Marginal Revolution
Tyler Cowen's economics blog, written daily for over two decades.
Where Marginal Revolution comes up3 episodes and tests
How I WriteHow to Write with AI (Tyler Cowen Breaks it Down)
How I WriteHow to Teach Millions of People with Your Blog — Tyler Cowen & Alex Tabarrok
How I WriteI Spent 50 Hours With 20 Master WritersMarginal Revolution started in 2003 hoping for 5,000 readers and now draws 50,000 to 100,000, posting four to five times daily for about 20 years without missing a day. Short, high-context posts save readers time, and Cowen ignores analytics to keep writing fun. The lesson: set a rigid publishing rule, cut each piece down, and pick topics you enjoy.
- First postHoped for about 5,000 readers, mostly academics
- 10,000 visitorsWithin weeks, with no advertising
- Never missed a dayFour to five posts every day
- 50,000 to 100,000 readersIndia is the number two market
From Tyler Cowen and Alex Tabarrok interviews
What was said about Marginal Revolution
1How Marginal Revolution started and grew
The blog began as practice for a textbook, not as the main project. Alex Tabarrok proposed writing a textbook, and Tyler Cowen said to write a blog first. The first post ran in August 2003, before Twitter and the iPhone, and they hoped for about 5,000 readers, mostly academics.
The early posts were practice and they did not know anyone was reading. Alex jokes he asked "What's a blog?" while Tyler remembers saying they would become famous.
Readers found it within weeks with no advertising. Commenters appeared within days, and the first 10,000 visitors came in a matter of weeks. The blog now draws 50,000 to 100,000 readers.
Alex's October 2003 note read: "Yesterday we breached 10,000 visitors for the first time. Keep coming. You're in good company."
A modest tagline can carry a big ambition in one word. The tagline is "small steps toward a much better world." Alex insisted on "much"; Tyler first thought it was crazy and later said Alex was right.
Twenty years of small posts led to bigger things such as Fast Grants and the COVID response. Tyler says leading with "much" would have worried him; small steps came first.
The audience turned out to be far less academic than expected. Tyler pictured readers as about two-thirds academics, but people outside academia care about ideas far more than he expected. The biggest audience is now abroad, with India the number two market and likely to become number one.
Strangers in India greet Tyler as "the MRU guy" at talks, which he calls a very hopeful sign.
2The daily publishing rule
Set a publishing rule and keep it every day. Cowen and Tabarrok have not missed a day in almost 20 years, posting four to five times on essentially every day. Tyler says "if you set a rule, you're going to meet the rule," and warns of slippery slope dangers otherwise.
Readers who know you are there every day treat the blog like a radio station they can turn on. Alex says something new every day is the hardest part, so a blog like this needs two or three people.
A stock of evergreen posts makes a daily rule unstressful. Tyler keeps a few posts that do not depend on the news cycle and puts one up when he feels dry. Posts go out on autopublish, which is why they appear at odd hours.
Tyler says he has never been upset about how he was going to fill a day.
Heavy reading keeps a daily blog supplied with original material. Tyler reads four or five books a day, so he always has something original to say.
He says he is bad at sitting down to think up ideas and needs interaction with a text or, better, a person. Reader comments and emails act as a second kind of conversation.
Hold back some good posts instead of always pandering. Tyler writes many posts he never uses because he thinks they are wrong, the news cycle has passed, or he is sick of the topic. Sometimes he keeps a good post back because it is better to leave people wanting more.
Quote: "you shouldn't always be pandering all the time."
3Short, tight posts: dim sum for the mind
Spend extra minutes shortening posts, because readers multiply the savings. The founders reason that if 50,000 to 100,000 readers each save a second or two, a few minutes of tightening is socially worth it. They call the blog "dim sum for the mind," little bites kept up for 20 years.
Many readers have a high opportunity cost, and on the internet a reader is one click from leaving, so posts get to the point quickly.
One memorable line compresses an idea so it sticks. Alex treats pithy sayings as part of getting to the point. His line "A price is a signal wrapped up in an incentive" gets repeated back to him.
The textbook subtitle is "See the invisible hand, understand your world."
4Fun over analytics
Tyler ignores analytics so he never starts chasing hits. He deliberately does not look at blog or YouTube analytics, believing that once you know what gets hits you chase it, even subconsciously. He wants the process to be fun every day and expects that to win over time.
He is not fully in the dark: people tell him things, such as India being the number two market.
Enjoying the work is a competitive advantage because most people don't. Tyler says most people do not find writing fun, so picking topics he is intrinsically interested in lets him keep going until small steps compound. David Perell adds a test: align what your head, heart and wallet want you to write about.
