Conversation

It was the 3rd year of our PhD. After two gruelling years (the Core, with less than 50% pass rate on Year 1, the Prelims, with another 50% of students gone in Year 2) we were having our first reception as "real" grad students outside in the Social Science Quadrangle of .
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Lucas approach me, asked me how I was doing. I said after two brutal years, I was very happy. I was enjoying thinking about ideas, about which problem I would tackle for my dissertation, reading a lot and learning a lot, trying to figure out the next step.
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He was very disappointed, almost upset, by my answer: "Ideas are hard. What you do not understand takes over your life. You puzzle over it, you cannot sleep until you solve it. This is not a game you enjoy. This is a challenge that obsesses you." He said.
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That was his intensity. He was always learning, always trying to figure out the next problem. And few people did as much to advance economics.
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He was kind to me when I was a 30-year-old visiting scholar from a lesser university, and not even a macroeconomist, and even accepted an invitation to a party at my apartment.
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