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Tyler Cowen

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Create Your Own Economy: The Path to Prosperity in a Disordered World Hardcover – July 9, 2009

by Tyler Cowen (Author)

3.8 35 ratings

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An economics professor and author describes how the World Wide Web is changing the way our minds work, and provides a guide to the coming world of Web 3.0, where social networking and Tweeting will improve education and enrich lives.

Print length

272 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Dutton
Publication date

July 9, 2009
Dimensions

9.25 x 1.25 x 6 inches
ISBN-10

0525951237
ISBN-13

978-0525951230
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Tyler Cowen
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this provocative study of behavioral economics, Cowen (Discover Your Inner Economist) reveals that autistic tendencies toward classification, categorization and specialization can be used as a vehicle for understanding how people use information. Cowen spends a great deal of time dispelling autism's societal stigma, arguing that mainstream society is reaping benefits from mimicking autistic cognitive strengths. As stimulating as is the premise, the book often feels like its own long exercise in categorization, with each chapter an analysis of the human mania for classification (e.g., the obsession with ranking achievements and endeavors). According to Cowen, human brains are constantly absorbing bits of information that get smaller and are delivered faster as technology advances. The more information people receive, the more they crave—this shorter attention span is far from a flaw to the author, but a liberating mechanism that allows humans time to contemplate more ambitious, long-range pursuits. The relentless analysis is occasionally overwhelming, but Cowen's illustration of our neurological filing system may help readers understand the mass consumption of information and just about everything else. (July)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Tyler Cowen is a professor of economics at George Mason University. He is a prominent blogger at marginalrevolution.com, the world’s leading economics blog. He also writes regularly for The New York Times, and has written for Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, and The Wilson Quarterly.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Dutton; First Edition (July 9, 2009)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 272 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0525951237
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0525951230
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.08 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 9.25 x 1.25 x 6 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,610,716 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Customer Reviews:
3.8 35 ratings

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Tyler Cowen

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Tyler Cowen (/ˈkaʊ.ən/; born January 21, 1962) is an American economist, academic, and writer. He occupies the Holbert L. Harris Chair of economics, as a professor at George Mason University, and is co-author, with Alex Tabarrok, of the popular economics blog Marginal Revolution. Cowen and Tabarrok have also ventured into online education by starting Marginal Revolution University. He currently writes a regular column for Bloomberg View. He also has written for such publications as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Time, Wired, Newsweek, and the Wilson Quarterly. Cowen also serves as faculty director of George Mason's Mercatus Center, a university research center that focuses on the market economy. In February 2011, Cowen received a nomination as one of the most influential economists in the last decade in a survey by The Economist. He was ranked #72 among the "Top 100 Global Thinkers" in 2011 by Foreign Policy Magazine "for finding markets in everything."

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Troy Camplin

Not What You Would Expect--It's Better

Reviewed in the United States on July 7, 2017

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This is a great book about what it's like to be on the autism spectrum. I should know, since I'm on the spectrum myself. But it's also more than that. Much more. And it's worth reading to learn about being on the spectrum and to learn about how you can change your world.

One person found this helpful

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Adam Thierer

terrific look at how humans can and are coping with life in the Information Age

Reviewed in the United States on August 25, 2009

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A terrific exploration of how humans can and are coping with the Digital Age and the rise of information abundance in particular. Cowen takes an optimistic view of these changes and suggests that, even if the Internet and digital gadgets are changing our culture and minds, it is generally for the better. Although the book wanders at times, Cowen is always entertaining and informative.

If you like this book and Cowen's general worldview, you'll also want to check out Clay Shirky's "Here Comes Everybody" as well as the work of Don Tapscott, Chris Anderson, and perhaps even Yochai Benkler. For a contrasting view, I recommend Andrew Keen's "Cult of the Amateur," Lee Siegel's "Against the Machine," and John Freeman's upcoming "Tyranny of E-Mail."

One person found this helpful

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Pedro S. Silva II

"Positively Deceived" in a Good Way

Reviewed in the United States on September 21, 2019

I picked this audiobook up from the library because I thought it was about what the title suggested. As I listened to the first hour, I was confused and surprised that the author was not getting off the autism train. So much so that it prompted me to stop listening to it and write a blog post confessing that I too am very likely on the autism spectrum.

