i used to read tyler cowens blog a long time ago and visit it sometimes. started out impressed but soon realized he is good as an aggregator of interesting bits.
if even the sentences happen to be the same, i prefer to listen to someone who has real world experience building companies vs just economists whose being wrong has no direct impact on themselves. skin in the game and all that.
There's a balance between the value that comes from having experienced it yourself and the value from being able to step back and generalise the experience of other people.
First-hand accounts always run the risk of generalising the particular but academic accounts run the risk of being too general. In both cases the problem comes from falling in love with your own model and not paying enough attention to inconvenient data.
The one problem I had with Thiel is that he seems to conflate what worked for him with what works in general. Cowen, as an outside observer, has a more objective point of view.
if even the sentences happen to be the same, i prefer to listen to someone who has real world experience building companies vs just economists whose being wrong has no direct impact on themselves. skin in the game and all that.