Reading 03
薛兆丰经济学讲义
Economics Lecture Notes
Economics gave me a lasting conviction: there is always a better solution.
Years ago, my friend Ying Peng wrote that learning economics while young is a kind of good fortune. A classic economic question is: given the constraints and rules, how can we play the hand we have been dealt as well as possible? Her words stayed with me.
To me, this way of thinking is more than a method. It is a form of faith: the problems before us are often caused by mismatches—between resources and needs, incentives and behavior, or people and opportunities. If we can see those mismatches clearly, we may be able to rearrange what we have and find a better outcome.
Economics Lecture Notes gave me my first systematic understanding of economics. It helped me move beyond scattered ideas and begin to see how scarcity, cost, choice, incentives, prices, and institutions work together. More importantly, it taught me not to accept the present arrangement as the only possible one.