AIER Fellows Guide to Graduate School, the Economy and Good Places to Eat
What do you guys think of the use of EconSpeak and MathSpeak? It’s certainly possible to abuse it (as reflected in the PhD Comics strip that shows an inverse relationship between years in grad school and number of people who get your jokes). Are there acceptable cases for the use of EconSpeak in the social setting, or should we bite our formal tongues the minute we walk in a bar?
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Yeah, we had a discussion about this, too, regarding our tendency to talk about things nobody else cares about, even when we’re “having a good time.”
We came to the conclusion that we’ll probably be hanging out with each other most of the time, anyway, so even when we’re in “social situations,” it will most likely be with each other.
So, EconSpeak away.
The real trick is sometimes speaking like an economist without using the language of an economist. Most people I know don’t really know what thinking at the margin means. And don’t ever mention Veblen or Pareto! But I’ve often used basic economic concepts in social settings, I just try to not use the words of an economist.
And just to let you all know, people probably do get the econ jokes, they’re just not funny.
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Perhaps when the line to the bar or bathroom is lengthy, just start talking loudly about how the Kolmogorov–Smirnov test you did in your metrics problem set resulted in a rejection the null that two variations of a gamma distribution were in fact similar.
Either someone with glazed eyes will hand you a vodka, or the place will empty, making it a cinch to get a drink.
Or, be like me and either make up a profession when asked … or say, “I’m an economist, and it’s OK to hug me.”