How to start learning a subject from scratch? 1.0

All reading is a waiting encounter.

All encounters are manifestations of destiny.

How fortunate I am to have encountered The Intelligent Reader in my lifetime, which has kept me on track in my self-study of economics.

01 Build your own economics knowledge system through thematic reading

He said, "You think that just opening a book and studying hard is enough, but smart readers compare the tables of contents of multiple books at the same time and build their own knowledge system."

Following the instructions in the book, I first created a list of recommended books on economics on Douban.

See the book list at: https://www.douban.com/doulist/157234291/

After time's screening and filtering, the current list has more than 190 books, including classic books and related biographies of big names arguing with each other, as well as textbooks for beginners and popular science books for the general public.

When faced with a completely new field, we may feel helpless at first.

Read The Smart Reader more often, and put the details in the book into practice. Your emotions will soon be overshadowed by your actions.

Once you have a long list of books, the next step is to determine the level of your thematic reading.

As someone who is still an outsider to economics, the most pressing issue to resolve is "how to form a basic understanding of economics in three months."

Therefore, I started with the history of economic thought and the principles of economics.

Based on Douban ratings, book categories, editions, and availability, I selected Stanley L. Brou's "A History of Economic Thought (8th Edition)," Adam Smith's "The Wealth of Nations," and Paul Samuelson's "Economics (19th Edition)" as my main reading list.

Supplemented by Wei Lili's \A History of Economic Thought\, Zhang Xukun's \A History of Economic Thought (4th Edition)\, Marshall's \Principles of Economics\, Mankiw's \Principles of Economics (8th Edition)\, and Arnold's \Think Like an Economist\, I conducted selective readings and close readings of these texts and created my own booklist on Douban.

See the book list at: https://www.douban.com/doulist/157336551/

Next, I compared the table of contents of four books—Stanley L. Brouwer's \A History of Economic Thought (8th Edition)\, Wei Lili's \A History of Economic Thought\, and Zhang Xukun's \A History of Economic Thought (4th Edition)\—to conduct an initial review of the core schools of economics, key figures, and major theories. I then used "What is economics?" " as the foundation, and "core schools of economics" and "core knowledge structure of economics" as the first-level nodes, I have preliminarily constructed the framework of a tree-like knowledge structure for the field of economics.

After that, I compared the tables of contents of Marshall's Principles of Economics, Mankiw's Principles of Economics (8th edition), and Paul Samuelson's Economics (19th edition) to construct a preliminary hypothesis of the core knowledge structure of economics.

Finally, to verify whether there were still some deviations in my preliminary assumptions, I went to the city library and randomly flipped through the tables of contents of a dozen or so personal monographs, textbooks, and popular science books on economics.

I found that these books all revolve around classical economics, neoclassical economics, Keynesian economics, Chicago economics, scarcity and efficiency, supply and demand, input and output, efficiency and fairness, currency, finance, inflation, unemployment, and so on.

At that moment, I felt like I had a "god's-eye view," and I was overjoyed.

02 Achieve your reading goals through selective reading

He said, "You think that reading a book a hundred times will reveal its meaning. Smart readers have clear reading goals, make assumptions round after round, and quickly grasp the essence of a book."

Before I started reading, I made my first assumption:

Stanley L. Brou's \A History of Economic Thought (Eighth Edition)\ can help me effectively organize the birth dates of important figures in economics, the first publication dates of their important works, and the first emergence dates of important theories.

When I opened the book and finished reading the introductions of the first five key figures, I found that my assumptions were incorrect.

On the contrary, Wei Lili's "History of Economic Thought" surprised me. Through the diagrams and tables in the book, I was able to effectively sort out the birth dates of important figures in the field of economics and the first publication dates of their important works.

Before sorting things out, I made a second assumption:

The mainstream schools of economics are independent of each other, with clear time divisions between them, and economists are people from different eras spanning centuries.

After sorting out their dates of birth and death and the publication dates of their works, I found that my assumption was incorrect again.

Because you will find that some of them were contemporaries, not much older or younger than each other, and even close friends or enemies, influencing each other's work.

For example, you will find that when economists such as Ricardo, Senier, and Little Müller were actively discussing political economy, Marx jumped in to criticize them and then wrote "Critique of Political Economy" and "Capital."

For example, you will find that after Marx finished writing the third volume of Capital, Eugen von Barmbek of the marginalist school turned around and criticized him, writing Karl Marx and the End of His System.

The relationships between these characters and the connections between the works give you a strange sense of vitality.

You will find that the names of people and books are not unfamiliar, independent, or cold, but vivid and three-dimensional, standing right in front of you.

Two rounds of assumptions, achieve goals, gain new knowledge, and enjoy reading more and more.

03 Form your own understanding through close reading of the text

He said, "You think reading is just completely respecting the author's meaning and letting the author's thoughts run through your mind, but smart readers engage in a dialogue with the author. As Schopenhauer said, 'Reading is letting others run horses in our minds; thinking is running horses ourselves.'"

For close reading of informational texts, I start with key concepts.

Whether it is Paul Samuelson's Economics (19th Edition) or Mankiw's Principles of Economics (8th Edition), the basic chapters introduce a concept known as the production possibility frontier.

Obviously, this concept is very central.

So, what is the production possibility frontier?

