I have been experiencing a pretty significant shift in thinking with respect to writing and publicly sharing opinions.
My initial belief was that, as an economist, people know their own values and preferences better than anyone else. So why would you give public advice - on Twitter, say - when the personal component is quite important?
Now I have come to realise that the corpus of advice is the things that are written online and shared. And so adding my opinion publicly puts it out there, especially if it is thoughtful - which I find some content to be less so.
I also think a purpose of writing is encouraging me to think more clearly.
And finally, ideally, I hope to encourage a way of viewing the world which gives you agency, and helps you recognize that you can contribute to the world in a meaningful way.
So watch this space, with some of my thinking.
In the meantime, I’ll leave you with a quote by Karl Popper, who started the LSE Department of Philosophy. I think it’s an amazing quote:
The future is open. It is not fixed in advance. So no one can predict it - except by chance. The possibilities lying within the future, both good and bad, are boundless. When I say, “Optimism is a duty”, this means not only that the future is open but that we all help to decide it through what we do. We are all jointly responsible for what is to come.
So we all have a duty, instead of predicting something bad, to support the things that may lead to a better future.