About 12 years ago on an old blog of mine, I asserted that GDP was being measured incorrectly as was much of the rest of the economy, and that productivity growth was a good bit higher than estimated. Everyone (including an actual economist) piled on telling me how crazy and wrong I was.

Well, I was right.

Interesting report by @d_harrison on how US official statisticians are abandoning techniques of the 20th century to keep up with new retail and production structure. Result is to lower price estimates and raise productivity growth. https://t.co/hjrh8vIw7F pic.twitter.com/k9pyatg4W7

— Adam Tooze (@adam_tooze) May 3, 2019

This has been bloody obvious to anyone paying a bit of attention, but economics, to the extent that it is worth anything at all, is always about two decades behind the times.

I do indeed like being right.

Those who Can write rarely realize how difficult it is for those who cannot

It makes me think most people don’t understand their own minds very well https://t.co/s6eC7613Io

— Alexander J.A Cortes (@AJA_Cortes) May 2, 2019

Agreed. It took me a long, long time to comprehend that some people — many people — can’t “just write” as I can, and that it is a prohibitively-difficult task for many. I guess that was my equivalent of, “Anyone can do math, you just haven’t been shown how!” nonsense that math types spout.

Writing, though, is a complex task that not only takes much practice but also a certain kind of mind, a kind that I happen to possess. Others don’t, though often being no less intelligent.

And not everyone has the time or interest it takes to read as voluminously as is required to be a capable writer. I estimate I had to read for about 30,000 hours to become a good writer. Not a typo. That is 30,000 hours of reading. That’s just shy of 3.5 years of having a book in my hand. Just reading, does not include any other time. I’d say that’s conservative as an estimate, as I am fast reader and have a pretty good mind. Most will require more reading time.