What should economists work on? What kind of work should be honored? Branko has some intriguing thoughts, some — but not all of which — I agree with 1/
https://twitter.com/BrankoMilan/status/1315841880874254336
He's right that economics should be trying to answer the big questions. On the other hand, research should focus on questions it can actually answer. Raymond Chandler in "The simple art of murder": 2/ 
PS, "other things being equal" — Chandler sounding like an economist! Anyway, something to be said for not biting off more than anyone knows how to chew 3/
Maybe the point is that research should aim to help answer the big questions, but that often the way to do that is to study smaller, more tractable questions that are steps on the way — which is by and large how science works 4/
So, to take an area both Branko and I built our careers around, the consequences of globalization are a big issue, but a big book on global-shmobal may not add much (although his have!) 5/
On the other hand, detailed study, using hitherto unexploited data, of the impacts of railroad expansion in colonial India may tell you quite a lot 6/ aeaweb.org/about-aea/hono…
So "study the big things" isn't a good guide; most research should probably focus on smaller, more tractable things with bigger implications. In any case, the test is how much it adds to our understanding 7/
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