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A review by bobuva
Create Your Own Economy: The Path to Prosperity in a Disordered World by Tyler Cowen
4.0
A very interesting book! Cowen explains human diversity in terms of our neurology, explaining that there are a lot of positive aspects of the autistic spectrum, that autistics receive a bad rap in contemporary culture. Education, he points out, is organized to teach us to focus and remember information, which are two autistic traits. Cowen goes way beyond education to show how autistic traits would be helpful for all us to understand better. By paying attention to our neuro-diversity, we will be better citizens, better people in general, and less likely to accept the stereotypes and common cultural biases of the supposedly neuro-common.
Cowen challenges our assumptions and presents a persuasive argument for viewing our world differently, and accepting the artistic and cognitive differences among humans. One point he makes that I found fascinating and insightful was that so many people consider the westernization of common culture in China, for example, to be a loss for human diversity because it appears to promote popular western culture over local cultural norms. Cowen counters that in today's globally-connected world with the internet and easy access to world-wide information and opinion, that geographic and national boundaries represent an antiquated view of human diversity. The fact that there are people interested in online games or any other hobby or intellectual pursuit who can connect on the web makes these old boundaries less important.
In regard to the book's title, the author points out that in centuries (and even decades) past, in order to appreciate some of the leading examples of culture (e.g, the Sistine Chapel), people had to make the pilgramage to the site. Although that is still true, there is so much more of a proliferation of artistic innovation these days. Creating your own economy can be as simple as participating in online pursuits that further your own artistic interests. For an autistic person this might be tracking patterns in baseball statistics over a season. For anyone, in fact, it might be finding that pattern of stimuli that engages your attention.
Cowen challenges our assumptions and presents a persuasive argument for viewing our world differently, and accepting the artistic and cognitive differences among humans. One point he makes that I found fascinating and insightful was that so many people consider the westernization of common culture in China, for example, to be a loss for human diversity because it appears to promote popular western culture over local cultural norms. Cowen counters that in today's globally-connected world with the internet and easy access to world-wide information and opinion, that geographic and national boundaries represent an antiquated view of human diversity. The fact that there are people interested in online games or any other hobby or intellectual pursuit who can connect on the web makes these old boundaries less important.
In regard to the book's title, the author points out that in centuries (and even decades) past, in order to appreciate some of the leading examples of culture (e.g, the Sistine Chapel), people had to make the pilgramage to the site. Although that is still true, there is so much more of a proliferation of artistic innovation these days. Creating your own economy can be as simple as participating in online pursuits that further your own artistic interests. For an autistic person this might be tracking patterns in baseball statistics over a season. For anyone, in fact, it might be finding that pattern of stimuli that engages your attention.