I listen to a lot of Tyler Cowen’s podcasts. One thing I’ve noticed is that he is incredibly well-read (maybe the most well-read person in the world). You would think someone who’s consumed such a high volume of material would jump at the chance to recommend books to others. However, whenever he’s presented with the question of what his latest book recommendations are, he defers. He hesitates to give book recommendations to people.
From what I understand of his reasoning, he simply admits that he doesn’t have enough information about the person asking the question. Without a deeper understanding of the person, he doesn’t want to recommend a particular book or piece of media. He knows that his recommendations won’t fit the “next best book” that a person should read. It’s opportunity cost. By recommending a particular book to someone, he would be nudging them away from reading a different book that might be more influential/impactful. And what book is most influential/impactful, the “next best book” for a person, is entirely context dependent on what they’ve read and experienced thus far.
Tyler’s default approach is to share his current reading list and give summaries of what he’s reading and why he likes it. Rarely does he step out and make recommendations.