Russ Roberts was trained to solve problems. But he has found a kind of problem he cannot solve—at least, not with the tools he was trained with.
Roberts is one of the most recognizable names in economics, thanks to his popular podcast “EconTalk.” He’s currently president of Shalem College in Jerusalem and a research fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. This means he often thinks in numbers and systems, and to solve problems with cold logic. But when a friend asked for advice on whether to have children or not, Roberts realized that humans often grapple with what he calls “wild problems”—the big, life-changing decisions we all must make, where there is no single right answer and where outcomes are unpredictable.
