Paul Hayne, one of the authors of this book, didn't know much about this man before reading this book. But he works at the University of Washington. I am familiar with this school. 1North, one of the winners of the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1993, once taught in this school and also prefaced this book. I once read his article on the homepage of Mises Center for Economic Research. David Prechetko has never heard of it, but from the introduction of his works and his working experience in George Mei Sen University, we can feel that he, like Peter, is a figure deeply influenced by the Austrian school. Without reading this book, it seems that you can also feel the Austrian atmosphere contained in the book.
Although so far, I have just finished reading the micro part of this book (this book includes micro and macro content). However, I have basically figured out the general context of this book. Generally speaking, this book avoids the profound mathematical model and the language is easy to understand. Mainly for non-economic majors. It is hoped that these students can master the basic analytical framework of economics within one semester. This seems to be similar to Man Kun's Principles of Economics, but in terms of its content and breadth, Principles of Economics seems to be incomparable. Personally, I feel that the popularity of this book in the world will definitely exceed Man Kun's Principles of Economics.
This book gives a refreshing feeling from the beginning. When it comes to the law of demand, it leads to the real existence of "market clearing": this result is unintentional, not artificially designed. Perhaps we can imagine why the original "scientific and reasonable planned economy" could not succeed: the reason was that it could not get the real price that reflected the information. When it comes to cost, there seems to be some factor, which makes me understand a problem that has been puzzling before: "cost" is often associated with residual claim. People pay attention to something, largely because they pay the cost, and their behavior decisions are closely related to the benefits they finally get from it. Of course, the most exciting part of the micro part is the "profit" part. "Uncertainty is the source of profit, which I already know in Frank Knight's Risk, Uncertainty and Profit. But Knight's book is one of the most difficult books I have ever read. After reading the description of Paul Heine and others, it seems that the understanding of uncertainty is deeper than before: the role of "entrepreneur" seems to be similar to the meaning of "system" expressed in an article by Heiner 1983. Of course, there are many differences in this book. I haven't finished reading the macro part yet, so I won't comment first. But I seem to be more interested in the microscopic part.
Perhaps the biggest difference between this book and other books is that the difficulty of this book is a "variable". If you just want to know the basic concepts of economics, you can just read the text. If you want to have a deeper grasp of economic knowledge, you can think about the exercises after each chapter. The exercises involve a wide range of fields, including the concept of fairness and bargaining theory in behavioral economics. Of course, the references related to the text are also some classic documents. If you want to understand the academic connotation of these documents, you still need to have high academic attainments.