Episode #450: Interview with Bryan Caplan

Ron and Ed welcome Bryan Caplan, professor of economics at George Mason University. Bryan is a prolific author and speaker on wide range of economic and other fantastically nerdy topics from voting to role playing games. Bryan's substack, Bet on It, has addressed the following topics in the month of July alone:

• Cars and convenience

• An offer to illustrate a book of his using AI

• Abusers giving vice a bad name

• Non rival assets for the poor

• Open borders on trial

• The status of women

Prepare to be impressed.

About Bryan Caplan

Bryan Caplan is a Professor of Economics at George Mason University and New York Times Bestselling author. He has written The Myth of the Rational Voter, named "the best political book of the year" by the New York Times; Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids; The Case Against Education; Open Borders (co-authored with SMBC's Zach Weinersmith); How Evil Are Politicians? He is the editor and chief writer for Bet On It, the blog hosted by the Salem Center for Policy at the University of Texas. He has published in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, TIME, Newsweek, Atlantic, American Economic Review, Economic Journal, Journal of Law and Economics, and Intelligence, and appeared on ABC, BBC, Fox News, MSNBC, and C-SPAN. An openly nerdy man who loves role-playing games and graphic novels, he lives in Oakton, Virginia, with his wife and four kids.

Use these show notes to follow along with the audio.

Segment one:

• The Case Against Education came out in 2018. It’s thought provoking work from our guest today, Bryan Caplan. Education is NOT a bad idea. It’s a bad idea to subsidize it. https://www.amazon.com/Case-against-Education-System-Waste/dp/0691174652 

• From Bryan today, based on his work in “The Case Against Education”… -> Education is a passport to real training which happens on the job.

• The 80/20 rule applies to Bryan’s analysis of education. From him, “When countries invest in education […] they seem to only get about 1/5th of what you would expect when compared to the individual.”

• Bryan was understandably hesitant on this statement. There’s a LOT to unpack on his comment about public education and a tweet doesn’t do it justice: “Looking at the facts, the truth is most parents don’t want something that different from what exists. Most parents are at least content with the status quo.”

Segment two:

• Yes, Bryan writes some great books. But he also writes at Substack regularly. Check it out here: https://betonit.substack.com/ 

• If you’ve got a classroom and there’s an empty seat you can add a student at very little cost. But there’s MUCH more to the argument and it’s detailed in this article, “The Cost is Zero - or Astronomical” https://betonit.substack.com/p/the-cost-is-zero-or-astronomical

• From Bryan, “NINBY is Economic Illiteracy” and, as he states in the article, “Why is housing regulation so draconian?” More here https://betonit.substack.com/p/nimby-is-economic-illiteracy  

• “When the supply of housing goes up, prices go down.” —Bryan Caplan. More at this article https://betonit.substack.com/p/nimby-is-economic-illiteracy

Segment three:

• “Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids” is a book written by Bryan. He talked about his take on declining populations during segment three of the show today. https://www.amazon.com/Selfish-Reasons-Have-More-Kids/dp/0465028616 

• Are declining populations sustainable? “The answer is the status quo is not sustainable.” —Bryan Caplan, genius, nerd, and thinker

• “Open Borders: The Science and Ethics of Immigration” is a book by Bryan in which he makes the case for unrestricted immigration. But he does it logically and with an open mind so do check the book out.https://www.amazon.com/Open-Borders-Science-Ethics-Immigration/dp/1250316960 

Segment four:

• Bryan Caplan — TSOE guest and professor at George Mason University — gave his economics test to ChatGPT back in January. It received a D. 3 months later it got an A. https://www.businessinsider.com/economics-professor-shocked-by-chatgpts-progress-exam-three-months-2023-3  

• Are you an artist and willing to take a risk on Bryan Caplan’s artificial intelligence contest? You DEFINITELY need to check out this link https://betonit.substack.com/p/amore-infernale-the-ai-illustration  

• On ChatGPT, Bryan mentioned on the show that you cannot go and type in “tell me how to get what I want”

• A big THANK YOU to Bryan Caplan for joining us today. Check out his great work on Substack and all of his books on Amazon. https://betonit.substack.com/ 

• Our Patreon channel at Patreon.com/TSOE is sponsored by @90Minds. It’s a matter of minds at 90Minds.com.

Bonus Content is Available As Well

Did you know that each week after our live show, Ron and Ed take to the microphone for a bonus show? Typically, this bonus show is an extension of the live show topic (sometimes even with the same guest) and a few other pieces of news, current events, or things that have caught our attention.

Click the “FANATIC” image to learn more about pricing and member benefits. 

Episode #449: The Innoficiency Principle featuring Blair Enns

Blair Enns is the founder of Win Without Pitching, the sales training organization for creative professionals. He is the author of two books, The Win Without Pitching Manifesto and Pricing Creativity: A Guide to Profit Beyond the Billable Hour. He is the co-host, along with David C. Baker, of the podcast 2Bobs: Conversations on the Art of Creative Entrepreneurship.

