mark nottingham

On Jargon and Applicability

Thursday, 19 August 2004

Alfred Marshall, who is credited with turning economics from a sideline to a proper discipline of its own, had this to say:

(1) Use mathematics as a shorthand language, rather than as an engine of inquiry. (2) Keep to them till you have done. (3) Translate into English. (4) Then illustrate by examples that are important in real life. (5) Burn the mathematics. (6) If you can’t succeed in 4, burn 3. This last I did often.