Discussing economics Book

I am really enjoying treading this book alongside my kids. It is understandable, pithy, and a great starting point for understanding economics. The purpose of this book is, in large part, to explain models. Why we have them, how we form them, and how we use them to make sense of the world. For example, we begin to understand geography as small children with a very limited frame of reference including our immediate surroundings inside our home, but then we learn the neighborhood, then the neighborhood and the way to school. As we learn about other places and travel further, these mind maps expand and eventually overlap so we understand a map of the world. This is a model. We do the same thing in almost everything we do whether we realize it or not.

One of the issues that he addresses in this book is the idea of cognitive dissonance, which is simply people rejecting information without consciously realizing it because it doesn't fit in their model. One such example of cognitive dissonance was people's belief that the world was flat. Every single day they saw the horizon and things appearing over the horizon--a ship sailing into view, a long-anticipated guest walking up a long road--but they rejected the idea that the earth might be round. One of the hardest things to realize is that your model, or paradigm might be incorrect and changing it. Therefore it is powerful to realize that you have a model of the world that applies to whatever situation you might be considering and be willing to examine it as to its applicability and validity. This single concept is amazing to consider. If can be terrifying as well because then you must consider what else in your life is out of step because of an incorrect model that has affected all else. I have personally found that the more history I study and place into context, the more I have learned and revised my frame of reference. Often it has verified things I have believed but usually it has strengthened me.

This book is the first Uncle Eric book in the series, and originally I was not going to use it in our study of economics. However, I think it is worth the extra time because it introduces the concepts he uses throughout the series. He reintroduces the concept of a model and gives a quick overview in each succeeding book, but not in depth. I have learned so much through reading this simple book.