Making Sense of Chaos
A Better Economics for a Better World
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Narrated by:
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J. Doyne Farmer
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By:
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J. Doyne Farmer
About this listen
From a pioneer in the field of complexity science and chaos theory, a plan for solving the world’s most pressing problems
“Farmer convincingly argues that by using big data and today’s more powerful computers, we can build more realistic models and simulations of the global economy. . . . Farmer’s vision will undoubtedly be significant in how economics evolves.”—Tej Parikh, Financial Times, “Best New Books on Economics”
“Both a manifesto for a revolution in economics and a memoir of an unusual career.”—Ed Ballard, Wall Street Journal
We live in an age of increasing complexity—an era of accelerating technology and global interconnection that holds more promise, and more peril, than any other time in human history. The fossil fuels that have powered global wealth creation now threaten to destroy the world they helped build. Automation and digitization promise prosperity for some, unemployment for others. Financial crises fuel growing inequality, polarization, and the retreat of democracy. At heart, all these problems are rooted in the economy, yet the guidance provided by economic models has often failed.
Many books have been written about J. Doyne Farmer and his work, but this is the first in his own words. It presents a manifesto for how to do economics better. In this tale of science and ideas, Farmer fuses his profound knowledge and expertise with stories from his life to explain how we can bring a scientific revolution to bear on the economic conundrums facing society.
Using big data and ever more powerful computers, we are now able for the first time to apply complex systems science to economic activity, building realistic models of the global economy. The resulting simulations and the emergent behavior we observe form the cornerstone of the science of complexity economics, allowing us to test ideas and make significantly better economic predictions—to better address the hard problems facing the world.
©2024 J. Doyne Farmer (P)2024 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 12 hrs and 59 mins
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From launchpad explosions to a pernicious cricket infestation to the demanding management style of Musk himself, the rise of SpaceX was beset with challenges and far from inevitable. Find out how the startup beat the odds and flew high enough to outpace their rivals... and where they're going next.
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Appreciated the engineering details
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Inspired
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How do today's most successful tech companies - Amazon, Google, Facebook, Netflix, Tesla - design, develop, and deploy the products that have earned the love of literally billions of people around the world? Perhaps surprisingly, they do it very differently from the vast majority of tech companies. In Inspired, technology product management thought leader Marty Cagan provides listeners with a master class in how to structure and staff a vibrant and successful product organization and how to discover and deliver technology products that your customers will love.
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Great book, terrible audio wanted to ask a refund
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The Butchering Art
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In The Butchering Art, the historian Lindsey Fitzharris reveals the shocking world of 19th-century surgery on the eve of profound transformation. She conjures up early operating theaters - no place for the squeamish - and surgeons, working before anesthesia, who were lauded for their speed and brute strength. They were baffled by the persistent infections that kept mortality rates stubbornly high. A young, melancholy Quaker surgeon named Joseph Lister would solve the deadly riddle and change the course of history.
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Not one boring moment!
- By WRWF on 12-22-17
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Cosmic Queries
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In this illuminating audiobook, Tyson and coauthor James Trefil, a renowned physicist and science popularizer, take on the big questions that humanity has been posing for millennia - How did life begin? What is our place in the universe? Are we alone? - and provide answers based on the most current data, observations, and theories.
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Not worth it
- By Daniel Earl on 03-15-21
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Ranger Confidential
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- Narrated by: Julia Motyka
- Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins
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The real stories behind the scenery of America’s national parks. For 12 years, Andrea Lankford lived in the biggest, most impressive national parks in the world, working a job she loved. She chaperoned baby sea turtles on their journey to sea. She pursued bad guys on her galloping patrol horse. She jumped into rescue helicopters bound for the heart of the Grand Canyon. She won arguments with bears. She slept with a few too many rattlesnakes. Hell yeah, it was the best job in the world! Fortunately, Andrea survived it.
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Depressing from Cover to Cover
- By Drew (@drewsant) on 04-13-15
By: Andrea Lankford
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What listeners say about Making Sense of Chaos
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- dmh00000
- 08-25-24
Doyne Farmer is brilliant but...
I am all in on complexity science as the only way to examine the economy. I have been fascinated with complexity science since the early 90s and have read roughly 25 books on the topic.
Conventional macroeconomics is a joke. The tools are antiquated and the analysis tainted by assumptions that have been disproven repeatedly. That makes this story that Doyne set out to tell here so important.
Unfortunately, he was the wrong person to write and tell this story.
This book desperately needed a writer and EDITOR that organized the material and story much more logically than is told here. Doyne has made so many wonderful contributions to complexity science that he lost the thread of the story he is telling -- why complexity science is a superior methodology for analyzing, forecasting and managing the economy -- and instead continously peppered the narrative with tangentially related stories of his research, which are fascinating but often seem wandering.
i would still recommend this book but i firmly believe there is a better one to be written on this topic and i sincerely hope someone writes it.
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