Freakonomics By Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner
This is a book that really has mixed reviews everywhere. Hence, in this book review I want to share my views on this book. So let’s get started.
Freakonomics is written by 2 authors(mentioned above). One is an actual economist and then the other is a book author and they met because the author was interviewing the economist for The New York Times magazine. That was the time when they decided to write a book together. The interesting thing about this book is that there’s no unifying theme. Each chapter is like a separate entity in itself. But, the names of each chapter are super interesting.
What’s Inside Freakonomics?
The first chapter talks about how school teachers and sumo wrestlers are common. It talks about the incentives and how it is used to control human behavior. The author shares a story of incentives in the school system and how teachers used those incentives for their benefit. Similarly, how Sumo wrestlers used it for theirs. Some of it may look far-fetched but the comparison is purely from the eyes of the author. Some readers feel this comparison to be completely rubbish. This is completely fine because the author himself acknowledges this fact.
In another chapter, he talks about how a simple law on abortion was responsible for bringing down the crime rate. He gives an example of when abortion was legalized and how eventually the crime rate dropped in that city.
Another chapter that talks about what makes a perfect parent talks about nature versus nurture and if parents actually have an impact on how children turn out. There’s another chapter on How old people name their children so there’s a story about a guy named the winner and that his brother was named loser and whether their name had any impact on the success and outcomes of their life?
The chapters of the book are on a longer side (200 pages) but you could read it quickly because there is no unifying theme and each chapter is separate. People who are into statistics, data, and analysis would like this book.
This book really makes you stop and think about things going on around you. Why things are the way they are? This book would give new perspectives of how a normal person would look at the economics of the world. That’s the book of curiosity and if you read it let me know in the comments.
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