In his book Economics, Samuelson wrote, "The production possibility frontier represents the maximum output that an economy can efficiently obtain under given conditions of technological knowledge and the quantity of inputs available."

Mankiw wrote in Principles of Economics: "The production possibility frontier is a graph that shows the various combinations of products that an economy can produce when the production factors and the production technologies that transform these factors into output are fixed."

To put it bluntly, when resources and technology are limited, an economy that needs to produce both A and B must weigh up how much of each to produce in order to maximize efficiency and output.

The value of the production possibility frontier lies in helping decision makers make trade-offs.

Beyond the boundaries, don't even think about it; it's impossible to achieve. Within the boundaries, efficiency is low and there is mass unemployment. Only what lies on the curve is the most suitable.

What decision makers need to do is consider the future and determine which point on the curve is the most appropriate choice at the present moment.

Perhaps, using the production possibility frontier to weigh how much A and how much B an economy should produce is too distant from us.

Perhaps we can talk about everyday life.

With limited time and energy, we have to work and study; we have to input and output. So how should we allocate our time and energy?

Can we use the production possibility frontier to help us make trade-offs?

First, we need to use software or pen and paper to record how we spend our time during the five working days and two rest days. How many hours did you work? How many hours did you study? How many hours did you spend inputting information? How many hours did you spend outputting information? List your daily time expenditure in Excel.

Second, draw a two-dimensional coordinate axis on software or paper, convert the data in Excel into coordinates, fill them in, and connect the points in the coordinate system with lines.

Finally, look at your curve chart, arrange your time reasonably, and keep yourself at peak efficiency.

If it's a workday, then work more. If it's a day off, then study more. If there are tasks to complete, then spend more time on them. Otherwise, spend more time on input.

Behind this lie two economic principles: trade-offs and opportunity costs.

Economics is a discipline that studies how people, organizations, markets, and societies interact and influence each other under conditions of limited or scarce resources.

Scarcity and efficiency are its core issues.

The production possibility frontier model, trade-offs, and opportunity costs are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to explaining core economic propositions.

\## 04 Use Structure to Read Deep into the Minds of Economists

He said, "You think that reading has no focus and that you can just read casually, but smart readers use structural reading, read with a framework in mind, and engage in constant dialogue with the author."

The Smart Reader provides nine mainstream ways of thinking. We can use elimination and screening methods to determine the author's way of thinking, or we can follow the advice of experts.

For example, we can look at how Keynes viewed economists.

Keynes said, "The study of economics does not seem to require any special genius. Compared to more profound philosophy or pure science, isn't economics... an extremely easy subject? It is an easy subject, but few people excel in it! The explanation for this paradox may lie in the fact that outstanding economists need a rare combination of various talents. In a sense, he must be a mathematician, a historian, a politician, and a philosopher. He must understand symbols and express them in words. He must think deeply about particularities based on general principles and approach abstract and concrete concepts with equal flexibility. He must study the present while referencing the past and looking toward the future. He must consider every aspect of human nature or human institutions. He must maintain a firm yet objective emotional stance, remaining as detached as an artist yet grounded as a politician at times.

From the above discussion, we can roughly conclude that economists' cognitive methods generally include thought experiments, symbolic thinking, and field research.

If you encounter an economist with good writing skills, such as Samuelson, you can add a humorous narrative approach.

Now that we know Samuelsson's cognitive methods include thought experiments, symbolic thinking, field research, and humorous storytelling, we can ask ourselves questions while reading to get inside the author's mind and discover more hidden information behind the words.

For example, when Samuelson asks you to imagine some scenarios, you should ask yourself:

What kind of thought experiment did the author construct? Is this thought experiment the author's original invention, or is it based on existing thought experiments in history? How does this thought experiment differ from your common knowledge? What kind of counterintuitive insights does it provide? Following the author's thought experiment, what views can you use it to criticize?

For example, when you see Samuelson using mathematical formulas to explain a concept, you should ask yourself:

Does the author use symbols that are as precise as mathematical symbols, or are they imprecise and vague? Are there connections between these symbols? Can they be used in calculations? If so, what results can be obtained? If not, what phenomena does the author represent with these symbols? In which fields can the author's symbols be applied?

For example, when you see Samuelson summarizing patterns through certain events, you should ask yourself:

Before conducting secondary field research based on existing materials, was the author familiar with the research subjects? What conclusions did the author draw during the field research? What is the explanatory value of these conclusions? What phenomena can they explain?

For example, when you see Samuelson telling jokes, you should ask yourself:

What are the key phrases and sentences that make up this joke? What basic human need does this joke relate to? Is this joke funny? If so, why? If not, why not? How would you rewrite this joke in a similar style to the author?

It doesn't matter if you can answer these questions or not.

The important thing is that, while thinking, we can detach ourselves from the text and see a broader world.

Conclusion:

How fortunate I am to have encountered The Intelligent Reader in my lifetime.

He made me understand what it means to be a smart economist.

You think that studying economics is about understanding charts and data, but smart economists choose to observe economic events, use statistical analysis and historical records to establish hypotheses, and then verify them.

You may think that studying economics is just about memorizing a bunch of names, concepts, and theories, but smart economists use concepts, data, and theories to analyze core issues in human society and understand the potential and limitations of economic policies.

You think economics only applies to solving big problems, and that smart economists use economic principles to help them make rational decisions.

How to start learning a subject from scratch? 1.0