EconTalk Tyler Cowen on Your Inner Economist
18 snips
Sep 10, 2007 
Economics professor Tyler Cowen discusses using incentives in daily life to make better decisions. Topics include parenting strategies, the economics of dentistry, favorite art museums, navigating tourist experiences in Morocco, and challenges in education and academia.
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Write Answers Before Checking Experts To Learn More
- Learn actively by writing your own moves or answers before consulting experts.
- Cowen cites Kotov's chess method: annotate moves yourself then compare to master commentary to force real learning.
Test Understanding With Tough Oral Defense
- Use oral defense under pressure to test true understanding rather than passive reading.
- Cowen describes an unpopular course where students orally defended propositions until they couldn't answer, which revealed real learning fast.
Teaching Relies On Social Theater Not Just Content
- Live education works partly because of social theater and personal contact, not just information transmission.
- Cowen says a DVD of top lecturers wouldn't replace the classroom's social and theatrical benefits.