Perell says Cowen has written every day for at least a decade and a half without visible stress.
5Two writers, two styles
Opposite ways of thinking make the ideas both rich and clear. Alex starts from the stark version and adds detail; Tyler starts from the most complicated version and cuts back. Alex's test: if a post confuses you it is Tyler's, if you understand it and are furious it is Alex's.
Tyler imagines Alex reading as he writes, which pushes him to be simpler. Alex says he writes clearly because he must simplify before he can understand.
High-context writing filters for better readers. Tyler leaves room for interpretation and assumed knowledge rather than spelling everything out. He says about 80% of his email is smart enough to answer, which he credits partly to this filter.
Alex's blunter, low-context posts balance it, so readers get both styles. Quote: "I like having that as a filter on who reads us."
Borrow the co-writer's voice when a post needs to be blunt. Tyler wrote his post on giving first vaccine doses first in Alex's frame of mind because it needed to be sharp and direct. Alex called it one of Tyler's best and was jealous he had not written it.
6What draws readers in and writing back
Give readers openings to push back, and vary topics. A post arguing Shaquille O'Neal might be the greatest player ever became one of the blog's most-read, because everyone has an opinion on rankings. Posts in areas of real expertise draw fewer comments since readers feel less qualified to object.
Tyler says a big reason people read online is to take the writer down a peg, so lean into it. A typical reply: Hakeem was a better center. He now says Shaq's career was too short for that conclusion.
Readers remember how you think, not one clever point. Tyler says interesting inbound comes from the sum of posts showing how you reason; nobody writes in to praise one point about corporate tax. Students now write to say they started reading at age 12 and are getting PhDs.
Show readers their view is welcome instead of laying down the line. Tyler avoids the take-it-or-leave-it tone of many columnists and wants readers of different politics, religions and countries to feel welcome even in disagreement.
He credits Alex's Canadian perspective and his own time abroad; you cannot remove your biases but you can encircle them.
Act as editor too, curating other people's ideas. Many Marginal Revolution posts link to and amplify others' work. Tyler says online writers overrate their role as writer and underrate the editor role.
His father was a professional editor. He worries Substack does not push curation, so writers get more personal and more boring over time.
7The blog, the textbook and the videos as one product line
- 1Explain ideas dailyYears of posts on the blog
- 2Textbook gets betterBlog practice improves each chapter
- 3Textbook sends readersStudents come back to the blog
From Tyler Cowen and Alex Tabarrok interviews
Blog, textbook and videos feed each other. Years of explaining ideas on the blog improved the textbook, and the textbook sends readers back to the blog. Marginal Revolution University is free on YouTube with no ads and aimed to be in 25% of American high schools by 2025.
Each textbook chapter goes to about 40 referee readers, and Tyler and Alex write everything themselves with no research assistants, which Tyler compares to Seinfeld being on every part of his show.
The videos started bare bones and grew with funding. At first it was the two of them narrating a PowerPoint made with a $5 iPad app; funding later paid for filming, animation and sound, managed by Roman Hardgrave.
Scripting was easy but recording is hard: it takes many cuts to get 30 seconds to a minute of usable material, and Alex compares breath control over ten minutes to singing.
Unplanned automatic subtitles made the videos a language course abroad. Google adds subtitles in about 100 languages once a video is online, and students use them to learn English and economics at once. Emails arrive from students in South Korea, India and Pakistan saying they passed their class.
8Writing the blog for AI readers
Two decades of daily posts make Cowen well known to AI models. Cowen has blogged daily for 22 years, done hundreds of podcasts and written 16 or 17 books, so models know him well. He now treats AIs as his most sympathetic, best-informed readers and fills in fewer blanks.
He admits skipping background may cost some human readers. Quote: "I'm less inclined to fill in those blanks for people because the AI doesn't need them."
Fast-moving topics go on the blog, not into books. A book takes about four years to reach readers, so Cowen covers subjects like AI through blogging, Substack and Twitter. He expects to write fewer books and may stop after his book on mentors.
Quote: "what you're writing had better be more interesting than the question box."
Short posts can fill gaps so a future AI can write his biography. Rather than an autobiography, Cowen plans about 20 short blog posts on gaps such as his years in Fall River, Massachusetts, the family dog and the neighbors.
He says it costs almost nothing because "there's a lot of me out there."
How to Write with AI (Tyler Cowen Breaks it Down)
Cowen has blogged daily for 22 years, which is why AI models know him so well. He uses daily blogging and posting for fast-moving topics instead of books.
