite Scott Sumner blog posts.
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Scott Sumner is best known as an economist who was praised for positively influencing economic policy during the Great Recession through blogging, as well as the leading voice for market monetarism. But to me, as someone uninterested in monetary policy, Scott stands out as one of the world's best, warmest, and wisest generalist bloggers. He writes on a wide range of topics, often touching on issues adjacent to politics, economics, and art, but irrespective of the topic, his wisdom always shines through. I might be biased because our values are quite similar—we both lean towards neoliberalism, embrace a utilitarian approach, and are completely captivated by art—but of all the writers I read, Scott is the one who is least often wrong. While his blogging isn't particularly ambitious, there are always little nuggets of wisdom sprouting up, and it's consistently insightful, introspective, and kind. Like many of my other favourite writers, Scott uses incredibly simple yet robust concepts, and by applying them rigorously and broadly, he helps you see things you should have been able to see yourself but didn't.
PPS: As someone who has now compiled "best of" posts for Tyler Cowen, Joseph Heath, Holden Karnofsky, and now Scott, it saddens me how many brilliant writers continuously produce content without considering how to make their best ideas more accessible to others. Beyond the pro-social benefit, it is clearly in each author’s self-interest to do so. I don’t have a solid theory as to why so few bloggers make it easier to engage with their ideas, but it is maddening that they don’t. While making these lists, two things really stand out: a lot of the articles get rehashed in different words many, many times over, and many of their best posts were created merely due to the writer churning out volume and were not intended to be perceived as masterpieces, but rather as sharing their quick thoughts on a particular perspective, which happened to unearth brilliance.
PPPS: I likely missed many great articles because Scott’s writing is so voluminous and hard to search through. Additionally, he doesn't have a large fan base discussing his work outside the blog, making it much harder to find the best posts. This compilation was especially challenging because much of Scott's best writing is often a throwaway paragraph or two in a longer, unrelated article. Please, please, please share your favourite non-econ Scott Sumner articles in the comments here, so others can find them.
Given Scott's invitation to LessOnline and general embrace of this community, I thought many here would appreciate this curated list of my favourite Scott Sumner blog posts.
-
Scott Sumner is best known as an economist who was praised for positively influencing economic policy during the Great Recession through blogging, as well as the leading voice for market monetarism. But to me, as someone uninterested in monetary policy, Scott stands out as one of the world's best, warmest, and wisest generalist bloggers. He writes on a wide range of topics, often touching on issues adjacent to politics, economics, and art, but irrespective of the topic, his wisdom always shines through. I might be biased because our values are quite similar—we both lean towards neoliberalism, embrace a utilitarian approach, and are completely captivated by art—but of all the writers I read, Scott is the one who is least often wrong. While his blogging isn't particularly ambitious, there are always little nuggets of wisdom sprouting up, and it's consistently insightful, introspective, and kind. Like many of my other favourite writers, Scott uses incredibly simple yet robust concepts, and by applying them rigorously and broadly, he helps you see things you should have been able to see yourself but didn't.
My favourite Scott Sumner blogs:
PS: I can’t stop chuckling at this anecdote: https://x.com/freezing_cloud/status/1199471383232704512
https://twitter.com/freezing_cloud/status/1199471383232704512
PPS: As someone who has now compiled "best of" posts for Tyler Cowen, Joseph Heath, Holden Karnofsky, and now Scott, it saddens me how many brilliant writers continuously produce content without considering how to make their best ideas more accessible to others. Beyond the pro-social benefit, it is clearly in each author’s self-interest to do so. I don’t have a solid theory as to why so few bloggers make it easier to engage with their ideas, but it is maddening that they don’t. While making these lists, two things really stand out: a lot of the articles get rehashed in different words many, many times over, and many of their best posts were created merely due to the writer churning out volume and were not intended to be perceived as masterpieces, but rather as sharing their quick thoughts on a particular perspective, which happened to unearth brilliance.
PPPS: I likely missed many great articles because Scott’s writing is so voluminous and hard to search through. Additionally, he doesn't have a large fan base discussing his work outside the blog, making it much harder to find the best posts. This compilation was especially challenging because much of Scott's best writing is often a throwaway paragraph or two in a longer, unrelated article. Please, please, please share your favourite non-econ Scott Sumner articles in the comments here, so others can find them.