Cowen: Books lose their world-shaking transformative power as you age
Tyler Cowen · #39 Tyler Cowen: Thinking About Thinking · Aug 21, 2018 · at 29:00
Economist Tyler Cowen explains to Shane Parrish why foundational 'quake books' profoundly reshape young minds but rarely have the same transformative effect past age 40.
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“When you're young, it's quite easy to read books that will shake everything you know, and those are the quake books. So for me, you know, a quake book was reading Friedrich A. Hayek. A quake book was reading the early science fiction I read in my life. A quake book was reading John Stuart Mill's autobiography. And because you don't, your worldview is, is not as formed, books have an incredible influence over you. Then as you get older, say, you know, by the time you hit 40, I don't mean that you never change your mind about things. You're changing your mind all the time. But it's very hard for something to have the impact, say, like the first time you heard Beethoven, or the first time you know, picked up Shakespeare. It's just not possible anymore.”
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