Advice from Hal Varian’s monograph, How to Build an Economic Model in Your Spare Time [pdf], most of which applies to things not related to economics:
- Look for ideas in the world, not in the journals.
- First make your model as simple as possible, then generalize it.
- Look at the literature later, not sooner.
- Model your paper after your seminar.
- Stop when you’ve made your point.
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VERY interesting, Mark. I especially like . . . well, points 1, 3, and 5, for a history paper. Point 5 may be the best one of all.
The icing on the cake is that he follows his own advice…
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