And speaking of baloney . . .
February 27, 2012
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.