Economics
I just gatecrashed an environmental economics conference. Aside from getting to see a friend speak, and see first hand the plush environs of the Royal Society, it was something of a learning experience.
From my point of view, limited as it is, economics is right on the edge of what I’d be willing to consider science. In its favour, economics is a subject that makes predictions based on experience, then compares these predictions to evidence and adjusts the thesis on the basis of that comparison. Against it is the seemingly inherent unpredictability of people, if not en masse then certainly individually. In the same way that I struggle with biology because things don’t behave rationally, I struggle with economics.
All that said, it was a good conference to have gatecrashed: I enjoyed watching people present their ideas, their evidence and their conclusions. I was also pleased to find myself in an environment where questions are welcomed, and where answers are enlightening and clarifying. I think my job has dampened my love of questions, since it is so often up to me to answer them, and so I know all of the answers in advance. What sort of way is that to live, really?
You should go find something you’re bad at, or uninterested in, and give it another go: you won’t know that your interest or talent has grown until you do. If it hasn’t, find something else. Its the only way to broaden your horizons.
This is from the