Accepted opions nostrich on Nostr: With 2024 over it’s time for an obligatory “thought-leader” reflective ...
With 2024 over it’s time for an obligatory “thought-leader” reflective cringepost. I want to give you a peek into what the hell an economist *does* in tech.
I’ve been “in tech” for almost two years now, working with a few kiwi startups doing ridiculously awesome stuff.
The day to day looks mostly like everyone else’s day to day; sit at the PC, argue with GPT (and lose), fight with spreadsheets (and lose). But what’s produced as an economist “in tech” is quite unique.
Tech I’ve been involved with is all about platforms; software platforms, network platforms, market platforms. The idea is always to bring two or more groups together to create some sort of exchange (information, money, memes, all three).
What are platforms?
Platforms are about augmenting/combining (or replacing) an existing institution within the system of exchange. It could be governance, marketplaces, contracts and escrow, or any of the millions of institutions we can identify and even more that we can’t.
The important contrast I want to highlight is that contrast with what might be thought of as general tools. Think of like Excel, R, Stata, MYOB. Very useful technology, but not fundamentally about bringing multiple groups of people together.
How does the economist facilitate value in tech?
Understanding tools is about the user experience and the user’s goals. From a very narrow PoV of economics, it’s about communicating to policymakers how many people you employ to create the tool and then how much GDP the tool spits out. Or maybe it’s about couching the tool within policy goals and narratives. These are all incredibly valuable insights.
But what I want to highlight is that understanding platforms is more about understanding the institution within the system of exchange that your platform augments. Institutions emerge from repeated interactions, so what repeated interactions is your platform facilitating or creating?
Which makes it about understanding the narratives of human decisions/choices within the system of exchange. How do the users make decisions within that system of exchange and then how does your platform facilitate that?
I think it’s uniquely the science of human action, economics, that can offer insights in this sphere.
Now, turn on your Bitcoin node and get back to work
I’ve been “in tech” for almost two years now, working with a few kiwi startups doing ridiculously awesome stuff.
The day to day looks mostly like everyone else’s day to day; sit at the PC, argue with GPT (and lose), fight with spreadsheets (and lose). But what’s produced as an economist “in tech” is quite unique.
Tech I’ve been involved with is all about platforms; software platforms, network platforms, market platforms. The idea is always to bring two or more groups together to create some sort of exchange (information, money, memes, all three).
What are platforms?
Platforms are about augmenting/combining (or replacing) an existing institution within the system of exchange. It could be governance, marketplaces, contracts and escrow, or any of the millions of institutions we can identify and even more that we can’t.
The important contrast I want to highlight is that contrast with what might be thought of as general tools. Think of like Excel, R, Stata, MYOB. Very useful technology, but not fundamentally about bringing multiple groups of people together.
How does the economist facilitate value in tech?
Understanding tools is about the user experience and the user’s goals. From a very narrow PoV of economics, it’s about communicating to policymakers how many people you employ to create the tool and then how much GDP the tool spits out. Or maybe it’s about couching the tool within policy goals and narratives. These are all incredibly valuable insights.
But what I want to highlight is that understanding platforms is more about understanding the institution within the system of exchange that your platform augments. Institutions emerge from repeated interactions, so what repeated interactions is your platform facilitating or creating?
Which makes it about understanding the narratives of human decisions/choices within the system of exchange. How do the users make decisions within that system of exchange and then how does your platform facilitate that?
I think it’s uniquely the science of human action, economics, that can offer insights in this sphere.
Now, turn on your Bitcoin node and get back to work