Monday, February 19, 2018

WAR: Per Bylund vs. Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Per Bylund, Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship & Records-Johnston Professor of Free Enterprise in the School of Entrepreneurship at Oklahoma State University, and an Associated Scholar with the Mises Institute, tweets out:


For the record, I do not believe it is necessary for a professor to have been an entrepreneur to teach the theory of entrepreneurship, any more than it is necessary for a surgeon to jump and touch a basketball rim to perform knee surgery.

That said, I suspect that many academic economists are confused about entrepreneurship because they have never seen it up close, the way a fat knee surgeon who was stuck on an isolated island with other fat people might find it difficult to believe that some humans can jump and touch a basketball rim 10-feet high.

It would not be impossible for a fat knee surgeon on such an island to consider how a person could jump to touch the rim but it would take a superior mind to conceive of such.

As far as teaching entrepreneurship rather than entrepreneurial theory, what can be done in a classroom is extremely limited.


  -RW 

3 comments:

  1. I got blocked by him on Facebook several years ago for calling him out for not giving credit to Menger, Mises, and Rothbard for developing certain concepts that he claims to have invented out of thin air.

    I still enjoy his work though. Just wish he'd have a bit of hubris.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hubris means "overweening pride", so I'm guessing you mean "a bit less hubris".

      Delete
    2. Yes, thank you for the correction.

      Delete