o how would you describe how you teach yourself economics? VITALIK BUTERIN: I guess it involves a combination of things. Some of it is reading what various eco

o how would you describe how you teach yourself economics? VITALIK BUTERIN: I guess it involves a combination of things. Some of it is reading what various economists on the internet say. Some of it is reading papers. Sometimes, if I want to dig into some topic more deeply, I end up reading books, like I read one on urban transportation economics a while back. One of the things people need to realize is that you can't learn economies or behavioral science by reading. Sure you know concepts but unless you have implemented and gone through a full economical cycle, what you have in hand in terms of knowledge is just hypothesis - not actual facts. Every downturn has upended what people previously known about depression. And same goes for upturns. Sure, there are analysis after the fact but nothing in-between the cycles. Additionally, I remember Buterin quoting Debt: The First 5,000 Years as gospel truth of economies. While the book is good and provides one perspective of looking at things it is not the whole and sole of the theory. So, I really doubt Buterin's knowledge on economics. Before someone asks, I don't doubt his understanding on cryptocurrencies. And frankly, this whole learning by reading is good for foundations. But I see many people in crypto field jumping to release a, let's say voting blockchain, because they read some papers/books on voting. And then they release an ICO to test their theoretical knowledge. This doesn't help anyone. To paraphrase Matt Levine on Bloomberg, cryptocurrencies seems to be learning about every mistake made earlier. Just on a bigger and faster.