And speaking of baloney . . .
Eric Falkenstein nicely sorts out a recent pronunciamento from J. Bradford DeLong.
Many mediocre minds are impressed by famous colleagues, graduate degrees, Harvard, or equations. Those people aren't worth impressing. While such signals are correlated with good ideas, they are neither necessary nor sufficient for a good idea. When someone emphasizes these signals, however, that should lower their credibility among thoughtful people because it suggests bad faith, a preference towards pretentious irrelevancies.
Ring the bell; school is out.
That can't be true! Tim Geithner attended Dartmouth and he knows EXACTLY what he is doing!
Posted by: kyle8 | February 27, 2012 at 05:12 PM
Seems to me that the "mediocre minds" *most* "impressed by famous colleagues, graduate degrees, Harvard, or" other such credentials are those who possess these signals.
The absolute worst surveys I ever had contact with [and the data and stats that flowed from them] were 'generated' by a Harvard PhD who was really, really impressed by those who possessed a "Harvard PhD". [He was frequently referred to as "Dr. Dick" for reasons other than his first name of Richard.]
Posted by: JorgXMcKie | February 27, 2012 at 05:24 PM