Why does drug dealers still live with their moms? What makes a perfect parent? With data and analysis, this book tries to answer some unrelated random questions.
Freakonomics is divided into six chapters, each starting off with a question. On initial thoughts, the answers look obvious. Using tools to reliably asses tonnes of data, this books comes with interesting and often surprising answers. Rather than being a dull subject, economics here is applied to a variety of common topics with amusing results.
The book drives on a set of fundamental ideas:
- Incentives are the cornerstone of modern life.
- Conventional wisdom is often wrong
- Dramatic effects often have distant, even subtle causes.
- Experts use their informational advantage to serve their own agenda.
- Knowing what to measure and how to measure it makes a complicated world much less so.
A must read if you are a curious cat and interested in knowing where have all the criminals gone.
If you liked Freakonomics, "The Black Swan" is highly recommended
Thanks, will give it a shot. Just picked up Tipping Point by Malcom Gladwell from the library.
-balaji