economics is a harsh mistress
It's not until you wander around amongst normal people that you realise how strangely, not to say savagely, that economics and it's associated disciplines, warps your world view.

Economics is like a glowing ball of pure energy, (to use an in-joke as metaphor) ideas & knowledge in their pure form. The rush you feel when you first plug-in is electrifying, and, it must be said invigorating. It renders what to others is a never ending stream of bad news, as a simple series of data points, value neutral. Stepping stones on your way to understanding.

What it doesn't say up front is that as the scales fall from your eyes, you cannot go back. What is learned, cannot be unlearned, and where once was simple shades of grey they is now vivid living colour. The lives and cares or ordinary folk seem very far away, and even if you do unplug, you can never regain the naivete.

Be careful what you wish for, because like the man said, when you look into the abyss, the abyss looks also into you.