#41
Mike Nelson here.
Post rating: ~

drwhat posted:

and if that doesn't work out you can always for work some private corporate intelligence like Stratfor, they do the same thing with less math.

thank you. seems like a pretty good idea.

#42
Mike Nelson here.
Post rating: ~
concordia has a graduate diploma in economics which you can use to get into a masters somewhere if you don't have advanced econ courses, so i was planning on doing that last september, but then i took a look at the math and realized i couldn't sort of wing it, so i didn't do it. the key is just persistence i'm sure.
#43
mt.real
Post rating: ~
even though western academia is shit, i think there is room for interesting work in economics / modern cultural anthropology / political science. you would have a much broader perspective than some loser who just is in economics because he thinks it is actually the magical science behind capitalism and the rational actor is a real thing, and therefore probably be much more successful than average.

math is tedious as hell but at least you would be applying it in a possibly interesting context, seeing what kind of goofy shit economists think are the rules of social existence
#44
Post rating: ~

drwhat posted:

even though western academia is shit



as opposed to what academia lol

#45
UNUSUALY COOL
Post rating: ~
imo the time is ripe for luring U.S. liberals into socialism by wearing economist wizard hat, see Jacobin, ironic Krugman fans who read Jacobin, etc.

#46
Post rating: +
getfiscal will find a neurotic reason for sabotaging his progress but god bless him on his quest.
#47
Mike Nelson here.
Post rating: ~

wasted posted:

getfiscal will find a neurotic reason for sabotaging his progress but god bless him on his quest.

probably true and thank you.

#48
Post rating: ~
The amount of math material you really need to know isn't that great, and that's literally the only thing you need as preparation for the MA, so I think another BA is probably unnecessary. You need bits and pieces of various math classes, but most of your time would be wasted learning stuff you'll never use or be expected to know. Here's a standard text for PhD level mathematical economics to give you an idea. For an MA you won't need quite as much background. Tomorrow I'll have time to give you more specifics about what prep you'd need, if you'd like.
#49
mt.real
Post rating: ~

prohairesis posted:

drwhat posted:

even though western academia is shit

as opposed to what academia lol

idk but i at least feel vaguely qualified to say that. i don't know anything about, say, chinese universities, or persian universities, or whatever

#50
Post rating: ~
Be an autodidact. Classroom education is not as useful as real-world experience, and self-directing your education will be less wasteful. Find someone who seems nice and competent and is willing to let you work for them. Accept a low salary. Work at least a year and then move on when you're ready.
#51
mt.real
Post rating: +
yes, the ancient tradition of economist-apprentices
#52
Mike Nelson here.
Post rating: ~

Aspie_Muslim_Economist_ posted:

The amount of math material you really need to know isn't that great, and that's literally the only thing you need as preparation for the MA, so I think another BA is probably unnecessary. You need bits and pieces of various math classes, but most of your time would be wasted learning stuff you'll never use or be expected to know. Here's a standard text for PhD level mathematical economics to give you an idea. For an MA you won't need quite as much background. Tomorrow I'll have time to give you more specifics about what prep you'd need, if you'd like.

yeah. maybe i can just organize a prep-year thing through concordia and demonstrate that i'm a serious student. then use that for entrance into a masters.

#53
Post rating: ~
#54
[account deactivated]
#55
UNUSUALY COOL
Post rating: ~

SariBari posted:



i like to dream that a renewed focus on fat tails will cause consulting firms to begin theorizing post-capitalism

#56
mt.real
Post rating: ~

daddyholes posted:

i like to dream that a renewed focus on fat tails will cause consulting firms to begin theorizing post-capitalism

i don't think i know what this means but if it isn't bullshit can you elaborate

#57
Post rating: ~
they probably are already theorising post-capitalism, and it's probably fucking horrible lol
#58
Post rating: ~

drwhat posted:

daddyholes posted:

i like to dream that a renewed focus on fat tails will cause consulting firms to begin theorizing post-capitalism

i don't think i know what this means but if it isn't bullshit can you elaborate



http://www.rff.org/News/Features/Pages/Understanding-Fat-Tailed-Distributions-and-What-They-Mean-for-Policy.aspx

