I simultaneously love and hate UChicago! What should I do?

DavidTaleb
Sun, 06 Jul 2014 02:45:28 +0000

Thanks everyone for all your help! I have gone into some self-reflection and realized that…UChicago is the place to be after all. As phuriku mentioned, I do not understand the Chicago school of economics enough to criticism it and going to UChicago would certainly help with that. After all, the best way to destroy something is from the inside, not the outside.

But regarding why I am convinced that UChicago economics does not reflect reality, is a result of many different readings and empirical observations. For example, Karl Popper’s works on science or pseudo-science repudiated much of the UChicago economic mode of thinking. Another example could be the spectacular bursting of LTCM, a hedge fund run by TWO of UChicago Nobel Memorial Prize winners, Myron Scholes and Robert Merton. Also, how can Eugene Fama claim that are inefficient and market movements are random, when Warren Buffett, George Soros, David Tepper, Bill Ackman, David Einhorn can have a long term track record of beating the market, is beyond me.

I have an obsession with economics since early pre-adolescent, so i am actually very familiar with the works of the great economists, from Adam Smith to Hayek to Friedman, and to say that I do not know enough to be convinced, may be true but insulting.