Kyla Scanlon, Econ Prof
Except she isn't. An econ prof, that is.
Except she is. An econ prof, that is.
Robin Hanson tells us that academics use many different modes of inquiry, and that they present themselves as mainly just trying to understand things. But, he goes on to say, they are more rewarded for being credentialed.
And much as I want to live in a world where the first sentence in that paragraph is true... that, unfortunately, is not the world we currently inhabit. We live in the world that is described by Hanson in the second sentence of the previous paragraph.
And that is why I enjoyed reading the transcript of the conversation between Cowen and Scanlon - because 27 year old Kyla Scanlon is not a PhD, and she does not have a tenure track job at a University.
But boy does she teach!
She is super active on TikTok. She has a Substack. Very active on YouTube, on Twitter, and she exists in real life also. But now she has a book out, In This Economy? How Money & Markets Really Work.
Here's a fun word for you: disintermediation.
Disintermediation is the removal of intermediaries in economics from a supply chain, or "cutting out the middlemen" in connection with a transaction or a series of transactions. Instead of going through traditional distribution channels, which had some type of intermediary (such as a distributor, wholesaler, broker, or agent), companies may now deal with customers directly, for example via the Internet
And one way to understand Kyla Scanlon and her work is that the internet has successfully disintermediated her work for her. Folks the world over can read her book, peruse her Substack, follow her on TikTok and argue with her on Twitter (and, of course, watch her videos on YouTube!). Her fan following is not a function of her degree, nor is it a function of where she teaches. It is, rather, a function of the volume and the quality of her work.
And I would argue that thinking about this helps you listen to the podcast (or read the transcript) better. In the first half of the conversation, Tyler focuses on asking her questions about her background, but with a specific purpose or focus. This part of the conversation I interpret as he seeking to find out what it was about her background that helped her become an econ teacher.
How did trading in high school (her dad is an options trader) help her start to think about the world of economics? Why is attending a state school better than attending an Ivy League school (and in what ways is it worse)? What does selling cars during your summer holidays teach you about selling (and about teaching online)? Do introverts find it easier to be online, and is that really all that paradoxical a finding?
When you read this section, read it to learn more about Kyla, sure, but also ask yourself if there are things you have done in your life that can help you become better at whatever your dream job is? In what ways is working at a grocery store useful training for becoming an economist, for example? In what ways is being an clerk at a video store awesome training for being a world-class director? The point is not just the specifics of Kyla's answers about herself - the point is to understand what lessons you can glean from all that you do in your life, and how you can channel them towards helping you on your chosen path.
The section of the interview that disappointed me the most was the section titled "On the state of economics education". Not because of any questions that I was hoping Tyler would ask, or because Kyla didn't provide answers that were good enough. In any case, remember that these conversations are about the questions Tyler wants to ask his guests, not the ones that you want to ask the guests!
No, I was disappointed with this section because both Kyla and Tyler appear to be quite pessimistic in their outlook towards the current state and the near term prospects of quality education in economics. Their diagnoses and their prescriptions differ, but if these two are going to end this section in this manner, all of us in the field of teaching economics ought to be worried:
SCANLON: It’s interesting, too, because you see people wanting to escape, I think. The people that normally might have contributed to a shifting towards positivity are instead retreating into subgroups. Everything’s fragmenting.
COWEN: Yes. It might make it harder to dig out of the various ditches, but you also hope, well, there are all these fragments. Some of them will turn positive, and maybe one of the fragments becomes a spark.
SCANLON: I hope so.
COWEN: That’s speculative. It hasn’t happened yet, but that’s my hope.
SCANLON: I hope so too. I think right, now, a lot of people feel pretty bleak, more so than ever.
But the biggest takeaway for me from this episode was just the fact that we're celebrating the beginning of the end of the pompous, stuffy professor in a pompous, stuffy university. Or maybe it is just the end of the beginning. Who can ever tell with these things.
But hey, even in econ education, the times, they're a-changin'. More power to Kyla Scanlon and her tribe!