Economist admits to Civ Addiction

Richard III

Duke of Gloucester
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From Wired, an amusing confession from one of my favorite modern economists, the liberal (but free market defending) J. Bradford DeLong. He starts off an article on why computers impede productivity this way...

In the spring of 1994, I wiped the game Civilization off my office computer. I wiped it off my home PC. I wiped it off my laptop. I threw away the original disks on which it had come. It was clear to me that I had a choice: I could either have Civilization on my computers, or I could be a deputy assistant secretary of the US Treasury. I could not do both. It wasn't that my boss ordered me to - she herself played a mean game of computer solitaire. In this, I was the boss, and I had decided that with Civilization on DeLong's hard disk, DeLong's productivity would be unacceptably low.

(strictly speaking, this should be in Civ2 general, but no one will read it there because Civ2 is inferior...)
 
1994? Sounds more like it should be in the Civ1 forum, unless I'm mistaken ;)
 
Your lack of commitment to purposeless pedantry is sickening, Padma. You should be ashamed of yourself! ;)
 
On the other hand, how often is it that old Stormerne actually gets to see a new thread in that dusty old forum of his? This one might have made his day :D
 
:hmm:

Maybe we should tell him abou CFC :hmm:
 
Originally posted by Matrix
TF once told the staff a Finnish minister is at CFC. ;) But he didn't tell who.

I know that one Finnish ex-minister is a huge Civ fan and playes Civs a lot. He told about his addiction to Civs at some Finnish newspaper or magazine. Can't remember what it was exactly. He could visit CFC occasionally or even be regular poster. I don't know. :)
 
Originally posted by DivineImpact
<---- George W. Bush


not really


really. He just calls Hammurabi Saddam and uses the real world as a map ;)


btw, I wouldn't like him either if I was Schroeder and he called me Bizzy ;)
 
The Dutch finance secretary plays Heroes of M&M a lot. Not as good as civ... But I could have saved us some euros if he weren't a pc-gamer.
 
I had to delete Civ 1 to pass my freshman year of college. I found Civ 2 the following year, and dropped to a 3.0 average.
 
I love Brad De Long. Besides his academic writings, he keeps an outstanding blog here, and is definitely worth a visit. Besides economics, topics include Buffy the Vampire Slayer, food, Rocky & Bullwinkle, and allegedly real conversations with his thirteen year-old son, but which remind me of Herodotus' dialogues. Reading him makes me wish he'd written my econ textbooks back when I was in school.

This post on the Lord of the Rings is a classic.
 
Deputy assistant secretary of the US Treasury or Civ? I think I'd go for Civ.
 
Originally posted by Stapel
The Dutch finance secretary plays Heroes of M&M a lot. Not as good as civ... But I could have saved us some euros if he weren't a pc-gamer.
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Joop Wijn?
 
I work in DC and I don't think everyone is aware how many Deputy Assistant Secretaries there are in each executive agency. My agency (Veterans Affairs) has at least 20.

But I ditto the sentiment. I remember finding civ 1 on some beat up Mac in the computer center when I was there to write two final papers.
 
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