Self-questioning: Econ-Learning mentality within the hierarchy of disdain

Reflecting on myself, what constitutes enthusiasm for studying economics is essentially a form of showing off, typically preceded by achievements before love.

That being said, after the ebbing tide, don’t some seaweeds also leave behind seeds that sprout on the land? This is also what I ponder—Truth becomes fiction when the fiction’s true; Real becomes not-real where the unreal’s real.Enthusiasm for a subject does not require pure reasons or pure motives; by persevering, it becomes genuine. A classmate I know once thought economics wasn’t for them and wanted to switch majors. However, after achieving good grades, they started praising economics. When I see this classmate throwing out various economic terms, it’s like seeing myself from the past.

Thus, from the similarities between him and me, it is evident that the starting point of my enthusiasm for economics should be impure—I simply enjoyed the feeling of intellectual superiority. However, upon delving deeper into the subject, I discovered both my own insignificance and the wonders of economics.

As for my own learning mentality, I have traversed the following path:

Moreover, based on my experience of surfing the internet and interacting with classmates, it seems that almost everyone follows a similar path of upgrading in the hierarchy of disdain.

Theoretical Framework:

During High School: Filled with a mysterious fascination for “Das Kapital”.

Choosing a Major: Personally, my initiation into economics came from Wu Xiaobo’s " 历代经济变革得失 (The Rise and Fall of Economic Revolutions)"¹. Although I no longer agree with the book’s cyclic theory of China’s progress and regress, I am grateful for how it prompted me to actively explore the related theories of “The Joseph Needham Puzzle” during my university years. Some around me, however, had impressions mixed with pure economics, political science, aspirations for civil service, and Wall Street.

Study of Economics: Started with mainstream economic theories.

First, the clash of the two major internet trends—the Cambridge Capital Controversy, the intellectual battle between Hayek and Keynes (in China represented by Lin Yifu and Yang Xiaokai).

Then, a gradual progression through the history of ideas—from Greece… Emphasis on agriculture, emphasis on commerce… Classical, neoclassical, synthesis of neoclassical…

Gradually refined theoretical cognition: overlaying macro and micro, dividing into labor economics, industrial economics, sustainable resources, economic growth, quantitative history… And then becoming increasingly detailed, dividing by object, method, and field.

Adding Modern Patches: Transformation of value, game theory, complexity economics, non-equilibrium, behavioral economics, interdisciplinary approaches (evolutionary economics, neuroeconomics…).

At this point, no longer fixated on grandstand positions, but rather focusing on theoretical paradigms and application scenarios, while paying more attention to theory-guided practices.

Methodology in Papers:

Encountering macro and micro structures without self-awareness, at this time unaware of the debate between structure and simplicity.

Started with econometrics, delved into causality, and then began to self-proclaim as a “reg monkey” (although in reality, I didn’t even fully understand regression).

Through understanding the causal revolution, completed my comprehension of the debate between structural form and reduced form.

By this time, many of my classmates had already begun to mix Chinese and English in speech and typing, but I personally detested this kind of mixing, even for default professional terms, so I chose Chinese with English parentheses!

• When I first began to understand econometrics and causal inference, I was ensnared by the mystique of statistics.

After dispelling the allure of DID\RDD\PSM\Bunching\OLS…, came the enchantment with machine learning and Bayesian estimation. R, Python, Matlab, SAS… So much to learn!

• When I became aware of the existence of structural forms, I began to idolize mathematics.

DSGE, engage! Ambition surpassing ability—yearning to master real analysis, measure theory, and functional analysis .

And then there’s the endless learning of mathematics, the never-ending array of statistical software, the countless classic books yet to be read, and the me who has yet to take action.

Cognitive Perspectives in Papers:

Empirical papers initially seem daunting, pursuing flashy methods.

Feeling sorrowful about lacking originality in my own thoughts, while feeling lost about where to find originality.

Choosing a research topic for a paper is essentially driven by methods, data, and questions, often simply permutations and combinations of variables.

Started realizing that keeping up with economics requires reading cutting-edge English literature, began advocating that Chinese journals are all rubbish, only reading the top 5 in English.

This sentiment is widely supported on the internet, but isn’t it a bit extreme?

Started understanding the importance of packaging a story, always saying that a paper tells a good story.

Yes, we’ve become storytellers now (image of Zhang Wuchang. jpg)

Conclusion

Looking back, it all seems to be driven by interest, but each step forward is indeed built on the disdain of the previous step. I cannot answer the debate on theoretical paradigms because it’s too vast, and I can’t see clearly. All I hear is the opening line from my history of economic thought professor—“Economics is a chaos.”

Ultimately, the economists I admire the most in my eyes possess two modes of thinking. One is the sociological analysis that establishes comparative analysis, familiar with the histories of various countries, effortlessly comparing economies, the gods of institutional economics whose intuition and knowledge reservoirs are astonishing. The other is the mathematical analysis, dealing with various functions and equilibrium analyses, which can make one’s scalp tingle.

Recently, while browsing the library, seeing the densely packed borrowing records on those monochrome old books, I can’t help but lament that I’ve read too few classic works. Personally, I feel that the biggest illusion I face is the tool illusion—thinking that learning a bit of coding satisfies me, when in fact my economic thinking hasn’t grown at all.