Tyler Cowen, the man who wants to know everything
A huge amount of what Cowen did seemed to be encountering other people, and I was often unsure whether this was out of eagerness to learn from them or a more basic need for human contact. Most of Cowen s good friends seem to be colleagues from George Mason. Some acquaintances I spoke to were in awe of Cowen, but unsure why someone hellbent on extracting value from available time had chosen to be friends with them.
He thinks of himself as an introvert, Bryan Caplan, Cowen s friend of 30 years told me, which is almost impossible to believe, given what he does, but it s actually true. I ve seen him when we re at an event where he doesn t know people. He just prefers to sit next to me. When I asked Cowen if he had felt a lack of community in the days before the internet, he stiffened a little. He said community was an overused word. But yes, he liked things better now. In every country on Earth, there was someone he could write to and have lunch with. I consider that an extreme privilege, he said. Not even billionaires have that.
Cowen s emotional life remains a mystery. He told me he did not experience regret. I don t know what the function of it is, he said. Is it to signal thoughtfulness? To stop you making further mistakes? It s like revenge. I don t understand it. Cowen also said he didn t understand envy or anger. He didn t know what he should be envious of. He didn t get lonely, by himself or in company. He actually said, Why bother?
When he told me he had never been depressed, I asked him to clarify what he meant. He had never been clinically depressed? Depressed for a month? For a week? An afternoon? I looked up from my notebook. An enormous smile, one I d not seen before, had spread across the whole of Cowen s face.
Like, for a whole afternoon? he asked, hugely grinning.
John Phipps