In a while, a patient comes in & says, "Doctor, my joints are aching".
The "doctor"-mechanic thoughtfully replies, "Why don't you drink a can of motor oil ?"

Jokes aside, this article is mostly preaching to the converted. Obviously economists will be delighted to know that they "do economics", just as schoolteachers "mould the character of the next generation", or lawyers "seek justice", or doctors "cure disease". These lofty goals obscure the actual specifics & clarify nothing.

I'm reminded of that priceless scene in Roja where the villagers ask the groom what he does, & he says he is a cryptographer.

But what is it you do? they persist.

Suddenly one bright villager, obviously confusing cryptography with photography because they sound phonetically alike, declares "the groom takes pictures!", & the villagers are appeased. Atleast the groom is gainfully employed!

Over a decade ago, our Professor got up & welcomed us, "the future electronic engineers of India", to the engg school.
afaik, not a single one of my classmates is doing anything today remotely related to electron or engineering. though all of them without exception declared themselves "electronics engineer" on their wedding invitation!
the majority of them work in software outfits. some went to B-school & serve as middle managers. and so on...

again, no doctor ever cures disease. the drugs that do so are cooked in big pharma by chemists & molecular biologists & the like. the doctor simply asks you if you have health insurance. if you don't, he politely turns you away. if you do, he will put you on a drug regimen that he's been trained to do so in med school, and hope that your insurance covers the cost of said drugs.
the schoolteacher is an overworked underpaid employee of the schoolsystem who makes sure kids absorb the texts in the syllabus well enough to not flunk out of the state boards. and we can all safely conclude that lawyers are sharks who have nothing to do with justice and everything to do with billing you $250 by the hour.

Wittgenstein declared himself a philosopher, but pottered around in gardens to make ends meet. Another favorite philosopher Thoreau measured the lengths and widths of farms for a living. The DOL informs me that most mathematicinans work in the insurance business as actuaries...

"observing people's behavior" is all fine, but i would doubt if that is a monetizable activity. most economists i know either teach economics/finance/B-school subject in some univ setting, or work for some financial outfit or investment bank or somesuch, where they go by the term "quant", & put out reports predicting the GDP or some consumer confidence index for the next quarter, based on which the firm places bets on the market.

The economist John Kenneth Galbraith was taking a nap on a weekend, when he was put on a plane and taken away to a secret location, with strict instructions to his wife & family to keep mum on his absence. At the scret location ie. Camp David, JKG found himself in the presence of a dozen economists who were also similarly escorted away on their weekend. President Nixon confronted the bunch & said "price of meat is going thru the roof. what should i do ?"
obviously, beefprice is a function of cattle supply and cattlefeed supply, which had been heavily hit by a drought in the south of usa.
one could simply wait & hope the supply demand curves of beef reach some equilibrium, but the situation was dire & there was rioting in the public. Nixon hoped the economists would have an answer. JKG said "price controls!". So Nixon instituted a prize-freeze on beef for 90 days. Public was elated, Nixon's rating soared & all was well. 90 days later, the freeze was lifted. Economics prevailed, & the price of beef exploded. Poor Nixon repeated the gimmick with his economists & asked them "what should i do now ?" JKG wanted to say price-control again, but another economist pre-empted "you can't step into the same river twice". Nixon shot back "yes you can, if the river is frozen!"