In this interview, host Speaker A asks economist and writer Tyler Cowen to elaborate on his popular 2019 blog post “How I Practice at What I Do.” Cowen compares disciplined practice in fields like economics, writing, and public speaking to the rigorous training of elite athletes such as Kobe Bryant and Martina Navratilova, emphasizing daily, intense engagement with reading, conversation, thinking, and exercise. He describes his own “scales” as producing large volumes of writing (much unpublished), adopting viewpoints that are not his own, conversing with a highly diverse set of people, listening to complex music, and periodically reading serious fiction to stay attuned to human complexity. When prompted about recommendations for nonfiction‑purists who have not read fiction since early adulthood, Cowen is asked to suggest entry‑level works, though his answer is not included in the excerpt.
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Tyler Cowen: One of your most popular, if not the most popular post of yours in 2019 on your blog was "How I Practice at What I Do." I believe that's the name of the blog post. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
Yes, that's correct.
And to quote that blog post, you wrote, "Recently, one of my favorite questions to bug people with has been, 'What is it that you do to train that is comparable to a pianist practicing scales. If you don't know the answer to that one, maybe you're doing something wrong or not doing enough. Could you elaborate on that, please?
Well, say you're a social scientist or you're a writer or you give public talks. You are out there in some way all of the time. But if you look at people like, say, what Kobe Bryant did or what Martina Navratilova did, they practiced to an extreme degree, and that's how they got better. Martina was not world number 1 player until she had an intense regime of proper practice. Kobe, the older he got, he realized he needed to practice more, whereas a lot of top stars actually practice less and they coast on reputation and they have a guaranteed contract. So just every day you want to be reading, you want to be talking, you want to be thinking, you want to be exercising, and do it, you know, at an intense a level as you can. And just try to do that all day long, and that's practice. And, you know, one hopes it will make you better. It's not for you to say, but, you know, that's the hope.
How do you practice your scales? What does scales look like for you?
Writing out large quantities of material, much of which I never use or publish, writing out different points of view which are not my own is also a way of practicing. Trying to talk to a very diverse set of people— in my case, not just academics, not just people I went to high school with, say. Listening to highly complex music, I think, is a way to keep your mind active. Periodically reading serious fiction, I think, is something people stop doing after they hit a certain age, maybe 30 or 40. But it forces you to be open to the complexities of how humans actually are. I recommend that too.
If someone listening were a nonfiction purist, say they quit at 20 and had not been reading fiction since, are there any particular fiction books that you might recommend for someone to use as their reentry to the world of complex fiction or fiction overall?
I would have to know their biography, but I would start with Harold Bloom's book, The Western Canon, which has a list and surveys a lot of his favorite works. A few of which are non-fiction, by the way, and dig in there and just find what you love and pursue it. I think the greatest writer is Shakespeare. It's not necessarily for everyone, and if you did not grow up writing and reading English, it's probably not for you, but that would be one start. The Henriade, you know.
