Long-time DABE member Christopher Stiffler is an economics professor and senior economist at the Colorado Fiscal Institute in Denver, Colorado. But he’s also worked as a high school Latin teacher, trained as a professional wrestler, hiked the Colorado Trail and climbed all of Colorado’s 14,000-foot peaks. He does his best writing after weekend trips backpacking into Colorado’s wilderness away from cell service. Christopher got his start explaining economics in 2009, writing an explanatory economics column for his small hometown newspaper in Bedford, Pennsylvania. The column was geared at explaining complicated economic concepts in simple metaphorical terms that everyone can understand.
His recently published book is entitled “Economics In-Other-Words; what your boring economics professor tried to teach you.”
The title of the book comes from those times when someone explains something in abstract and confusing terms. You didn’t know what they were talking about until they said, “in other words….” and then they gave a simplified statement that gave your mind an easy-to-follow example. And you were like, “Why didn’t you just lead with the in-other-words?”
The impetus of the book was his time as a professor teaching microeconomics 101 to first-year college students at 8am on Fridays after “Thirsty Thursday.” He had to come up with unique, entertaining, and comical examples to keep his students engaged. He turned that material into a full-length book. The writing relies heavily on analogies, examples, anecdotes, and parables or what Stiffler calls the in-other-words words. His teaching style sees the examples and stories as gifts to the memory-challenged, uninterested and/or hung over. The book is geared to teaching Econ 101 or for anyone that would like to learn more economics but had a traumatizing experience with a terrible economics professor.
It is available on Amazon here:
https://www.amazon.com/Economics-Other-Words-boring-economics-professor/dp/B0CGL4SQ1C/ref=sr_1_1?crid=ERROO9KOXYUN&keywords=economics+in+other+words&qid=1697657774&sprefix=economics+in+other+wor%2Caps%2C132&sr=8-1
Drinks and light food / appetizers will be provided at the event.