by privatdozent on 11/19/21, 5:07 PM with 29 comments
by huitzitziltzin on 11/19/21, 7:25 PM
Background: His claim is that all of our CPI calculations are wrong bc we should be using gauge theory rather than differential calculus to understand consumer utility.
He got invited to the University of Chicago to give a talk about this theory. (This is one of the world’s top three or four economics departments.)
While I was not personally there, I have read reports about what happened. He was repeatedly asked by people in the room to provide a simple example of a case where his theory would do better than current methods for calculating CPI: suppose there are two goods and two periods of time, e.g. Show us how we get it wrong and you get it right (and why)
He did not do this. It seemed (according to reports from the room) that he was unable to do so.
It seems (being charitable) like the guy has a habit of making dramatic claims like “I have solved X and everyone currently working on it has it wrong!” and then not being able (not remotely able!) to back it up.
by holonomically on 11/19/21, 5:26 PM
1: https://www.simonsfoundation.org/2009/07/15/michael-atiyah/
by GDC7 on 11/19/21, 5:18 PM
At some point you got to throw caution into the bin and publish what you have to say.
This person mentioned Einstein, but Einstein was just the byproduct of a time when people had the balls to publish what could be perceived as extravagant theories.
Einstein was the one who got it right, but you don't get to hear from him if you don't create an environment in which people like him also felt the confidence to publish stuff that could be considered controversial.
People say necessity is the mother of invention, well right after that there's the feeling of being the only one who gets it and that all the others are wrong/clueless.
Competitive arrogance is right there at no.2
by DemocracyFTW on 11/21/21, 5:04 PM