Best of all, he was the guest on this show with Ron and Ed. A good portion of the show was spent talking about The Innoficiency Principle. Blair laid out the thoughts behind this principle at this link and described it quite succinctly. From Blair: “The Innoficiency Principle states that innovation and efficiency are mutually opposable goals. In any reasonably functioning organization, one cannot be increased without decreasing the other.”

Use these show notes to follow along with the audio.

• Segment one:Systems thinking is overlooked especially in the leadership literature which is why Ron and Ed are addressing it today. Here is the book they are using as a guide https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08M69KKL6?tag=verainst-20&linkCode=osi&th=1&psc=1 

• Ron and Ed talked systems thinking way back in episode number 175, “The Laws of Systems Thinking” https://www.thesoulofenterprise.com/175 

• Here's the disastrous car Homer built on The Simpsons

• Ron and Ed mentioned their interview with Margaret Wheatley on the show today. Episode number 308 and here is the link https://www.thesoulofenterprise.com/308

• The Time’s Up Club features FREE FOREVER audio summaries from Ron’s new book, aptly named Time’s Up. Check it out here https://timesupclub.com/ 

Segment two:

• Through the book, Simple_Complexity, Dr. Donaldson features two words often: behold and beware. Behold the system. Beware of the system. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08M69KKL6?tag=verainst-20&linkCode=osi&th=1&psc=1 

• Dr. Donaldson talks about the three components of a system in his book: elements, inner actions, and purpose https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08M69KKL6?tag=verainst-20&linkCode=osi&th=1&psc=1 

• Ed referenced a GREAT quote on the show today, “The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine the can design.” ―F. A. Hayek

• Here is a link to the video Ed referenced with monkeys, bananas, and a water cannon. No animals were harmed in the making of this video. At least, I don’t think they were. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BUstrn_DKs 

Segment three:

• The idea of the hermeneutic circle is to envision a whole in terms how the parts interact with each other, and how they interact with the whole. https://nesslabs.com/hermeneutic-circle#:~:text=The%20concept%20of%20the%20hermeneutic,they%20interact%20with%20the%20whole 

• When thinking about systems, Ron loves to reference the Airline Triple Crown of lost luggage, customer complaints, and on time departures

• Read this QUICK story called “The Space Shuttle and the Horse's Rear End”. Ed brought it up today and it’s amazing. https://www.astrodigital.org/space/stshorse.html 

• “Today’s problems come from yesterday’s solutions” is a quote from Peter Senge’s 11 Laws of Systems Thinking. Ron and Ed did a whole show on this https://www.thesoulofenterprise.com/175 

Segment four:

• An idiom from the show today with a link to more details: “The paper will not refuse the ink.” https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/paper+never+refused+ink 

• Do you have 15 seconds to help a couple of podcast hosts named Ron and Ed? Tap or click this link and please rate the show! https://ratethispodcast.com/tsoe 

Bonus Content is Available As Well

Did you know that each week after our live show, Ron and Ed take to the microphone for a bonus show? Typically, this bonus show is an extension of the live show topic (sometimes even with the same guest) and a few other pieces of news, current events, or things that have caught our attention.

Click the “FANATIC” image to learn more about pricing and member benefits. 

Episode #448: Systems Thinking Made Simpler

Join Ed and Ron as they discuss the book by William Donaldson, PhD: Simple_Complexity: A Guide to Systems Thinking. Systems are both simple and complex, which contain amazing constructs that one often must marvel. Systems also have a mind and a rhythm of their own. The parts do not exist independent of the whole, and you can't understand the parts without understanding the whole, and the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Your organization's culture is an emergent property of your system. If you want to change the culture, you have to change the system, which is comprised of three components: Elements; Interactions; and Purpose. Hat tip to Mark Gandy at CFO Bookshelf for interviewing the author of this excellent book.

Buy on Amazon

Use these show notes to follow along with the audio.

Segment one:

• Systems thinking is overlooked especially in the leadership literature which is why Ron and Ed are addressing it today. Here is the book they are using as a guide https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08M69KKL6?tag=verainst-20&linkCode=osi&th=1&psc=1 

• Ron and Ed talked systems thinking way back in episode number 175, “The Laws of Systems Thinking” https://www.thesoulofenterprise.com/175 

• Here's the disastrous car Homer built on The Simpsons

• Ron and Ed mentioned their interview with Margaret Wheatley on the show today. Episode number 308 and here is the link https://www.thesoulofenterprise.com/308

• The Time’s Up Club features FREE FOREVER audio summaries from Ron’s new book, aptly named Time’s Up. Check it out here https://timesupclub.com/ 

Segment two:

• Through the book, Simple_Complexity, Dr. Donaldson features two words often: behold and beware. Behold the system. Beware of the system. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08M69KKL6?tag=verainst-20&linkCode=osi&th=1&psc=1 

• Dr. Donaldson talks about the three components of a system in his book: elements, inner actions, and purpose https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08M69KKL6?tag=verainst-20&linkCode=osi&th=1&psc=1 

• Ed referenced a GREAT quote on the show today, “The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine the can design.” ―F. A. Hayek

• Here is a link to the video Ed referenced with monkeys, bananas, and a water cannon. No animals were harmed in the making of this video. At least, I don’t think they were. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BUstrn_DKs 

