Better Late Than Never!

 From People I Mostly Admire

Talking to Sapolsky for me today was a series of one aha moment after another in a way that almost never happens to me when I talk to other economists. The things other economists say to me almost never surprised me. Mostly we agree on things, and when we disagree, it's usually pretty easy to figure out why. It almost always comes down to a disagreement over assumptions, and sometimes one or both of us can be convinced to change our assumptions a bit.

But fundamentally, economists have a shared model of how the world works. So rarely is my understanding of a problem transformed by another economist. The conversation with Sapolsky, however, it really stopped me in my tracks. I've been thinking about crime and criminal justice for a long time, so my views are pretty well developed. But today I think in changed, I always thought it was obvious that retribution was an appropriate use of the criminal justice system and that moral outrage should criminals make sense.

But honestly, I suspect I've been wrong about that for the last twenty five years. Better late than never.