Two decades of daily posts make Cowen well known to AI models. Cowen has blogged daily for 22 years, done hundreds of podcasts and written 16 or 17 books, so models know him well. He now treats AIs as his most sympathetic, best-informed readers and fills in fewer blanks.
He admits skipping background may cost some human readers. Quote: "I'm less inclined to fill in those blanks for people because the AI doesn't need them."
Fast-moving topics go on the blog, not into books. A book takes about four years to reach readers, so Cowen covers subjects like AI through blogging, Substack and Twitter. He expects to write fewer books and may stop after his book on mentors.
Quote: "what you're writing had better be more interesting than the question box."
Short posts can fill gaps so a future AI can write his biography. Rather than an autobiography, Cowen plans about 20 short blog posts on gaps such as his years in Fall River, Massachusetts, the family dog and the neighbors.
He says it costs almost nothing because "there's a lot of me out there."
I Spent 50 Hours With 20 Master Writers
Cowen and Tabarrok have kept it going for about 20 years, calling it dim sum for the mind. Tabarrok spends minutes crafting each short, tight post to save 50,000 to 100,000 readers a second or two.
Set a publishing rule and keep it every day. Cowen and Tabarrok have not missed a day in almost 20 years, posting four to five times on essentially every day. Tyler says "if you set a rule, you're going to meet the rule," and warns of slippery slope dangers otherwise.
Readers who know you are there every day treat the blog like a radio station they can turn on. Alex says something new every day is the hardest part, so a blog like this needs two or three people.
Spend extra minutes shortening posts, because readers multiply the savings. The founders reason that if 50,000 to 100,000 readers each save a second or two, a few minutes of tightening is socially worth it. They call the blog "dim sum for the mind," little bites kept up for 20 years.
Many readers have a high opportunity cost, and on the internet a reader is one click from leaving, so posts get to the point quickly.
Enjoying the work is a competitive advantage because most people don't. Tyler says most people do not find writing fun, so picking topics he is intrinsically interested in lets him keep going until small steps compound. David Perell adds a test: align what your head, heart and wallet want you to write about.
Perell says Cowen has written every day for at least a decade and a half without visible stress.
How to Teach Millions of People with Your Blog — Tyler Cowen & Alex Tabarrok
Started in August 2003 as practice for a textbook, hoping for 5,000 readers, and now draws 50,000 to 100,000 readers. They have not missed a day in almost 20 years, posting four to five times daily, and Tyler deliberately ignores analytics so writing stays fun.
The blog began as practice for a textbook, not as the main project. Alex Tabarrok proposed writing a textbook, and Tyler Cowen said to write a blog first. The first post ran in August 2003, before Twitter and the iPhone, and they hoped for about 5,000 readers, mostly academics.
The early posts were practice and they did not know anyone was reading. Alex jokes he asked "What's a blog?" while Tyler remembers saying they would become famous.
Readers found it within weeks with no advertising. Commenters appeared within days, and the first 10,000 visitors came in a matter of weeks. The blog now draws 50,000 to 100,000 readers.
Alex's October 2003 note read: "Yesterday we breached 10,000 visitors for the first time. Keep coming. You're in good company."
A modest tagline can carry a big ambition in one word. The tagline is "small steps toward a much better world." Alex insisted on "much"; Tyler first thought it was crazy and later said Alex was right.
Twenty years of small posts led to bigger things such as Fast Grants and the COVID response. Tyler says leading with "much" would have worried him; small steps came first.
The audience turned out to be far less academic than expected. Tyler pictured readers as about two-thirds academics, but people outside academia care about ideas far more than he expected. The biggest audience is now abroad, with India the number two market and likely to become number one.
Strangers in India greet Tyler as "the MRU guy" at talks, which he calls a very hopeful sign.
Set a publishing rule and keep it every day. Cowen and Tabarrok have not missed a day in almost 20 years, posting four to five times on essentially every day. Tyler says "if you set a rule, you're going to meet the rule," and warns of slippery slope dangers otherwise.
Readers who know you are there every day treat the blog like a radio station they can turn on. Alex says something new every day is the hardest part, so a blog like this needs two or three people.
A stock of evergreen posts makes a daily rule unstressful. Tyler keeps a few posts that do not depend on the news cycle and puts one up when he feels dry. Posts go out on autopublish, which is why they appear at odd hours.
Tyler says he has never been upset about how he was going to fill a day.
Heavy reading keeps a daily blog supplied with original material. Tyler reads four or five books a day, so he always has something original to say.