Segment three:

• The idea of the hermeneutic circle is to envision a whole in terms how the parts interact with each other, and how they interact with the whole. https://nesslabs.com/hermeneutic-circle#:~:text=The%20concept%20of%20the%20hermeneutic,they%20interact%20with%20the%20whole 

• When thinking about systems, Ron loves to reference the Airline Triple Crown of lost luggage, customer complaints, and on time departures

• Read this QUICK story called “The Space Shuttle and the Horse's Rear End”. Ed brought it up today and it’s amazing. https://www.astrodigital.org/space/stshorse.html 

• “Today’s problems come from yesterday’s solutions” is a quote from Peter Senge’s 11 Laws of Systems Thinking. Ron and Ed did a whole show on this https://www.thesoulofenterprise.com/175 

Segment four:

• An idiom from the show today with a link to more details: “The paper will not refuse the ink.” https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/paper+never+refused+ink 

• Do you have 15 seconds to help a couple of podcast hosts named Ron and Ed? Tap or click this link and please rate the show! https://ratethispodcast.com/tsoe 

Bonus Content is Available As Well

Did you know that each week after our live show, Ron and Ed take to the microphone for a bonus show? Typically, this bonus show is an extension of the live show topic (sometimes even with the same guest) and a few other pieces of news, current events, or things that have caught our attention.

Click the “FANATIC” image to learn more about pricing and member benefits. 

Episode #447: Third interview with Tim Williams

For the third time, Ron and Ed welcomed back Tim Williams, one of the foremost thinkers about professional firm strategy and positioning. Tim thinks deeply about these topics, but has the ability to simplify and communicate complex topics to us and his audiences worldwide. We also asked him about his thinking with regard to generative AI and the potential impact on advertising and marketing.

Use these show notes to follow along with the audio.

Segment one:

• If you are a professional knowledge firm, then Tim Williams book was written just for you https://www.amazon.com/Positioning-Professionals-Professional-Knowledge-Differentiate/dp/0470587156

• You heard it here first. Tim Williams thinks that AI is the final nail in the coffin for timesheets. It’s a bold prediction but those that come true feel nothing but bold in hindsight.

• Written in 2019 (wow!!!), Tim Williams article titled “Billing by the Nanosecond?” is something we suspect most of you will be interested in reading https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/billing-nanosecond-tim-williams 

• “When it comes to positioning we are looking for patterns and common threads in the experience and expertise of knowledge workers.” —Tim Wiiliams

• “In the end there is still a lot of subjective judgement that needs to be applied in the work of an ad agency. [AI] is a riffing partner that helps explore possibilities and options.” —Tim Williams

• Are there AI roles popping up in the advertising agency space? Yes. A few examples from Tim: AI artists spend their days with Stable Diffusion, Dall-E, or Midjourney; AI writers create simple paragraphs to plugin as copy. 

Segment two:

• “What is going to make AI so valuable to professional firms is not its ability to make us more efficient but its ability to make us more effective.” —Tim Williams

• From Tim Williams, “For the Agency Business to Live, the Billable Hour Must Die” www.ignitiongroup.com/propulsion-blog/for-the-agency-business-model-to-live-the-billable-hour-must-die 

• Tim said this about ad agencies, but it applies to accountants and law firms as well. “Our business is anti-scaling. You can’t leverage a labor based business model.” —Tim Williams

• Also from Tim Williams, “Price the Building, Not the Bricks” www.ignitiongroup.com/propulsion-blog/price-the-building-not-the-bricks 

Segment three:

• What’s happening with subscription in the advertising space? Tim preaches it everywhere he goes and dives into the details during segment three of the show.

• Does Tim see any subscription fatigue in his industry? No because it’s not nearly established enough.

• “The most interesting new examples of productization involve some form of AI [such as] prediction machines developed by PR firms.”

• Ogilvy recently announced the AI Accountability Act. More here: https://www.shots.net/news/view/ogilvy-launches-the-ai-accountability-act 

• What’s the new magic work? “Experimenting with how AI can easily develop storyboards instead of sitting down and hiring an Illustrator.” —Tim Williams

Segment four:

• “The way in which the agency business operates has become so reactionary. They talk about filling scopes of work as through they are fast food operators instead of providing thought leadership.” —Tim Williams

• When it comes to leading brands in any industry, “It is the role of the leader to educate. Generally, what you are doing is educating about the category and not the brand.” —Tim Williams

• “You must be boxed in otherwise you have no strategy. The four walls of the box are what, who, way, and why.” —Tim Williams

• A big THANK YOU to Tim Williams for joining us today. If you loved listening today, check out his firm — Ignition Consulting Group — for LOTS of great writing from Tim. https://www.ignitiongroup.com/ 

Bonus Content is Available As Well

Did you know that each week after our live show, Ron and Ed take to the microphone for a bonus show? Typically, this bonus show is an extension of the live show topic (sometimes even with the same guest) and a few other pieces of news, current events, or things that have caught our attention.

Click the “FANATIC” image to learn more about pricing and member benefits.