Who: Tyler Cowen

Claim To Fame: Tyler Cowen is a Professor of Economics at George Mason University. He is the author of Marginal Revolution—one of the most popular economics blogs in the world. He has written over a dozen books, including bestsellers Average is Over, and The Complacent Class. He also writes a column for Bloomberg View and has contributed extensively to national publications such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Money.

Where To Find Tyler: His Website, Amazon, Twitter

Praise For Tyler: “Tyler Cowen is a national treasure.” — Cass R. Sunstein, Bestselling Author and Professor at Harvard University

On your podcast, you ask your guests about their so-called “production function.” What do you think yours is? And perhaps more curiously, have you taken any of the methods from your guests and begun using them yourself?

When it comes to writing, my production function is to write every day. Sundays, absolutely. Christmas, too. Whatever. A few days a year I am tied up in meetings all day and that is a kind of torture. Write even when you have nothing to say, because that is every day.

You’ve said before that you tend to skip around when you’re reading or quit if you don’t like it. Does knowing that readers do that affect your own writing style at all? Do you try to anticipate or take that into account?

I try to get to the point right away. And it’s OK if most readers don’t get to the later parts of the book. Based on my reputation, they have an implicit model of what is waiting there for them. What’s in the model may even be better than the reality! So I might prefer that they don’t finish my book, because who can live up to the imagination of a really good reader?

For someone who is such a productive and prolific writer, how do you avoid getting burned out or tired? Or does the daily-ness of it actually prevent that from happening—no time to think about it?

Think of it as exercise or practice. And I write only for a few hours each day, unless you count emails as extra, but most of those are not so challenging. I never want to be pushing on how much writing I can get done in a day. I am an extreme anti-procrastinator—do a wee bit and let it add up! And have this all happen very very early, no last-minute rushing for me. I end up finding deadlines irrelevant, which lowers stress and keeps me writing.

How do you know if something you’re working on is not worth publishing or not any good? Have you developed any criteria that lets you evaluate your own work?

Well, I spent the first 25 years of my career writing under norms of refereeing and peer review and of course lots of rejections. You had no choice but to accept the dictates of others and they are always telling you it isn’t good enough. I am happy to be writing online these days, but also very glad I had that particular background, which is not easy to pick up cheaply.

All of your work is very research intensive. What is your method for researching and organizing material you might want to use for your future writing?

I don’t take notes. I leave things in piles. The piles are growing and have to be fought back with hammer and tongs. I wish I had improved methods, but there you go. Don’t end up like me!

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