Ben Waber reviewed Cogs and Monsters by Diane Coyle
A Rich, Critical Examination of the Economics Profession
5 stars
Coyle provides a compelling, deeply thoughtful examination of the economics profession, confronting many of its central myths that have hobbled the field and society more broadly in recent decades. Perhaps most importantly is the myth of objectivity - claiming neutrality around what are extremely normative/political analyses and framings. I would have been more critical myself around some issues - economics has an extremely poor track record around technological change prediction and tends to focus myopically on whatever is the new hotness, for example, and claiming any metric is "objective" is a huge issue - however these minor quibbles don't detract from the excellence of this book. Highly recommend
Coyle provides a compelling, deeply thoughtful examination of the economics profession, confronting many of its central myths that have hobbled the field and society more broadly in recent decades. Perhaps most importantly is the myth of objectivity - claiming neutrality around what are extremely normative/political analyses and framings. I would have been more critical myself around some issues - economics has an extremely poor track record around technological change prediction and tends to focus myopically on whatever is the new hotness, for example, and claiming any metric is "objective" is a huge issue - however these minor quibbles don't detract from the excellence of this book. Highly recommend