How Paul Krugman works

Insights from [the new Nobel laureate](http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economics/laureates/2008/):

1. Listen to the Gentiles – “Pay attention to what intelligent people are saying, even if they do not have your customs or speak your analytical language.”
2. Question the question – “In general, if people in a field have bogged down on questions that seem very hard, it is a good idea to ask whether they are really working on the right questions. Often some other question is not only easier to answer but actually more interesting!”
3. Dare to be silly – “What I believe is that the age of creative silliness is not past…If a new set of assumptions seems to yield a valuable set of insights, then never mind if they seem strange.”
4. Simplify, simplify – “Always try to express your ideas in the simplest possible model. The act of stripping down to this minimalist model will force you to get to the essence of what you are trying to say (and will also make obvious to you those situations in which you actually have nothing to say).”

[Full version here](http://www.princeton.edu/~pkrugman/howiwork.html); despite his disclaimer at top that “I don’t know anything special about life in general”, these ideas seem applicable to most creative work.