Thinking Differently

by Tyler Cowen

This title has been removed from sale by Penguin Group, USA.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Business, Autistic Spectrum Disorder

Kindle Edition

First published June 27, 2009

About the author

Tyler Cowen (born January 21, 1962) occupies the Holbert C. Harris Chair of economics as a professor at George Mason University and is co-author, with Alex Tabarrok, of the popular economics blog Marginal Revolution. He currently writes the "Economic Scene" column for the New York Times and writes for such magazines as The New Republic and The Wilson Quarterly.

Cowen's primary research interest is the economics of culture. He has written books on fame (What Price Fame?), art (In Praise of Commercial Culture), and cultural trade (Creative Destruction: How Globalization is Changing the World's Cultures). In Markets and Cultural Voices, he relays how globalization is changing the world of three Mexican amate painters. Cowen argues that free markets change culture for the better, allowing them to evolve into something more people want. Other books include Public Goods and Market Failures, The Theory of Market Failure, Explorations in the New Monetary Economics, Risk and Business Cycles, Economic Welfare, and New Theories of Market Failure.

Reviews

[Danielle Sullivan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a transcript of a relatively short conversation between Temple Grandin and Tyler Cowen. I had it in my to-read list for Grandin, but came away from this with much more interest in Cowen. It may be that, like many people with autism (and like myself, for example), Grandin just works better in writing than she does in real-time conversation, but reading this was frustrating because Cowen would ask amazing questions and Grandin just repeatedly got stuck in unrelated tangents, or had trouble following him. She's also, and this may just be her generation, unrepentantly capitalist, to the point that she recommends autistic folks try to convince NTs to accept them into society by showing NTs how well autistics can work. How about, just spitballing here, autistics deserve to be accepted into society because they are people too? How about we don't value people just based on how much money we can wring out of them?

So I have a ton of respect for Grandin based on some of her other works, but this wasn't her in her best light. I will try to read more from Cowen, though.

[Alex O'Brien · Rating 2 out of 5]

The transcript is broken into segments that are touched on at varying degrees, however several of the points raised by both overlap and hit the same point repeatedly making it quite repetitive. Interesting perspectives shared but in many instances you’re left with more questions than answers and only speculative evidencing!

[Tonya Garrison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Is basically just a transcript of a previous Q&A between Tyler Cowen and Dr. Temple Grandin. Okay read but not worth paying more than 99 cents for.

[Nita · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting read

This was an interesting read from the perspective of people living the situation. Thought it was neat to see it from their point of view.