It's from The Economist, so they should know.

May 11, 2016 4:56 PM

You are on an airplane. Ten ways to tell you might be sitting next to an economist.
posted by storybored (32 comments total)

Don't worry, they'll tell you.
posted by OverlappingElvis at 5:01 PM on May 11, 2016 [18 favorites]

Just be careful you aren't working on any difficult math equations...
posted by Fizz at 5:03 PM on May 11, 2016 [3 favorites]

11. Adds an extra point to a "top 10 list" because he believes in "quantitative reasoning"

I'm betting spell correction is to blame there.
posted by jamjam at 5:08 PM on May 11, 2016 [2 favorites]

Just be careful you aren't working on any difficult math equations...

I think that was the whole hook for the article.
posted by acb at 5:08 PM on May 11, 2016 [10 favorites]

I read the intro out loud to my wife who remarked on how ridiculous it was that they took Professor Menzio off the plane. Then I read the list out loud, and she promptly said, "I was wrong, they should have kicked him off the plane."
posted by Jonathan Livengood at 5:09 PM on May 11, 2016 [5 favorites]

So three guys are shipwrecked on a deserted island, a strongman, an engineer, and an economist. They have one can of pork n beans but no way to open it. The strongman says, hey no problem, grabs the can and tries to tear it open. Nope.

Then the engineer says, hey this is directly in my wheelhouse and takes a rock and tries to bang it open. Still no.

So the economist says, "Please, allow me. You really have to leave this to the experts. First, let us assume we have a can opener..."
posted by janey47 at 5:13 PM on May 11, 2016 [21 favorites]

Apologies. I missed the link in the first paragraph. You can remove that comment if needed.
posted by Fizz at 5:18 PM on May 11, 2016

I emailed this to the economist on my team and they emailed back "hahaha" without any exclamation point or a smiley face so I don't know whether that's good or bad, can an economist please tell me
posted by turbid dahlia at 5:19 PM on May 11, 2016 [7 favorites]

Bonus: Mankiw's Ten Principles of Economics, Translated.
posted by storybored at 5:21 PM on May 11, 2016 [1 favorite]

12. You ask for their opinion on something and get ten different answers.
posted by hydrophonic at 5:50 PM on May 11, 2016 [2 favorites]

I once traveled to a conference with an epidemiologist. We got settled in our hotel rooms and then met for a drink at the hotel bar.

"I'm on the eighth floor," she said. "How about you?"
"Fourteenth floor," I said.
"Oh," she said cheerily. "You're more likely to die in a fire."
posted by entropone at 5:50 PM on May 11, 2016 [32 favorites]

I sat next to the Washington Post's theater critic on the Megabus home from New York once. He was very nice! I was going to Dragoncon the following weekend, which he had never heard of, and when I explained it and named a few of the guests he said "wait, real actors go to this! I never knew!"
posted by nonasuch at 6:25 PM on May 11, 2016 [4 favorites]

Ten ways to tell you might be sitting next to an economist.

10. big money bag as carry on
9. major economics conference in ur destination city that week + strong skills of deduction
8. copy of "The economist' magazine
7. what's that they're reading....you guessed it a book about economics !!
6. u sneak a peek at the boarding pass and its for a B. Barneckie !
5. catastrophic disregard for all the human and joyful things that make life beautiful and worth living
4. alumni sweat-shirt from the London School of economics
3. making doodles of gold bars on the in-flight magazine
2. extra good negotiation skills.. got 2 pepsies out of the flight attendant !
1. reconaisance using an "over-the-arm rest conversation"
posted by threeants at 6:39 PM on May 11, 2016 [17 favorites]

>I don't know whether that's good or bad, can an economist please tell me

*Closes blinds*

Which do you want it to be?
posted by Phssthpok at 6:46 PM on May 11, 2016 [16 favorites]

Breaking News: The Economist shows it has a sense of humor... not a great one...

They did miss one: "He looks like a college professor, yet he's flying First Class."
posted by oneswellfoop at 6:49 PM on May 11, 2016 [9 favorites]

12. You've been using the male pronoun for the first eleven ways and then notice that it's 2016 and it's Deidre McCloskey, bitches! Or, I don't know, Janet Yellen.
posted by sy at 6:50 PM on May 11, 2016 [17 favorites]

12. You've been using the male pronoun for the first eleven ways and then notice that it's 2016 and it's Deidre McCloskey, bitches! Or, I don't know, Janet Yellen.

