[JamesBarney]

One of the differences is Austrians don't rely on empiricism. They start off with first principles about how humans behave and basically prove all of their proofs about human behavior and economics from their.

Mainstream economics has a much larger reliance on empiricism(especially recently after the Great Recession invalidated a lot of Chicago school models).

They differ fundamentally but like any field you should start with the mainstream. Start with the consensus of how the recognized leaders of a field agree on how the world works. Then start branching off into sub-fields(some of which will be labeled quackery like the Austrians). This doesn't mean they're wrong. Many times a sub-field is labeled as quacks before the mainstream finally accepts them. But more often than not the mainstream is right.

Some recognized leaders would be Greg Mankiw(representing conservative mainstream economic thought) and Paul Krugman/Brad Delong(representing liberal mainstream economic thought).

Also I think the best way to start an education in a particular field is with a textbook. They are great overviews of a field.

[gknoy]

Thank you for great starting points. I think my biggest hurdle was that I didn't feel like I had a good handle on how to discern the mainstream from the quacks. I appreciate your concise overview :)

> I think the best way to start an education in a particular field is with a textbook.

Excellent suggestion.