Boring People

Over the weekend, I read a blogpost by a prominent renegade economist on how the biographies of top mainstream economists were almost interchangeable. They had all followed the same narrow path to success and had led 'boring' lives. Since life experience is the best teacher and they had not had diverse experiences, they were ill-suited to pontificate on issues in the social sciences, 

The post prompted vigorous discussion. Some pointed out that 'boring' was a loaded word and one couldn't make that inference just by looking at their CVs. And, the author implied that boring euals cushy, which is not the case: two prominent economists committed suicide in the past one year. 

My point was that top mainstream economists skew towards certain personality types. I had been thinking of Myers-Brigs so that may have been on my mind but my judgement is not as value-neutral. I believe the profession encourages conformism. Troublemakers and rabble-rousers are either edged out or self-select out. The room for disagreement is quite narrow.

Anyway, this is not a rant against mainstream economists. I am proud of my meandering career path and life experiences, including my struggles with mental health, and I wouldn't change anything about it. If that makes me a better social scientist, I'll take it.