Yeah, wow, that's actually some serious bullshit.
posted by threeants at 7:00 PM on May 11, 2016 [3 favorites]

But passengers can't be too careful.

This would seem to be false.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 7:06 PM on May 11, 2016 [5 favorites]

I think it was Harry Truman who said he wished he could find a one-armed economist so that he didn't have to keep hearing "On the other hand..."
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 7:43 PM on May 11, 2016 [10 favorites]

...smell of brimstone?
posted by leotrotsky at 8:18 PM on May 11, 2016

I was floored by the idiocy of what happened on that plane - especially after having sat next to a mathematician (I think), working on what looked like a complicated proof for the whole of a three hour train journey the other day. It was quite mesmerizing: he used a very basic, unruled A5 note book and a pretty soft pencil, and would scribble, then think/absently stare/smile, then strike out some bits and scribble some more, in this intense but oddly immaterial kind of way, and with the simplest tools in the world. I kept wanting to ask him about his choice of pencil, but it seemed rude to break his spell - like you wouldn't interrupt a poet.
posted by progosk at 8:46 PM on May 11, 2016 [12 favorites]

2. He keeps telling you that "there is no such thing" as a "complimentary refreshment service"

As you raise the meagre plastic cup of water to your parched lips, he whispers "This will cost you in the long run."
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 10:26 PM on May 11, 2016 [6 favorites]

I was floored by the idiocy of what happened on that plane

Yes. Even assuming that he had been a terrorist scribbling in terrorist code, in his seat on the plane, what exactly was the threat model? Does terrorism work by witchcraft now or something?
posted by acb at 3:16 AM on May 12, 2016 [6 favorites]

I was floored too, to the extent that I may have lost my sense of humor. I guess I'm more afraid of people with irrational fears than anything else.
posted by maggiemaggie at 4:34 AM on May 12, 2016 [2 favorites]

Groan. I'm pretty sure even clickbait economist jokes from "Reader's Digest" would actually be . . . funny occasionally.

An economist trying to tell a joke is like Jerry Seinfeld trying to explain the economy.
posted by aspersioncast at 5:08 AM on May 12, 2016 [1 favorite]

An economist trying to tell a joke is like Jerry Seinfeld trying to explain the economy.


WHAT's the DEAL with demand? Why is everybody so DEMANDING?
posted by entropone at 6:23 AM on May 12, 2016 [8 favorites]

Come on, these were reasonably funny jokes. Perhaps they simply exceeded low expectations.
posted by GuyZero at 7:48 AM on May 12, 2016 [1 favorite]

The Economist is now also occasionally using song lyrics as mid-article headlines. After Bowie died the issue was full of Bowie lyric jump heads (maybe even every one), and then they did it with Prince and the latest issue has an article on Trump with jump heads from the Talking Heads's Burning Down the House .
posted by chavenet at 9:53 AM on May 12, 2016

Perhaps they simply exceeded low expectations.

Low, but rational.
posted by nickmark at 11:28 AM on May 12, 2016 [2 favorites]

> .... especially after having sat next to a mathematician (I think), working on what looked like a complicated proof for the whole of a three hour train journey the other day. It was quite mesmerizing: he used a very basic, unruled A5 note book and a pretty soft pencil,...

[From the Department of Old Math Jokes]

A school administrator is complaining about the budgets for the Physics and Chemistry departments: "All the expensive apparatus they need! Why can't they be more like the Math department — they only need chalk and erasers. Or the Philosophy department — they don't even need erasers!".

posted by benito.strauss at 11:52 AM on May 12, 2016 [6 favorites]

The Economist is now also occasionally using song lyrics as mid-article headlines.

This is a long-standing practice. They allude not only to song lyrics but also lines of poetry, titles of books and movies, famous quotations and so on. I don't read the Economist now as much as I used to but sometimes a headline would go right over my head. Baffling but fun.
posted by storybored at 5:14 PM on May 12, 2016 [1 favorite]

chavenet: "the latest issue has an article on Trump with jump heads from the Talking Heads's Burning Down the House ."

Missed opportunity: We're in for nasty weather.
posted by brokkr at 6:33 AM on May 13, 2016