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9th out of 19 books
—
7 voters
Hidden Order: The Economics of Everyday Life
A respected professor and son of Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman provides a fun and easy way for curious readers to understand basic economic ideas. Though we may not know it, we make economic decisions every day when we recycle, drive through rush hour, go on a date, play softball or bargain with our children. In "Hidden Order," David Friedman, a prominent economics schola...more
Paperback, 352 pages
Published
July 18th 1997
by HarperBusiness
(first published 1996)
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This books tries to be an economics text book for lay people. I learned quite a bit, but there were many instances where I used the graphs and English descriptions to go, "Oh, he means XYZ in calculus." I'm not sure how clear those passages would be without a good math background (not necessarily calculus, but at least comfort with geometry). In general I feel like I learned a lot about modern economic theory and he had some fun passages that applied economics theory to unusual situations (like...more
This book is not what most people would expect from an economics book, even one aimed at the popular audience. From the start, you can tell that the author approaches economics from an unconventional point of view: in his view, economics is not about money. Instead, it turns out to be about value, and how we exchange things of value to obtain others; money need not be involved. When examined from this viewpoint, economics suddenly becomes applicable to study of how we make decisions about nearly...more
I was told by a friend that this is the book "Freakonomics" wished it could be. I heartily disagree. I'm not dumb or brilliant, I like to think I am slightly above average in intelligence and the author completely spoke above me almost the entire time. He tried to explain things simply and ended up making everything more complex, at least to me. I can handle A to B or even A to D, skipping a few steps, but the author jumped from A to Q and expected his readers to be able to follow with no issues...more
I finally finished this one. It is pretty heady which is what took me so long to read it. I would only make it through a couple pages at night before drifting off to sleep. It is more of a daytime read! LOL
This is not easy economics reading like Freakonomics, etc. This book would be awesome for a college economics class. It has very detailed information like you would learn at the level of a college course, but it is presented in a more entertaining way than a textbook. Having said that, it is...more
This is not easy economics reading like Freakonomics, etc. This book would be awesome for a college economics class. It has very detailed information like you would learn at the level of a college course, but it is presented in a more entertaining way than a textbook. Having said that, it is...more
Friedman is a brilliant economist (and son of Milton), and this book is really the forerunner to Freakonomics, in the sense that it was the first of the armchair economics books geared toward discussing data in more interesting and conversational ways. A friend who recommended Hidden Order claimed that it was the book that Freakonomics was trying to be. This is true in the sense that Hidden Order does a far better job of illustrating the pervasiveness of the power of numbers in all aspects of ou...more
This book is more complete and detailed than books like the Undercover Economist or Freakonomics, but it is also much harder to read since it is written in a dryer more textbook like fashion. Parts of the book were interesting and other parts tended to make me nod off. This book would probably be best for someone that has a more than passing interest in the subject.
Exciting book about an exciting topic. This book had enough depth to cover topics like marginal values and demand curves, and enough practicality mixed in to make for an interesting mix. Friedman has advanced degrees in physics and law and he chooses to teach economics because there are plenty of parallels to draw into this subject. He has a good libertarian bent, but I don't know how an understanding of economics could lead to any other political view.
One of the random interests I have is unusual perspectives to economics, and this seemed to fit that category. The contents seemed interesting, and some chapters were rather interesting (economics of crime or marriage). But not all chapters were interesting, and it took over a month to finish me the book (still skipping some of the parts with incomprehensible charts). Some chapters, while still interesting in topic, we're written in a boring way. The Undercover Economist is a much more interesti...more
This book is not a quirky, behavioral economics book. Don't be fooled by the title. It is a complete review of everything that I ever learned as an Econ major. While it gets a bit wordy at times and is rather dry, it is a great, condensed version of everything in basic economics - and for this aspect, I give it 5 stars. But since the only part of it that I was truly interested in were the last two chapters, I give it 3 stars. Instead of straight-up economics 101 lectures, I would have preferred...more
This book is a bit misleading. Not a pop-Econ book. There is some challenging material in here. If you are looking for a fun light Econ read, I recommend looking elsewhere. Try Charles Wheelan's Naked Economics...
Sep 23, 2010
Craig J.
added it
Hidden Order: The Economics of Everyday Life by David D. Friedman (1997)
Not that innovative.
Apr 16, 2010
David
added it
from motley fool
Jan 26, 2008
Kenny
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Everyone, esp. critical thinking liberals wanting an accessible view into how libertarians think
Recommended to Kenny by:
I know the author
A very good read, I find this book excessively reductionist, i.e. the explanations (Friedman brings libertarian economics to a popular audience very well) are based on assumptions that are unrealistic (people are purely driven by profit type of thing) but a good introduction to that style of economic thought if you read critically.
The 5 stars is just for economists or econ students, though I think most other people would put it at 3-4 stars. The book provides a number of intriguing explanations to various decisions such as why we give diamond rings when we get engaged or why the British wore bright red uniforms.
Interesting...however much denser, and therefore less readable than other economics books I have made it through...namely Armchair Economist, The Drunkard's Walk, and Freakonomics - the remedial member of the family.
Too Damn much work.
May 12, 2013
Jasdeep
marked it as to-read
May 05, 2013
Goran
is currently reading it
Apr 27, 2013
Clay Griffin
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Apr 24, 2013
Ido
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Apr 11, 2013
Noah Lucius
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Apr 02, 2013
Matt
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Mar 30, 2013
Craig
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