I summarise Kaldor’s “stylised facts” approach to economics through the lens of his 1966 inaugural lecture at Cambridge, “Causes of the Slow Rate of Economic Growth of the United Kingdom”. I then defend this approach as a way of preventing economics from ossifying into pure formalism, fielding objections stemming from the Lucas critique, the advancement of econometrics, and the argument that stylised facts must depend on some prior theory. Finally, I argue that modern economics could benefit not only from his “stylised fact” approach, but also from his speculative boldness and substantive contributions to economic theory.