On the Very Serious Podcast: Tyler Cowen on Identifying Talent

05/19/22 • 41 min

Questions about identifying and matching talent underlie a lot of political and economic discussions in our society. Are we admitting the right people to universities? Giving them the right training? Preventing labor market discrimination? Setting policies around work and family that make it possible for people (especially mothers of young children) to do the jobs that align with their talents? Doing better on all these measures can mean not just fuller lives and better organizations but stronger economic growth. So this week, Josh spoke with economist Tyler Cowen, co-author of the Marginal Revolution blog and co-author with Daniel Gross of a new book called Talent: How To Identify Energizers, Creatives, And Winners Around The World. Tyler has thoughts about how to better identify talent that might scramble your preconceptions, given his libertarian politics. One of his arguments is that we are over-weighting both IQ and grades in assessing talent: these matter (as do the underlying traits they measure, such as conscientiousness) but not as much as you might think. So what does matter? Listen to find out.

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This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.joshbarro.com/subscribe

Previous Episode

The Vibe Is Shifting. Will the Media Follow?

It's been a tumultuous decade for news media. Publications have been upended financially by technological shifts, and they face employee and subscriber pressure to become more openly ideological. The result is a media that's more siloed, more preachy, and more financially precarious. What can be done to restore trust, build sustainable businesses, and get more Americans on the same factual page about what's going on in this country? This week's Very Serious comes to you from the Milken Institute's 2022 Global Conference: Josh Barro's conversation on the future of media with Substacker Bari Weiss, Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg, MSNBC president Rashida Jones, and Axios CEO Jim VandeHei.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.joshbarro.com/subscribe

Next Episode

Matt Levine on Elon Musk and Compliance

Elon Musk, the world's richest man, doesn't just behave in ways that run afoul of regulators. He does things most CEOs don't because they think it would cost them business relationships, and therefore money. JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon wouldn't Tweet that he has "funding secured" to take JP Morgan private at $169 per share, especially if he didn't actually have the funding secured. I've never seen him tweet a poop emoji at a takeover target. And he would never tweet a rude question to a United States senator. Is Dimon leaving money on the table? Musk doesn't just make cars and rockets -- he's made a persona that turns investors into fans and helps his companies access cheap capital to expand and grow. His model has even thrown off enough money for him to buy Twitter on a lark -- a decision he already seems to regret. I talk with Bloomberg's Matt Levine on why Elon Musk gets away with what he does, and what his seeming imperviousness to rules means for our financial markets. Plus, we talk about the deal with ESG investing, and how Matt invests his own money.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.joshbarro.com/subscribe