#132: Keynesian Beauty Contest, Meyer's Dictum & the Flexible Mind
3 Ideas in 2 Minutes on the Marketplace of Ideas
I. Keynesian Beauty Contest
Thinking, we might say, involves going into the marketplace of ideas and selecting the best ones to act on. But how do we judge the value of an idea? In a Keynesian Beauty Contest?
The Keynesian Beauty Contest is an analogy developed by economist John Maynard Keynes. In a fictional contest, participants are asked to look at 100 pictures of people and select the six most attractive faces. The prize goes to the participants who pick the most popular ones. Keynes concluded:
It is not a case of choosing those [faces] that, to the best of one's judgment, are really the prettiest, nor even those that average opinion genuinely thinks the prettiest. We have reached the third degree where we devote our intelligences to anticipating what average opinion expects the average opinion to be. And there are some, I believe, who practice the fourth, fifth and higher degrees.
—John Maynard Keynes, General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money
Applied to the marketplace of ideas, the Keynesian Beauty Contest suggests that our choices are not only influenced by the intrinsic value of ideas. But also by our perceptions of what others believe their value to be.
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II. Meyer's Dictum
Meyer’s Dictum encapsulates a lesson I have learned from writing about interesting ideas and concepts for more than two years:
Any mundane quote, idea or concept can catch on if you elevate it to the status of a law, principle or rule.
Framed positively, if you want an idea to be memorable, give it a catchy name.
—Chris Meyer
III. The Flexible Mind
Our goal, it seems, should not be to cling to ideas (or adopt them just because a random blogger slaps his name on it). Robert Greene, the bestselling author of The 48 Laws of Power, put it this way:
When it comes to the ideas and opinions you hold, see them as toys or building blocks that you are playing with. Some you will keep, others you will knock down, but your spirit remains flexible and playful.
—Robert Greene, The Laws of Human Nature
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Have a great week,
Chris
themindcollection.com