Not Sure If True

The Local-Maxima Theory of Boom and Bust An alternative theory of economic cycles The Local-Maxima Theory of Boom and Bust Why economies crash when they stop climbing, not when they climb too far. Babu George The puzzle The crashes that built the modern world The technologies that crash hardest are often the ones that end up mattering most. British railways drew a speculative mania in the 1840s, then the share prices collapsed and ruined thousands of investors. Within a generation, railways had rebuilt the geography of trade, labor, and even the way clocks were set. The internet repeated the trick. In 2000 the dot-com index gave back years of gains in a few months, and the obituaries were brutal. A decade later the same technology ran retail, advertising, media, logistics, and the social lives of billions. If busts were nothing more than markets correctly punishing bad ideas, this would be a strang...

Against Specialization Babu George, PhD Babu George, PhD Against Specialization On the possibility that depth emerges from breadth One of the most deeply rooted assumptions of modern civilization is that excellence requires specialization. We are told that knowledge has grown too vast for any individual to comprehend. The scientist must become a specialist in a branch of a discipline. The physician must devote himself to an organ system. The engineer must occupy a narrow technical domain. Progress, according to this view, depends upon intellectual division of labour. There is much truth in this doctrine. A civilization of generalists could not have built particle accelerators, mapped genomes, or performed heart transplants. Yet the doctrine contains a subtle error. It assumes that specialization is not merely necessary but ...