I happened to stop into a tweetup last night. Happenchance (really happenchance) I ran into an old friend of mine, BZ (BenZion in case you all are curious), a phd History Candidate at Ohio State, in for the summer to do some more phd thesis writing. He’s been an active blogger on a number of issues (science finction, early modern religious history, Asperger’s syndrome and Autism, changes in Orthodox Jewry. His blog covers a wide range of topics, really…)
We got to talking about his blog. In my bad bad behavior, I had to fess up that I had missed a number of posts. It turns out that for (completely logical, trust me you have to know this guy and the fact that he’ll lean extremely heavily on the classics) argument about how libertarianism should work with the very prominent economist, David Friedman, of UCSJ (and son of Milton Friedman, yes, that Milton Friedman).
How, he read David Friedman’s book, and decided he was going to discuss it (politely). Dr. Friedman was kind enough to argue back (politely) on the particulars of the argument my friend BZ was arguing about the book. Interestingly, they also discovered in the process that they like the same novels….
Apparently, on the internet, no one knows you are a _____________. BZ is the son and grandson of a pair of prominent rabbis who went to get a docturate in history (not economics or political theory). His biggest achievement right now is being almost done (and on time with the almost done) while being funded through the process. His whole life is ahead of him. And yet, apparently even he can make an impression on a really good economist. He got the attention because he was smart and is using the internet to reach out.*
It is a situation that can happen to anyone, with enough effort. Expertise seems to be slowly shifting to those who will open themselves up as both being open to learn, open to criticism, and open to creating real resources for scholarship. Further, it will both make scholarship communities both smaller (IE, Dr. Friedman and BZ talking about sci-fi) and larger (IE BZ is now connected, even if only peripherally, to mainstream Economics scholarship). It means that the production of scholarly material will be produced by a mixture of experts, ameteurs, and in betweeners, with a lot more community sorting taking place. It sounds, from reading the post, that there is a large amount of space to develop tons of new ideas because of these odd connections that others will make with each other while they find some new commonalities. I expect a sudden level of research to explode as we move to a cross-displine, post-university structure where there is far more partipation in learning than just degree getting. And I doubt I am the only one who thinks all of this. We should find ways of developing more interactions and stronger community structures to improve these interactions in order to push various disciplines further.
Now if only Dr. Friedman can help find him tenure track teaching placement post phd so that BZ can help this process (Being an engaging blogger and all, I’m sure he wouldn’t mind).
*Since I know you are going to read this BZ- I am proud of you 
On the Internet we all know…
I happened to stop into a tweetup last night. Happenchance (really happenchance) I ran into an old friend of mine, BZ (BenZion in case you all are curious), a phd History Candidate at Ohio State, in for the summer to do some more phd thesis writing. He’s been an active blogger on a number of issues (science finction, early modern religious history, Asperger’s syndrome and Autism, changes in Orthodox Jewry. His blog covers a wide range of topics, really…)
We got to talking about his blog. In my bad bad behavior, I had to fess up that I had missed a number of posts. It turns out that for (completely logical, trust me you have to know this guy and the fact that he’ll lean extremely heavily on the classics) argument about how libertarianism should work with the very prominent economist, David Friedman, of UCSJ (and son of Milton Friedman, yes, that Milton Friedman).
How, he read David Friedman’s book, and decided he was going to discuss it (politely). Dr. Friedman was kind enough to argue back (politely) on the particulars of the argument my friend BZ was arguing about the book. Interestingly, they also discovered in the process that they like the same novels….
Apparently, on the internet, no one knows you are a _____________. BZ is the son and grandson of a pair of prominent rabbis who went to get a docturate in history (not economics or political theory). His biggest achievement right now is being almost done (and on time with the almost done) while being funded through the process. His whole life is ahead of him. And yet, apparently even he can make an impression on a really good economist. He got the attention because he was smart and is using the internet to reach out.*
It is a situation that can happen to anyone, with enough effort. Expertise seems to be slowly shifting to those who will open themselves up as both being open to learn, open to criticism, and open to creating real resources for scholarship. Further, it will both make scholarship communities both smaller (IE, Dr. Friedman and BZ talking about sci-fi) and larger (IE BZ is now connected, even if only peripherally, to mainstream Economics scholarship). It means that the production of scholarly material will be produced by a mixture of experts, ameteurs, and in betweeners, with a lot more community sorting taking place. It sounds, from reading the post, that there is a large amount of space to develop tons of new ideas because of these odd connections that others will make with each other while they find some new commonalities. I expect a sudden level of research to explode as we move to a cross-displine, post-university structure where there is far more partipation in learning than just degree getting. And I doubt I am the only one who thinks all of this. We should find ways of developing more interactions and stronger community structures to improve these interactions in order to push various disciplines further.
Now if only Dr. Friedman can help find him tenure track teaching placement post phd so that BZ can help this process (Being an engaging blogger and all, I’m sure he wouldn’t mind).
*Since I know you are going to read this BZ- I am proud of you