Question your intuitions and preconceptions

 My economist son often listens to the podcast, Conversations with Tyler Cohen. We recently listened to a conversation with Esther Duflo, who shared the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economics. Like most episodes it covers a wide range of territory, from development economics to Indian classical music to parenting. I highly recommend it.

Perhaps, the bit that was most striking for me was the following.

What advice do you give to your talented undergraduates that differs from the advice your colleagues would give them?  

I give almost all of them the advice to take some time off, in particular if they have any interest in development, which is generally the reason why they come to see me in the first place. But even if they don’t really, to spend a year or two in a developing country, working on a project. Not necessarily inner city. Any project spending time in the field.  

It’s only through this exposure that you can learn how wrong most of your intuitions are and preconceptions are. I can tell it to them till they are blue in the face to not let themselves be guided by what seems obvious to them. But until they’ve confronted what they think is obvious to something entirely different, then it’s not clear.

I think this relates to profound differences (cultural and economic and experiential) between rich countries and Majority World countries. Culture is what you assume is normal and unquestioned.