PlanetZ forums - scopeusers.com

Man, economics is strange.. I'm doing macroeconomics at work, sort of killing time while I wait for people to catch up in my project.. economics is like learning algebra, but in words! In math you try to keep things as a variable who doesn't care about what it contains.. but in economics the variables actually MEAN something! yikes!

Like on a production possibilities curve.. the "slope" (in math), or more accurately, the fact that the line has a slope, is referred to "the law of increase in opportunity cost". Now for me, it would make so much more sense if they just said the slope was greater or less, or the delta was great or less.. or even just wrote out the linear equation for whatever the line is and it'd tell me everything I need to know about it. It's so strange that economics goes through such lengths to WRITE OUT the mathematical phenomenon in words.

perhaps i'm using a textbook for non math people..
http://www.flatworldknowledge.com/pub/1 ... #web-29954

It's a creative commons textbook, free to read online! has exercises and everything! Fundamentally, economics is awesome! Sort of like counterpoint.. it sucks to go through it, but if you learn it it makes think in a different way.

economics is utter bullshit, but we are so ingrained into the system, that it feels like reality. economics is like witchcraft, which has a very logical system, once you are inside of it, too. of course, the ebb and flow of energy which economics utilizes is quite real.

mathematics is just another language that can be used to describe the world, like English or Japanese. the statement 1+1=2 is LANGUAGE, nothing else. very complicated spells can be invoked, and realities can be described through this powerful, precise language, including economic principles.

don't confuse the language for the reality...

wow, is the auto logout time for the site extremely short now? It keeps logging me out while I type my response.


anyway, ya, I'm studying it as a tool to build games. The concepts work very well in a synthetic, "perfect" world there human behavior can be limited to what is allowed in traditional economics.

it's all good!
economics is an important part of how the world is structured. it's good to have a working understanding. definitely, it's part of being edjumicated.