Voice
Tyler Cowen
Economist & Writer · George Mason, Emergent Ventures · site
Economist at George Mason, director of Emergent Ventures, co-originator of progress studies with Patrick Collison. Author of The Great Stagnation and Talent. Prolific blogger at Marginal Revolution.
Key writings
Positions on problems
The Great Stagnation thesis: since roughly 1973 the low-hanging fruit of science and industry has been picked. Restoring the innovation engine is the meta-problem.
The Great Stagnation (2011)
Demographic stagnation and complacency are under-discussed civilizational risks. Cultural risk aversion compounds into stagnation.
The Complacent Class (2017)
Finding and developing talent is an underrated problem. Most selection is bad, most mentorship is worse, and the tails of ability are where civilizational value compounds.
Talent (with Daniel Gross, 2022)
Emergent Ventures has funded AI-safety projects and unconventional alignment researchers under the "fast grants" model.