It's nice that they made sure the data set contained the key data to their collapse. The pensions of retirees. Would the results have been the same if it weren't included? I don't have access to the paper but I'd be curious what their justification for their choice was.
Among other things, they looked at the total level of debt, the cash reserves of the government and the pensions of retired civil servants.
We play with this but only on building victory points. Victory chits, largest army and longest road don't count towards the number of victory points. I don't know where this started but it has made for alot better games.
I'm going to have to go back and listen to a number of these lectures. The first video I click on the professor says "Computer Science isn't computer programming." so so true.
I've always been of the opinion that diversity in your education will help you somewhere down the road. That being said you should still have one thing you focus on. If you're going to be learning how to program as a biologist, you still need to be a biologist first and a developer second.
I'm a developer first and whatever it is I'm programming for second. I learn how to do the job of the people I write code for so it will do what they need.