Why Economics Lacks the "Disruptive Creativity" to Shake the World
Economists act as if they are the leaders who shape the playground of the world and design its future. As they regulate intricately tangled social variables with sophisticated equations and analyze vast amounts of data to propose optimal policies, they appear to be the perfect embodiment of intellectuals.
Let us look at them coldly, however. Has economics ever, on its own, created a "disruptive creativity" or a "paradigm shift" that had never before existed in human history? Categorically, no.
Paradoxically, the sophisticated equations and immediate variables they boast of are the most rigid chains that narrow their vision and imprison their imagination. While they may excel at maintaining and managing current phenomena, in the realm of innovation where the entire playground is rebuilt, economics is always a "belated discipline" that realizes things last and moves most conservatively.
A Car Driving Solely by Looking at the Rearview Mirror of Past Data
Every sophisticated equation and econometric analysis used by economics is thoroughly grounded in "phenomena that have already occurred in the past." Data is merely the record of bygone history, and equations are nothing more than tools to neatly organize those past patterns.
Yet, the disruptive creativity that changes the world belongs to the realm of a future that has never occurred, or is initiated by renegades who completely shatter existing rules. When innovations like Apple’s iPhone or OpenAI’s ChatGPT first emerged, economists were always silent or offered nothing but conservative warnings. Because these innovations did not exist in past data, economists inevitably reached the conclusion that the probability of success was low under an immediate cost-benefit equation.
An economics obsessed exclusively with immediate variables and formulas is not a shaker of reality. It is merely a post-hoc archivist, lagging behind to record with equations the territories that true innovators have already fearlessly pioneered.
The Trap of Optimization: Blind Fools Making Only Better Carriages
The core logic of economics is "Optimization"—finding the most efficient answer within a limited set of conditions. What happens if we perfectly optimize the horse-carriage industry from an economic standpoint? We would formulate equations to improve the feed efficiency of horses, maximize the durability of carriage wheels, and pinpoint the optimal transport routes.
True disruptive creativity, however, never emerges from within a system that optimizes carriages. The innovation that changes the world is the introduction of the "automobile," which completely abolishes the framework of the carriage itself.
An economic mindset that seeks answers only within given immediate variables and conditional statements can achieve "incremental improvement" by smoothing out the existing system, but it cannot derive revolutionary ideas that build a new framework. To innovate, one must break out of the frame entirely, yet they are always trapped inside, tweaking nothing but the numbers within their equations.
Human Madness Erased by the Clarity of Equations
The disruptive innovations that changed human history were not born inside a thoroughly rational and calm calculator. The true driving forces of innovation were the burning convictions of revolutionaries determined to change the world, the madness and passion of reckless challengers, and an infinite, unfettered imagination.
Yet, to maintain the clarity and precision of its formulas, economics erased "the human mind" and "unpredictable imagination"—elements impossible to calculate—from its variables. In their hubris, believing that whatever cannot be proven with numbers is worthless, they essentially castrated the true energy that destroys and recreates the world.
Conclusion: Cast Down the Arrogance of the Post-Hoc Archivist
"A discipline that focuses entirely on immediate variables can never imagine anything outside the frame."
This is the most painful limitation faced by economics. While it holds dominance, interferes in every phenomenon, and acts as if it leads the future, it is actually sitting in the aftermath of innovation, retroactively fitting equations to declare, "Let me explain why this was rational."
The disruptive creativity that alters true reality and advances civilization blooms wildly outside the territory of the economic empire, fueled by the very human passion and imagination that economists dismissed as irrational. Imprisoned by the beauty of equations and driving solely by looking at the rearview mirror, economics must now humbly admit that it is not the creator of innovation, but merely an archivist recording the scenery that has already passed by.
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