Discovering my inner economist

I recently finished reading Discover Your Inner Economist by professor of economics at GMU Tyler Cowen. I won’t provide a full-on book review, as you can already find several of those at Amazon. I’ll merely say it was an enjoyable, easy-to-read-and-understand book for applying economic thought to traditionally non-economic issues in life. I’d recommend it to anyone interested in knowing how economics can be applied to subjects other than the economy, and/or how freaking rad econ can be. Maybe I’m biased.

An interesting thing happened to me while I was reading the book. In one chapter, Professor Cowen makes the assertion that we are likely to view others as acting similar to how we act. He gives the example of how a promiscuous man who has slept with numerous people will likely think that to be normal activity, and that others probably sleep around about as much as he does. I remember trying to think of aspects of my life that I project onto others in this fashion and having a few “aha” moments.

But the best one came the very following day, when I met with my doctor. Without getting into a whole lot of detail, I’ve been having some issues with my doctor lately in regards to prescriptions I use for my diabetes. To make a long ordeal short, he’s messed up multiple prescriptions, causing me a few hundred dollars in unnecessary expenses. My sole purpose in going to him on this occasion was not for my regular six month checkup, but to tell him how big of an idiot he’s been lately.

After making my case, his reply astonished me… and it can be summarized in a succinct statement he made: that I expect too much of him.

Yes, my doctor told me I expect too much of him — because I expect him not to mess up my prescriptions.

The real irony of his statement is that my previous two (serious) relationships ended for the very same reason. Apparently, I expect too much of people.

And that’s when I remembered what I had read about the promiscuous man. In the same way that the promiscuous man thinks others are just like him, I expect from others as much as I expect from myself… and we all know I expect a lot from myself. Perhaps I think too highly of myself, or perhaps I am being cynical, or perhaps a bit of both, but I realized I should probably not have the same standards for others as I have for myself.

But who knows? Maybe it’s not so bad to be idealistic.

ps. Dr. Robert Roth is was my doctor. I wouldn’t recommend him.