I’m torn regarding this argument. Aaron Swartz wrote a very nice piece which I can’t find (his personal site now appears to be down) about how working entirely on things that are your current comparative advantage is fixed mindset, and what you could be doing instead is changing what your comparative advantage is. I’m glad that Aaron Swartz did this, and I worry that focusing on comparative advantage gives me an excuse not to branch out. (My current comparative advantage is in mathematics but I’m not convinced that means I should only be spending my life working on mathematics.)
To make my argument clearer, I will use you as an example; please forgive me.
If you have a comparative advantage in maths, and decide to change your comparative advantage to medical, computer, or social science, as soon as you have caught up on the fundamentals of the field necessary to make an informed opinion you will already have a comparative advantage because of your background.
Your proficiency in maths lent you a comparative advantage in maths; your comparative advantage in maths lends you a comparative advantage in [economics]; your comparative advantage in maths and [economics] lends you a comparative advantage in [biochemistry], etcetera.
I think this makes sense. We need to distinguish between something like “obvious current comparative advantage” and “less obvious potential comparative advantage.” In practice, the heuristic “stick to your comparative advantage” may optimize excessively for the former at the expense of the latter.
I’m torn regarding this argument. Aaron Swartz wrote a very nice piece which I can’t find (his personal site now appears to be down) about how working entirely on things that are your current comparative advantage is fixed mindset, and what you could be doing instead is changing what your comparative advantage is. I’m glad that Aaron Swartz did this, and I worry that focusing on comparative advantage gives me an excuse not to branch out. (My current comparative advantage is in mathematics but I’m not convinced that means I should only be spending my life working on mathematics.)
To make my argument clearer, I will use you as an example; please forgive me.
If you have a comparative advantage in maths, and decide to change your comparative advantage to medical, computer, or social science, as soon as you have caught up on the fundamentals of the field necessary to make an informed opinion you will already have a comparative advantage because of your background.
Your proficiency in maths lent you a comparative advantage in maths; your comparative advantage in maths lends you a comparative advantage in [economics]; your comparative advantage in maths and [economics] lends you a comparative advantage in [biochemistry], etcetera.
I think this makes sense. We need to distinguish between something like “obvious current comparative advantage” and “less obvious potential comparative advantage.” In practice, the heuristic “stick to your comparative advantage” may optimize excessively for the former at the expense of the latter.