He says he is bad at sitting down to think up ideas and needs interaction with a text or, better, a person. Reader comments and emails act as a second kind of conversation.
Hold back some good posts instead of always pandering. Tyler writes many posts he never uses because he thinks they are wrong, the news cycle has passed, or he is sick of the topic. Sometimes he keeps a good post back because it is better to leave people wanting more.
Quote: "you shouldn't always be pandering all the time."
Spend extra minutes shortening posts, because readers multiply the savings. The founders reason that if 50,000 to 100,000 readers each save a second or two, a few minutes of tightening is socially worth it. They call the blog "dim sum for the mind," little bites kept up for 20 years.
Many readers have a high opportunity cost, and on the internet a reader is one click from leaving, so posts get to the point quickly.
One memorable line compresses an idea so it sticks. Alex treats pithy sayings as part of getting to the point. His line "A price is a signal wrapped up in an incentive" gets repeated back to him.
The textbook subtitle is "See the invisible hand, understand your world."
Tyler ignores analytics so he never starts chasing hits. He deliberately does not look at blog or YouTube analytics, believing that once you know what gets hits you chase it, even subconsciously. He wants the process to be fun every day and expects that to win over time.
He is not fully in the dark: people tell him things, such as India being the number two market.
Enjoying the work is a competitive advantage because most people don't. Tyler says most people do not find writing fun, so picking topics he is intrinsically interested in lets him keep going until small steps compound. David Perell adds a test: align what your head, heart and wallet want you to write about.
Perell says Cowen has written every day for at least a decade and a half without visible stress.
Opposite ways of thinking make the ideas both rich and clear. Alex starts from the stark version and adds detail; Tyler starts from the most complicated version and cuts back. Alex's test: if a post confuses you it is Tyler's, if you understand it and are furious it is Alex's.
Tyler imagines Alex reading as he writes, which pushes him to be simpler. Alex says he writes clearly because he must simplify before he can understand.
High-context writing filters for better readers. Tyler leaves room for interpretation and assumed knowledge rather than spelling everything out. He says about 80% of his email is smart enough to answer, which he credits partly to this filter.
Alex's blunter, low-context posts balance it, so readers get both styles. Quote: "I like having that as a filter on who reads us."
Borrow the co-writer's voice when a post needs to be blunt. Tyler wrote his post on giving first vaccine doses first in Alex's frame of mind because it needed to be sharp and direct. Alex called it one of Tyler's best and was jealous he had not written it.
Give readers openings to push back, and vary topics. A post arguing Shaquille O'Neal might be the greatest player ever became one of the blog's most-read, because everyone has an opinion on rankings. Posts in areas of real expertise draw fewer comments since readers feel less qualified to object.
Tyler says a big reason people read online is to take the writer down a peg, so lean into it. A typical reply: Hakeem was a better center. He now says Shaq's career was too short for that conclusion.
Readers remember how you think, not one clever point. Tyler says interesting inbound comes from the sum of posts showing how you reason; nobody writes in to praise one point about corporate tax. Students now write to say they started reading at age 12 and are getting PhDs.
Show readers their view is welcome instead of laying down the line. Tyler avoids the take-it-or-leave-it tone of many columnists and wants readers of different politics, religions and countries to feel welcome even in disagreement.
He credits Alex's Canadian perspective and his own time abroad; you cannot remove your biases but you can encircle them.
Act as editor too, curating other people's ideas. Many Marginal Revolution posts link to and amplify others' work. Tyler says online writers overrate their role as writer and underrate the editor role.
His father was a professional editor. He worries Substack does not push curation, so writers get more personal and more boring over time.
Blog, textbook and videos feed each other. Years of explaining ideas on the blog improved the textbook, and the textbook sends readers back to the blog. Marginal Revolution University is free on YouTube with no ads and aimed to be in 25% of American high schools by 2025.
Each textbook chapter goes to about 40 referee readers, and Tyler and Alex write everything themselves with no research assistants, which Tyler compares to Seinfeld being on every part of his show.
The videos started bare bones and grew with funding. At first it was the two of them narrating a PowerPoint made with a $5 iPad app; funding later paid for filming, animation and sound, managed by Roman Hardgrave.
Scripting was easy but recording is hard: it takes many cuts to get 30 seconds to a minute of usable material, and Alex compares breath control over ten minutes to singing.
Unplanned automatic subtitles made the videos a language course abroad. Google adds subtitles in about 100 languages once a video is online, and students use them to learn English and economics at once. Emails arrive from students in South Korea, India and Pakistan saying they passed their class.
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