Effectively, if free markets have been successful, it is precisely because they allow the trial-and-error process I call “stochastic tinkering” on the part of competing individual operators who fall for the narrative fallacy—but are effectively collectively partaking of a grand project. We are increasingly learning to practice stochastic tinkering without knowing it—thanks to overconfident entrepreneurs, naïve investors, greedy investment bankers, and aggressive venture capitalists brought together by the free-market system. The next chapter shows why I am optimistic that the academy is losing
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