The fact that Sharpe was in this respect "very much in the Friedman camp at the time" meant that he did not allow making unrealistic assumptions to disturb him as he practiced what Alchian had taught in respect to modeling. As he puts it, his approach was to "take the problem, try to distil out the two or three most important things, build a logically coherent model ... that has those ingredients in it and then see whether or not this can help you understand some real phenomenon" (Sharpe interview).

Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, loc. 245