I am not going to explain my story here. But, I will say that were this book available 30 plus years ago and given a title that actually matched the content, it would have served me well. And perhaps it could have saved my body from some of the physical abuse that it received in various environments.

I have no idea why the author chose this title. I can see why people would experience it's content as a misrepresentation if not a flat out deception rather than the welcome and providential surprise that I experienced it as.

Were I attached to learning about what the title contributed to me assuming was the subject matter, I would have never finished this book and would have given it a one star or less review rather than the five stars I am giving it.

But as it turns out, I didn't get the book I wanted with this book. But I did get the exact book I needed. Serendipitously, I grabbed this audiobook after returning--without even listening to a minute of it--Jenny McCarthy's book, Louder Than Words, which was specifically about autism. I initially grabbed her book to begin exploring my own brain functioning. However, after looking at my high school yearbook and reflecting with a friend about how si many people from my neighborhood thought I was "different", I decided to close that can of worms and instead listen to a book about what I thought was entrepreneurship.

So you can imagine my surprise when I settled in my plane seat to listen to this book and discovered that in some way, I ended up listening to something that was an even more acute treatises on "high functioning autism" than what I may have ever received from McCarthy's book.

So while I will say that the title of this book is a failure of representation, the content--at least as far as I'm concerned--is a triumphant success in terms of introducing readers to consider the world and gifts of neurodiversity. If he would reconsider aligning the title with the content perhaps the author would receive more positive reviews and serve more people in the process. If you are "positively deceived" by this book's title as I was, I encourage you to keep reading or listening. With a discerning ear, I'm sure that many would find that this book is a contribution to your relational knowledge base.

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Dave Barnes

Should have been a Tweet

Reviewed in the United States on June 1, 2011

Verified Purchase

This entire book could have been condensed to a Tweet.
Embrace your autistic side and bring order to your life.

What a waste of $3.65.
I visit Tyler's blog every day and find it very useful and insightful.
This book, however, should never have been published.

9 people found this helpful

Helpful

Greg Linster

A Cultural Defense of Autism, or Something Like That

Reviewed in the United States on August 8, 2013

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According to Tyler Cowen, it's a great time to be alive. And who could disagree with that? Thanks to the digital economy we have more choices when it comes to what to consume and what to do for our work (although others like Barry Schwartz have argued that perhaps we have too many choices now). Anyway, Cowen's book, Create Your Own Economy, is largely about how to navigate this new world and the digital economy.

The book, however, veered wildly from what I expected. The following quote from the preface is what I thought the book would be about.

In down times people exercise more, eat out less and cook more, and engage in more projects for self improvement and self education. Usage at public libraries is up and people are spending more time on the internet; once you've paid for your connection most of the surfing is free. These trends are more important than most of us realize and in this book I will tell you why. I will tell you why they are not just short-run trends but why they presage something much deeper about our future.

The book surely takes an interesting twist from the preface though. At the beginning of the first chapter, Cowen, who runs a popular economics blog called Marginal Revolution, states that a Marginal Revolution reader once asked him if he had Asperger's syndrome or high-functioning autism.

This question relates to one of the surprising, yet central themes of the book, i.e., autism. In one sense, the book can be read as a cultural defense of autism and with a focus on the general misconceptions about autism. I definitely wasn't expecting to read a book focused on autism when I picked this book up; however, I still enjoyed it. Cowen claims that autism is not a separate condition out there from which a few suffer, but rather it's one point on a scale he calls "neurodiversity". We all fall on this scale to varying degrees and I was surprised to learn that I actually have some autistic like tendencies. Near the end of the book, Cowen states, "Many autistics might in fact do better socially or in their careers if the world views them as "eccentrics" rather than autistics."

The other central theme of the book can be summed up by the claim that," Fundamentally the relationship between human minds and human cultures is changing." Cowen never uses the term, but he alludes to a world that is becoming a culturally predominant information economy. "Creating your own economy", then, is about thriving in the world of the internet and modern technology. The diversity of informational and cultural products available via technology is startling. Cowen, however, argues that this is a great thing that ultimately enhances our freedom and our experiences of being human. Of course, he also argues that the cognitive strengths of autistic individuals allow them to thrive in this environment.

This book touches on a wide gamut of topics from economics, psychology, metaphysics, epistemology, moral philosophy, and astronomy. The end of the book leaves you with an ambiguous sense of the book's ultimate purpose.

6 people found this helpful

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