Joel On Software writes about why Computer Science college students should learn microeconomics:
Why should CS majors learn econ? Because a programmer who understands the fundamentals of business is going to be a more valuable programmer, to a business, than a programmer who doesn’t. That’s all there is to it. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been frustrated by programmers with crazy ideas that make sense in code but don’t make sense in capitalism. If you understand this stuff, you’re a more valuable programmer, and you’ll get rewarded for it, for reasons which you’ll also learn in micro.
I would only add that there are a number of other professions that could benefit from knowing what are “crazy ideas that… don’t make sense in capitalism” like historians, sociologists, pastors, politicians, political scientists, …
His take on micro versus (mainstream) macro is dead on:
…econ is one of those fields that starts off with a bang, with many useful theories and facts that make sense, can be proven in the field, etc., and then it’s all downhill from there. The useful bang at the beginning is microeconomics, which is the foundation for literally every theory in business that matters. After that things start to deteriorate: you get into Macroeconomics (feel free to skip this if you want) with its interesting theories about things like the relationship of interest rates to unemployment which, er, seem to be disproven more often than they are proven, and after that it just gets worse and worse and a lot of econ majors switch out to Physics, which gets them better Wall Street jobs, anyway. But make sure you take Microeconomics, because you have to know about supply and demand, you have to know about competitive advantage, and you have to understand NPVs and discounting and marginal utility before you’ll have any idea why business works the way it does.
See more from Joel along these lines. Also scroll down to see his take on why programming students should “Stop worrying about all the jobs going to India.”
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I don’t see how a single class in microeconomics is really going to change anyone’s whole world outlook.
Libertarian Girl,
I wasn’t claiming anything about changing a “whole world outlook”. But let me point to two examples of folks in the professions I named whose exposure to economics has kept them from “crazy ideas” that many of their colleagues are prone to.
One is Father Sirico of the Acton Institute who described in a recent letter from the Institute how he once mouthed a lot of the anti-economic statements that many clergymen do until he was exposed to economics. He is now a great champion of free market thinking.
Another example is Tom Woods, a historian whose exposure to Austrian economics has a major impact on his work. Examples abound in his bestseller The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History. Did these two change their “whole world view”? I don’t know. But their exposure to economics certainly had some positive effect!
This is a great article by Joel Spolsky. He really knows what he’s doing when it comes to software. I think he’s wrong on the MS monopoly strategy, though.
Students, you say? Richard Stallman, GNU project father, should learn economics and get some understanding of freedom as well.
http://kerneltrap.org/node/4484
I was in tears while reading:
“I’ve recently come to the conclusion that frictionless international trade is inherently a harmful thing, because it makes it too easy for companies to move from one country to another. We have to make that difficult enough that each company can be stuck in some country that can regulate it.”
Could you please suggest good introductory books on microeconomics for CS majors
Sudarshan,
I would suggest just reading Mises.org. The best textbook on economics (period) is Murray Rothbard’s Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market and Mises’ Human Action.
Vvagr,
Despite RMS’ lack of understanding of economics, the free software movement is not incompatible with libertarianism, nor foolish from an economic point of view. RMS’ political views on certain subjects, rather, are foolish.
Sudershan,
Though David correctly identified the best textbooks on economics, you asked for a good introductory book. Economics for Real People by Gene Callahan is just the thing. Not only is it short, readable and still thorough but it is even written by a programmer!
Two books about both programming and economics are:
“The Cathedral & the Bazaar” by Eric Raymond, and
“Software as Capital” by Howard Baetjer, Jr.
They are as different from each other as one can possibly imagine, but both contain valuable insights.
I’m a computer science major and I took a course in micro and macroeconomics. I do not see how having taken either of these courses will help me with comp sci.
The point seems to be that narrow-focused education trends can be a general indication of intellectual laziness that can become a specific bane to aggregate society if too many people fall into the illogical career-trap whereby “field specialization equates to maximized income potential.”
I myself think that economics should be a fundamental part of a liberal primary-school education. I shudder, however, to think about the early-age brainwashing that governments could perpetrate within state-run schools.
I suspect Mr. Stallman is quite oblivious on the difference between free software and GNU license. Unfortunately I can not name any software product distributed really free, in a libertarian sense. I presume such distribution should be completely license-free, as no “license” (not “agreement”!) can be enforced in a libertarian society.
It’s like Stephen Kane said, he didn’t find microeconomics relevant. Zillions of people take microeconomics, yet not many really learn its lessons.
I don’t think the average programmer would behave any differently if microeconomics were required.
Joel on Software also wrote a great piece back in 2002 on the economic illiteracy of the open-source movement, confusing zero-price with zero-cost.
In this, Strategy Letter V, he tries to introduce programmers to the concepts of elasticity, substitutes, complements, and their relevance to the computer industry: “Smart companies try to commoditize their products’ complements.”
I used to be a professional programmer. I’m sure I would have been much better at it if I’d known some of these basics back then. Even just grasping the concept of opportunity cost and marginality would have helped me prioritize and schedule more effectively.
sir,
i am studing in B.E(electrical) in M.S.Bidve engg. college,latur.i want to learn economics
throughly because i want to make my carrier in finance setor.
i want to learn economics
I downloaded “The best textbook on economics” Murray Rothbard’s Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market as recommended above. Thanks! But, why is it than still copyrighted by the Mises Institute?
Why Programmers Should Learn Economics ?
Why should they ?
Dear friends, computer programmers are FREE and they SHOULD learn only what they WANT for the sake of their OWN SELF-ACTUALIZATION.
We learn what we need, in the first place !
If they are not in need of YOUR “Economical Science”, there are many famous businessmen who never learned economics (And needed very basic concepts to succeed), besides, to “make a profit” is an individual choice and should not be imposed by anybody to anybody.
This very question is NOT LIBERTARIAN AT ALL !
If a global network could brake up your proprietary soft company, by offering their main product FOR FREE (A BETTER ONE)…You SHOULD, FIRST OF ALL RESPECT THEM…Their FREEDOM…THEIR AUTONOMY and THEIR DECISION…Because They are in a VERY, INDEED, A REALLY SERIOUS and GOOD BUSINESS (And FUN!)…And…In this way…COMPUTER PROGRAMERS ARE TEACHING YOU ECONOMICS ALREADY
!
Stop interventionism !
Let them do whatever they want to do ! I hope you coud understand the basis of the libertarian thinking and see your shortcomings…If someone gives away their proprietary rights there should not be any “MISEAN STATE” to control it ! Koennen Sie das, laetzendlich, VERSTEHEN ? oder NICHT ?
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