Required reading for graduate students

As a graduate student, more than one professor sent me off to read Hal Varian’s monograph, How to Build an Economic Model in Your Spare Time. I never did build a model in my spare time, of course, but I still enjoyed the piece. Actually, I loved it. My only fear is that this infamous little essay is headed for the dustbin. None of my graduate students had heard of it. So all you economics and poli sci PhDs out there, you now have a reading assignment for the weekend.

This is not your typical academic paper. Varian is not your typical academic. (If you need evidence of this, look no further than his current job: chief economist at Google. See his Freakonomics interview here.)

Instead, Varian gives a thoughtful reflection on how he works, and why. Here’s a sample:

I listen to a lot of stupid ideas—but that’s what I’m paid to do. Lots of people listen to stupid ideas from me, too: my colleagues get paid to do it, and the students get examined on it. But most people don’t have to listen to you. They don’t have to read your paper. They won’t even have to glance at the abstract unless they have a reason to.

This comes as a big shock to most graduate students. They think that just because they’ve put a lot of work and a lot of thought into their paper that the rest of the world is obliged to pay attention to them. Alas, it isn’t so. Herb Simon once said that the fundamental scarcity in the modern world was scarcity of attention—and brother, is that the truth.

In the end, he makes five simple points, none of which necessarily apply only to modeling:

  1. Look for ideas in the world, not in the journals.
  2. First make your model as simple as possible, then generalize it.
  3. Look at the literature later, not sooner.
  4. Model your paper after your seminar.
  5. Stop when you’ve made your point.

A bleg to readers: what other writings and reflections on working and researching influenced you?