About

Greetings!  I'm amused and a bit anxious that you are reading my blog, because I don't know who you are.  I write each post with an eye to entertaining my imaginary audience of friends and family members, maybe some colleagues.  If you don't already know me, I suppose an introduction might be in order.

My name is Holly.  I am currently writing a dissertation to complete my PhD in economics.  My research centers on how humans use households to coordinate the care of economically dependent people.  I'll spare you the details here (you can read them through the blog).  The purpose of this blog is to help me organize some of my thinking so I can get my damn dissertation written.  Short little essays are easier for me to write than whole chapters <shrug>.

The trick is to be interesting and precise.  I get lost in precise, to a large extent because that's what my job is as an aspiring "expert".  I hope this blog will help me lighten up a little bit so my writing is more enjoyable and not overly jargoned.

Aside from my research, I'm an avid member of a very large household.  For most of my adult life I have lived with one or another of my five sisters; I have lived the past 5 years with my sister, Crystal, and we co-parent her 7 kids (well, two are adults now...).  On top of that, we often have friends and/or family members staying with us (we have a roomy camper in the back yard).  We have five cats and one dog, and frequently have our grandpuppies over to play.  Our household is madness, and generally overstimulating for this introvert - but it's the thing I'm most proud of in the world, as evidenced by me literally writing a dissertation about it. 

You may also notice that I "do" economics a bit differently than most mainstream talking heads you've encountered.  This is intentional.  One of my commitments as an economic thinker is to deeply consider the philosophical foundations and assumptions, as well as the historical evolution of my subject matter, in order to be rigorous.  I'm not saying we should seek one-size-fits-all Truth, but thinkers should do the legwork and openly consider how our ideas and approaches favor our single, narrow perspective.  Let me give you an example of what I mean.  I have always lived in large, complex, and generally functional households, and this makes me feel like there's some real benefit to all of us shacking up together.  On the other hand, domestic violence is a household issue.  My personal experience tells me very little about domestic violence, but it doesn't make sense to assume this problem away for convenience.     

This commitment also makes my topic especially difficult to study because I take a holist perspective - that is, I'm not interesting in the individual decision-making-atomized individual, but in trends at population levels.  My eye is on the big picture and collective action.  It can be hard to switch to thinking this way, because economists are basically trained not to.

Alright, well, that's it for now.