Spending an hour asking ChatGPT about Adam Smith generally teaches you 3x as much as spending an hour reading Wealth of Nations. The undergrads are using AI because it's just a better, more efficient way to learn things
You could respond by spending 1/3 the time to learn the same amount, or spending the same time and learning 3x the amount. Either way, you are much better off than if you wasted time actually reading the Wealth of Nations
@TRILLvegas012 If you read books you're just a less reliable version of the books you read
@4misceldah I use LLMs now pretty much whenever I'm reading theory. I can get through proofs like at least 5x as quickly. The key is I'm usually spending a lot of time working through dense notation; ChatGPT is very good at this
alz
alz8.5.2025
I'm reading Holmstrom 1979, and I'm a lazy student who doesn't want to actually do the work, so I'm making ChatGPT do it for me. It is very simple, I just give o4-mini screenshots of parts and ask, wtf is going on. It tells me exactly what Holmstrom is saying, much more clearly
@4misceldah It can clarify notation, explain overall proof strategy and intuition, do missing derivations, guess at extensions, work out examples, and so on. Everything I'd normally do to understand a proof/model/etc, just much faster
@4misceldah I find it's actually much more helpful for theory than empirics. Empirical papers are fairly skimmable anyways. Theory is dense, and the LLM really helps in getting through it efficiently and not getting stuck on hard/missing steps
@northington764 so like this?
alz
alz14.7. klo 04.45
when i need to cook a new recipe i convene the four elders (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok)
@Mike__Charlton no it's not! It's a better way to learn
alz
alz19.7. klo 11.48
OK frens so i'm gonna spend like 5-10 mins livetweeting my ChatGPT-reading of Wealth of Nations. We start with the obvious
@tj_barden Practically, this is what you get
alz
alz19.7. klo 11.48
OK frens so i'm gonna spend like 5-10 mins livetweeting my ChatGPT-reading of Wealth of Nations. We start with the obvious
@ChrisExpTheNews Now I did
alz
alz19.7. klo 11.48
OK frens so i'm gonna spend like 5-10 mins livetweeting my ChatGPT-reading of Wealth of Nations. We start with the obvious
@d_smeathers Here is what you get
alz
alz19.7. klo 11.48
OK frens so i'm gonna spend like 5-10 mins livetweeting my ChatGPT-reading of Wealth of Nations. We start with the obvious
@northington764 Here is what you get
alz
alz19.7. klo 11.48
OK frens so i'm gonna spend like 5-10 mins livetweeting my ChatGPT-reading of Wealth of Nations. We start with the obvious
@FeelItInMyJones Here is what you get
alz
alz19.7. klo 11.48
OK frens so i'm gonna spend like 5-10 mins livetweeting my ChatGPT-reading of Wealth of Nations. We start with the obvious
@notadampaul Here is some evidence
alz
alz19.7. klo 11.48
OK frens so i'm gonna spend like 5-10 mins livetweeting my ChatGPT-reading of Wealth of Nations. We start with the obvious
@zak_pullen Here is what you get
alz
alz19.7. klo 11.48
OK frens so i'm gonna spend like 5-10 mins livetweeting my ChatGPT-reading of Wealth of Nations. We start with the obvious
@Ademola101_ Idk I feel like you can easily explore
alz
alz19.7. klo 11.48
OK frens so i'm gonna spend like 5-10 mins livetweeting my ChatGPT-reading of Wealth of Nations. We start with the obvious
@JAMES2137019308 It's pretty solid
alz
alz19.7. klo 11.48
OK frens so i'm gonna spend like 5-10 mins livetweeting my ChatGPT-reading of Wealth of Nations. We start with the obvious
@SmoffyobWilt It works pretty well
alz
alz19.7. klo 11.48
OK frens so i'm gonna spend like 5-10 mins livetweeting my ChatGPT-reading of Wealth of Nations. We start with the obvious
@captive_ia_ It actually works fine
alz
alz19.7. klo 11.48
OK frens so i'm gonna spend like 5-10 mins livetweeting my ChatGPT-reading of Wealth of Nations. We start with the obvious
@BradlyOvitt They're actually getting more details
alz
alz19.7. klo 11.48
OK frens so i'm gonna spend like 5-10 mins livetweeting my ChatGPT-reading of Wealth of Nations. We start with the obvious
@mavisclare Better than this, you can easily use ChatGPT to have a conversation about what is/isn't relevant to modern economics. In fact, that's exactly what I do here. Days or weeks of work are seconds with ChatGPT
alz
alz19.7. klo 11.48
OK frens so i'm gonna spend like 5-10 mins livetweeting my ChatGPT-reading of Wealth of Nations. We start with the obvious
@mavisclare It is easier to do precisely what you are saying, now that we have ChatGPT. And your ability to do it is less gated by your access by the small group of educators with the ability to handle a large set of possible questions
518,17K