“Three kinds of economists” (joke)
The old economics joke goes: “There are three kinds of economists: Those who can add/count and those who can’t.” (Also, “Those who know how to add/count and those who don’t.) The “three kinds of economists” joke has been cited in print since at least April 1992.
The joke has been cited in print since at least December 1990, when it described “three kinds of people.” In 1991, the joke involved “three kinds of actuaries;” in 1992, the joke involved “three kinds of mathematicians;” and in 1993, the joke involved “three kinds of computer scientists.”
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From: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) (Galen J. Hekhuis)
Date: 5 Dec 90 12:10:14 GMT
Local: Wed, Dec 5 1990 7:10 am
Subject: Re: Weird 69 VW turn-signals - PUZZLER No. 4
Three kinds of people in this world: Those who can count and those who can’t.
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From: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) (Annick Ansselin)
Date: 18 Jul 91 03:34:49 GMT
Local: Wed, Jul 17 1991 10:34 pm
Subject: Re: One-Liners ...
There are three kinds of people in this world. Those who can count and those who can’t.
Google Books
Record
Society of Actuaries. Meeting
Volume 17, Issue 3
1991
Pg. 907:
MR. MARK S. WINTER: The last time I spoke to the Society of Actuaries on a related, but slightly different topic, the moderator, who I will hasten to say was an actuary, sp he could get away with it perhaps better than I could, started off by saying that it’s often said that there are three kinds of actuaries, those who can count and those who can’t.
Google Books
Proceedings of the Casualty Actuarial Society
Volume 77
1991
Pg. 351:
Which reminds me to share with you Joe Brownlee’s speech at the Annual Meeting of the Academy regarding the three kinds of actuaries: those who can count, and those who can’t.
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From: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) (Roy Jacobsen)
Date: 22 Apr 92 12:47:58 GMT
Local: Wed, Apr 22 1992 7:47 am
Subject: Speaking of . . . Re: age woes
Speaking of bad jokes, my boss at NDSU (an economist) tells me there are three kinds of economists:
Those who can count,
and those who can’t.
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From: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) (Carlos A. Varela)
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1992 05:38:37 GMT
Local: Wed, Sep 9 1992 12:38 am
Subject: Re: Math Joke
Another math joke:
The math teacher explaining: “There are three kinds of mathematicians: Those who know how to count and those who don’t”
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From: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) (Mahesh V Tripunitara)
Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1993 03:00:31 GMT
Local: Wed, Jan 27 1993 10:00 pm
Subject: Re: Explosives seized from ISS activists
“There are only three kinds of computer scientists : those that can count, & those that cannot.”
2 December 1996, San Antonio (TX) Express-News, Monday Briefing:
There are three kinds of economists. Those who can count and those who cannot.
Google Books
The Monk Manager and the Road to Abbey Management:
Essays in organisation theory and managerial practice and on the world of work
By Eric R. J. Lefebvre
Leuven: Acco
1997
Pg. 40:
The article starts with the old joke that: “There are three kinds of economists: those who can count and those who can’t”.
6 August 1998, Washington (DC) Post, “Still More: The Best T-Shirts of 1998” by Bob Levey, pg. C16:
There Are Three Kinds of People: Those Who Can Count and Those Who Can’t.
The Guardian (UK)
Bankers: an anthropological study
Joris Luyendijk
Wednesday 14 September 2011 14.59 EDT
(...)
“Every economist knows that there are three kinds of economists; there are those who know how to count, and there are those who don’t.”