It's definitely both very complex, with layered mechanics, and also honestly things aren't always well explained in game. I have a lot of time in it and I still run into new systems that I can't get to work without looking through answers from other players and guides etc. I find it rewarding now that I can make sense of it and understand a lot of the core systems, but it took a while to get there and I also didn't play the game for a long time after buying it because trying to build something for the first time is like hitting a brick wall.

But, if you're interested in more accessible city builders, I can recommend a couple - try out frostpunk, the original one, great vibes and music and it's generally much easier to pick it up while still having lots of room to optimize.

For something completely different, Per Aspera let's you terraform mars as an AI and make narrative choices while building huge systems of industry and extraction across the whole planet. Very satisfying although be warned that it's impossible to make nice and neat cities because of the way its road building and placement works.

At the risk of being stereotypical, I'm playing Workers and Resources: Soviet Republic. I just recently finished setting up oil industry and rail for exporting fuel, alcohol, and food. The alcohol is only for export and no-one is addicted. I'm determined to achieve self-sufficiency and am working on the steel industry next!

I've also reinstalled Morrowind with a monstrous Vanilla-Extended Mod Pack from the Open Morrowind Modding community and spent last night sleepily clicking my way through 440 mod downloads. I've succeeded, and am now slightly terrified of the monster I've created.

It's an interesting thing to think about - I would argue that you have a point, but unlike economics, which is by definition social because humans are fundamental to the economy - statistics can be focused on non-human subjects across the natural sciences. But, when statistics is applied to humans and societies e.g. through sample surveys, I would argue that in those situations it is operating as a social science.

I've not delved deeply into the definitions around this, my work is usually in programme evaluation in the development sector, but I'd be interested to look up academic writing around this question.

I'm unfortunately one of those crazy people who is genuinely enthusiastic about the philosophy of science and abstract definitions.

Back when I used to watch them, I found that Max himself and others under the greyzone umbrella are outright transphobic.

There are some examples in this article: https://socialistcurrents.org/?p=4428

I noticed this on some of their videos on youtube as well. I think that they do valuable reporting on a number of anti-imperialist causes, particularly with respect to Palestine, but I'm not going to watch people regularly who are outright bigoted against trans people like me.

Ben Norton does great work though, I watch him regularly, the Geopolitical Economy Report is well researched and well presented and I've yet to get a whiff of this sort of bigotry from him. Glad he went his own way.

It's incredibly self-defeating to desperately want manufacturing to come back to the US, and then punish the Chinese when they do actually go and invest, I love how consistently the US is pulling the rug out from under its own feet these days.