If the economy is so easily understood then why do we have high inflation, a cost of living crisis, rising inequality? 

The thing that is not understood is why these things are happening and how we can change things so that normal people are better off. 

The fact that some people have some coherent theories for some aspects of the economy is not equivalent to us understanding the economy. 

I feel like the entire framing here is the problem. You cannot see "The Thing" because you are looking at it from a perspective where The Thing isn't apparent. 

What is The Thing? It is having a partnership that you are both committed to. At its best this partnership becomes an aspect of your self, and your partner. The frame to see this in is that the partnership is an entity in its own right and is a part of the "I" that each partner identifies with. In this frame the question "what am I getting out of this relationship" is no longer entirely focussed on the individual "I" but also on the partnership "I". When you frame the question in terms of what the individual "I" gets out of it then you are entirely missing the point and are unable to see the real value proposition. 

If we dip our toe back into the individualistic frame: you could describe the value of relationships being in the partial dissolution of self in the partnership, which not only feels amazing but also gives a deeper level of meaning to your life. 

I would say that a part of compassion, and empathy, is to recognise that indeed those narratives are valid, or else there is some valid reason that people are as they are. Also, not everyone shares the moral value of optimising themselves or making themselves good at something. Disgust implies judgement that implies a lack of compassion. 

Since you seem to be motivated at making yourself better, which I agree is a good motivation, why don't you challenge yourself to increase your compassion and humility? 

Do you have compassion for yourself? What are you bad at that you are unable to make yourself good at? Do you feel disgust for yourself in those situations? Compassion begins with humility, which is something that you might want to work on

I’m not sure I agree that is is easy for humans to robustly understand proofs. I think it takes really a lot of training to get humans to that point. 

There's the argument that increasing access to information creates competition for attention, which drives language to be more concise and readable, e.g. https://www.nature.com/articles/s44271-024-00117-1

Fun read. So, so many possible covariates. The causal web is very complicated here. Birth order affects lots and lots of other things, which can also affect the chance you become a cardinal. There are also lots of things that would affect the birth rate in a family and also affect the chance the children become cardinals. 

I agree with your point in general of efficiency vs rationality, but I don’t see the direct connection to the article. Can you explain? It seems to me that a representation along correlated values is more efficient, but I don’t see how it is any less rational.