#59
mt.real
Post rating: ~
oh. well i think black swan events, or fat tails, or whatever you want to call it when above a certain threshold the magnitude of a thing is essentially random and unbounded, has are definitely wormed its way into mainstream economic discourse and it doesn't seem to be having any kind of major revelatory effect or anything. it can very effectively be included into the existing framework by just treating it as more statistical-rational people-math

if anything i think the growing duet of computing power and observational ubiquity will just push mainstream economic thought into more and more statistical contortions until there is something considered a full Math Of Everything wherein it is actually accepted and encouraged to use something like the insurance company's valuation of a person's life and things like the expected economy-wide impact/return on investments in their education, environment, etc in some kind of so-called "perfectly rational" scientific policy-making

the hope is that there would be some people participating in that wave of thought that could include in the accepted theory some things that would (in another context) be socialist, like the value of a functional community around you, or the value of being able to see your family, or etc etc etc, but of course those intangibles are the hardest things to rationalize and so are the least likely to be counted and therefore effectively not exist in a state run by people-math
#60
Kurdt
Post rating: ~

cleanhands posted:

what business is your business in getfrisky

freelance polemicist

#61
UNUSUALY COOL
Post rating: ~

drwhat posted:

daddyholes posted:

i like to dream that a renewed focus on fat tails will cause consulting firms to begin theorizing post-capitalism

i don't think i know what this means but if it isn't bullshit can you elaborate



Other people have already gone here but I mean that a possible way to convince people who will not otherwise consider the end of capitalism because of closure of thought, the sort of big ass consulting firms that churn out endless reams of strategic planning on how to get states to pass ALEC bills for virtual charter schools and have endless access to the capitalist teat, to start thinking about practical post-capitalist solutions and producing plans for their own demise, is to pretend like the collapse of capitalism is this really unlikely, really unforeseeable event that will cost their clients big bux and (somehow) make them big bux if they are the cool dude who manages to whip off his shades and predict it at just the right time.

The fad for focusing on these events ebbs and flows; the current hot text right now is The Fat Tail: The Power of Political Knowledge for Strategic Investing by Bremmer and Keat, which can be read as what a lot of people in the upper echelons of power consider the master playbook for anti-revolutionary planning.

But also

jools posted:

they probably are already theorising post-capitalism, and it's probably fucking horrible lol

#62
UNUSUALY COOL
Post rating: ~

drwhat posted:

the hope is that there would be some people participating in that wave of thought that could include in the accepted theory some things that would (in another context) be socialist, like the value of a functional community around you, or the value of being able to see your family, or etc etc etc, but of course those intangibles are the hardest things to rationalize and so are the least likely to be counted and therefore effectively not exist in a state run by people-math



what i dream about is tricking the current technocrats into theorizing and planning the end of capitalism by appealing to their fervent desire to be special and first but it is just a dream.....

capitalists just throw money at these people all day, it's like the new ivory tower

#63
Post rating: ~
the end of capitalism is not necessarily a good thing, you know? need a dick tater ship of the proletariat and all that
#64
UNUSUALY COOL
Post rating: ~

jools posted:

the end of capitalism is not necessarily a good thing, you know? need a dick tater ship of the proletariat and all that



yeah

#65
UNUSUALY COOL
Post rating: ~
harvey wrote a little about the fat tail problem of death from above, catastrophes from space, and sort of hand-waved it and i got really inordinately pissed at him, but that's the end of capitalism and also not a solution
#66
Post rating: ~
harvey handwaves often imo...
#67
Dont Mess With Sucess
Post rating: ~
Here ya go
http://www.amazon.com/Carrots-Sticks-Unlock-Incentives-Things/dp/B007PM00NI
#68
Dont Mess With Sucess
Post rating: ~
There exists book called Carrots and Sticks about animal learning and training but i saw that one and thought of you gettical.
#69
Post rating: ~

getfiscal posted:

yeah. maybe i can just organize a prep-year thing through concordia and demonstrate that i'm a serious student. then use that for entrance into a masters.


Here's the graduate math for economists class at concordia: http://alcor.concordia.ca/~mingli/teaching/525syl.pdf
If you can get them to let you take 525 and do well in it, that--along with advanced undergrad micro and macro and basic econometrics--should be adequate preparation, and would only require you take 4 more courses, although you should talk about it with the director of the masters program at your alma mater (if they in fact have one) if you end up deciding you want to go for an MA.

If you did do that you'd probably want to read an introductory proof-writing book beforehand and work through the math for economists syllabus on your own before you took the class, using calculus and linear algebra textbooks for reference. Then you could get familiar with the math before you started getting grades.

#70
Post rating: +
You'll have to consider also how you'll not kill yourself op
#71
Post rating: ~
#72
Post rating: +
has anyone recommended fuck and destroy yet? cause that shit is money
#73
Post rating: ~

jools posted:

#74
Mike Nelson here.
Post rating: ~

jools posted: