If you can understand this blog you must be a genius

I had always assumed that the New Economist was a fairly readable weblog. An online readability test suggests otherwise, gving it a 'genius' rating. (Hat tip: Christine Chen at FP's Passport blog)

So how do other popular econoblogs compare? Many are almost as unreadable as mine: try Dani Rodrick (college postgrad), Greg Mankiw (college undergrad), the Economist's Free Exchange (college postgrad) and George Borjas (college postgrad) for starters.

But many econobloggers' writing is more accessible. Alex and Tyler at Marginal Revolution, Mark Thoma, Brad DeLong, Brad Setser, Andrew Leigh, Dean Baker, Angry Bear, Newmark's Door, Tim Harford's FT blog and Megan McArdle's blog at The Atlantic were all assessed as having a high school reading level, while William Polley's blog was at junior high school readability.

And the only other blogs writing at genius-level I could find? John Quiggin and the Becker-Posner blog. I'm honoured to be in such company, though I have neither a beard nor a Nobel prize.

But maybe I'm just too obscure and high-falutin? Should I de-fog my posts? Feedback welcome.

Comments

[Mark]

I have no complaints, as an eco. undergraduate. There should be no dumbing down here; being UK based, stick to classical Reithian principals of educate, inform, entertain.

I fear however, I may be too late: it seems you were an anomaly and have since been reclassified as college (postgrad) ;-)
tut tut ... you may no-longer consider me amongst your lowly readership.

[Francisco]

That test is absolutely worthless: it puts Calculated Risk at an "undergrad" level, and some of their posts are among the hardest things I've read lately. They're definitely harder than my own posts, which receive a grade of "genius."

So, please, don't change anything. Your blog is great as it is.

[Daniel]

Please don't change a thing! If anything, your blog encourages us all to fill in the gaps. I'll take that over LCD crap any day.

[Gabriel]

I'm only highschool. :-(

[Lafayette]

NE: Should I de-fog my posts? Feedback welcome.

No, I don't think such is necessary. But greater variety might be welcome. However, such will take considerably more effort, which you may (or may not) be willing to contribute. That's up to you.

You're posts are selective and certainly provoke the sort of commentary that one should expect. Are the posts "genius" level, though? Well, I am not so sure. I understand most of it ... and I'm certainly no genius.

The flux of commentary (here) is certainly not for the "common man", but there are other blogs that perhaps serve that purpose. It is difficult enough to separate the wheat from the chaff in some blogs. And, tiresome to boot.

Another thing about blogs: It may not be obvious, but some are simply extensions of a bright mind that is looking for further means of expression. Others just want to posit ideas -- regardless of their provenance -- and sit back to see the thought broth that ensues. (Yours seems to be the latter.)

These are quite different objectives, I submit.

[Saul Wall]

It seems fairly accessible to me and I have only a layman's education it the topic of economics. But then, economics seems to be one of the fields that even many intelligent people avoid. Being a Marxist does not carry the same stigma as being a creationist.

[Richard Baldwin]

CriticsRant.com rates VoxEU.org as genius, but, like New Economist, we aim for the average professional economists, not the average newspaper reader.
There is plenty for the average Joe to read on the web and in the press; the beauty of the web is that you have an audience that is both large and specialised.
On the average day between 6 and 8 thousand visitors stop by VoxEU.org viewing about 10k pages per day.

I guess there are a lot of geniuses out there.

Or maybe the measure cannot take account specialised audiences.

[Lafayette]

RB: "VoxEU.org as genius"

Perhaps, but if it is, then it is a closed circle of geniuses.

When they finally summon the courage to defend their opinions in the public arena, perhaps they could open their forum to us less-than-genius-but-not-idiots?

Last time I looked, it was closed to everyone but the "cognoscenti".

[William Polley]

I don't know what I did, but mine is up to high school level today. Too funny!

[middle-empire.com]

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