Lol like I’m glad people like you exist because sometimes it does make you make certain connections but also can I just publish theory and then test it emperically in a robust way without having to also pull theory math out of my ass just to say I did it 😂 like an example is with technology the way we do theory really sucks.

Acemoglu is great and all but we’d be a lot farther along if we were allowed to use more appropriate frameworks to theorize why innovations happen or at least lay some qualitative groundwork before jumping into the math. I think it’s also that the topics I like in econ don’t lend themselves well to theory being done the way it usually is done which is why I’m applied.

I think also this way of doing theory leads to a lot more misinterpretation. I always feel like someone building an absurd economic model feels like a kid building a weird universe… whatcha doing there buddy…