| Line 2: |
Line 2: |
| | This course requires thinking more than reading or writing. The assignments will be short and the homework "problem sets" will be intriguing. You will have time to read and reread the materials, and think about them, in order to fully understand the concepts. Repeatedly ask yourself and others questions, and ask questions in class. Test yourself with your own examples. You may have to read and think about a concept in economics many times before you really understand it. But once you understand these concepts, you can use them your entire life. Many of my students have told me that economics is the best course they ever took from me, and I teach many other topics. | | This course requires thinking more than reading or writing. The assignments will be short and the homework "problem sets" will be intriguing. You will have time to read and reread the materials, and think about them, in order to fully understand the concepts. Repeatedly ask yourself and others questions, and ask questions in class. Test yourself with your own examples. You may have to read and think about a concept in economics many times before you really understand it. But once you understand these concepts, you can use them your entire life. Many of my students have told me that economics is the best course they ever took from me, and I teach many other topics. |
| | | | |
| − | Start working on the problems early in the week, so that you can ponder them a while before answering. Answers may not occur to you at first. It may be days after you read a problem, and while you're doing something completely different, when a light bulb turns on in your mind and you think, "Eureka" (I solved it!). Give yourself plenty of time for that to happen, by starting early on the problems. They are not difficult if you start early. | + | Start working on the problems early in the week, so that you can ponder them a while before answering. Answers may not occur to you at first. It may be days after you read a problem, and while you're doing something completely different, when a light bulb turns on in your mind and you think, "Eureka" (I solved it!). Give yourself plenty of time for that to happen, by starting early on the problems. They are not difficult if you start early in solving them. |
| | | | |
| | == What Is Economics? == | | == What Is Economics? == |
| Line 66: |
Line 66: |
| | | | |
| | Economics is also special in that it is concerned exclusively with the future rather than the past. For example, the price a good is sold for does not depend on how much it cost in the past, but how much someone will pay for it now or in the future. This is a difficult aspect of economics for students to accept, as other subjects (e.g., history) are primarily about the past rather than the future. | | Economics is also special in that it is concerned exclusively with the future rather than the past. For example, the price a good is sold for does not depend on how much it cost in the past, but how much someone will pay for it now or in the future. This is a difficult aspect of economics for students to accept, as other subjects (e.g., history) are primarily about the past rather than the future. |
| | + | |
| | + | Economics provides insights about the true nature of "time". The present is what is most valuable, the future less so, and that past even less still. Economics does place significant value on the future, but cautions against overvaluing it. Economics also takes into consideration risk, as in the famous aphorism, "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush." The two birds in the bush may fly away before you can put your hands on them. Again, these insights go far beyond "money". |
| | + | |
| | + | Perhaps above all, economics ... |
| | | | |
| | ==More Definitions== | | ==More Definitions== |