Tuesday, August 18, 2009


Over at Austrian Economists, Dave Prychitko says:

I don't want to know what my students believe or think. I have neither the time nor the interest. Instead, I want to know how they think. Are they using the economic way of thinking? And, if so, are they merely using the same words and terms that I use in the classroom, or are they absorbing and understanding economic analysis? I feel that my goal as an educator is to offer them a way of learning how to think about complex social phenomena. "What do you think about minimum wages?" -- forget it. "How do you think about minimum wages?" Now we have something to discuss.

This has basically been my approach to business school. I have consciously selected classes that are going to teach me how to approach a problem, such as "Managerial Decision Making", and have avoided classes that will enhance my knowledge of facts, such as "Doing Business in the Middle East". The latter type may be helpful, but are easier to make up for after business school than the former.

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