Freakonomics

[Betty]

This was an interesting book, but takes a while to get through it. The point of view was interesting.

[Noelle]

I LOVEd this book. I read it right after business school where I discover economics is interesting, and this books uses applied economics in new ways to give insight in to social issues and misperceptions.

[Rob]

As I mentioned in my review, I enjoyed the book but felt he took things a bit too far in a Cartesian direction for my taste--I think the world has a lot more gray than economics can provide. Still, definitely worth the read and definitely a good way to start a conversation on some of these issues.

-Rob

[Anna]

I enjoyed this book particularly as an anthropological exploration of an economist's mind. :-)

But I would have liked a little more discussion of the "lies, damned lies and statistics"-thing in the book.

[Joe]

I'm currently reading this book. I don't have a ton of free time, but time tends to open up if I'm nose-deep in a book I love. That said, I've been choking this one down for about a month. I just can't seem to get more than a few pages in without becoming disinterested with the topics. I'm also not crazy about the whole "everyone else is wrong, I'm right, and here's why" angle he seems to take. Could it be that a lot of the outcomes are a combination of a multitude of factors, and not just the one he thought of? Don't get me wrong - he has some great insight and he's undoubtedly a smart guy, but I'm getting tired with the holier-than-thou attitude. With a stack of books in my to-read, I may jump ship. Not knowing what's next in this book is what keeps it on my night stand. Stay tuned.

[Rob]

Joe, the whole book is written in that style, if you aren't digging it now, going further won't help. You're probably best off just jumping ship.

[Joe]

Funny you say that - I found his final chapter (on how the names of children don't have any impact on their future, though their name might indicate their background) very interesting. I have a young son, and knowing what we went through to name him, I loved this chapter.

One thing I also found odd was that I thought I had a couple hundred pages left to read, until I discovered that the second half of this version is just reprints of articles that were already discussed in the book. I wasn't upset - as above, I was ready to move on. But strange nonetheless.

I gave this book three stars. He has some very good ideas, but not all of them are backed up with supporting data, and as I mentioned above, his tone was a bit too strong for me. But overall an interesting read. If he continued with this way of thinking and published another book like this one, I'd probably be too intrigued to pass it up.

[MT]

I enjoyed reading the book. It is entertaining for both economics and non-economics people. There are couple of books that have the same mind-set for different examples.
Recently I have gone through some parts of "Undercover economist", it is worth reading for poeple who likes this style.

[Tyrel Kelsey]

I enjoyed the book for the data portions off it, and really liked how he showed how he got to certain conclusions, but the way he seemed to pat himself on the back with articles at the end of the chapters really bothered me. It also seemed like a good amount of the book was written in that fashion as well.

[Kressel]

Anyone who liked Freakonomics might just like Superfreakonomics even more. I certainly did.

[BBK]

I liked the way of drawing conclusion. Same patterns of data presentation made bored while going through the whole book. Anyway it's a worth reading book for all.

[Jen]

I'm a teacher. I'm waiting for some news media to latch on to the idea of teachers cheating now that the political types are finding it so important to tie high-stakes testing to teacher performance. I'm not going to dispute the findings of this book... you want honest test results, do not tie them to MY performance. You want my kids to score well (entirely different than honest results) then tie the scores to my teaching performance!

[Nell]

I really enjoyed this book, primarily because it takes you out of "popular wisdom" into really looking at cause and effect.

I loved his description of two people, one with all the advantages and higher education, and the other born in the slums with a broken home. The "advantaged" person became Ted Kazinski, the Unibomber. The other guy became a force for good in the world.

I also loved the story about the two boys, one named "Winner" and one named "Loser." (jail to those parents, right???) Winner became a career criminal, and Loser, known as "Lou," became a cop.

[Steve]

I enjoyed the book and agree with Nell that it made you take a different perspective on things. You really never know what 'small' things will effect you later in life.

[Kressel]

you want honest test results, do not tie them to MY performance. You want my kids to score well (entirely different than honest results) then tie the scores to my teaching performance!

Jen, I'm not clear about what you're saying. I get that you don't disagree with the findings, but do you have a suggestion as to how can children's test scores can truly be raised?

[Jen]

No real good suggestions... I wish I did! We blame the teachers, we blame the parents... when do we blame the kids? In some cases, it's the kids who don't want to learn no matter how hard the parents or teachers work. There is no incentive for them doing well and no punishment if they don't do well. I know punishing the teachers for poor student performance is the wrong way to go. Last year I actually had kids who told me they were going to fail on purpose because they wanted to see me fired (I'm pretty tough on them and sometimes they hate me!)
I guess the biggest thing is, the kids need a reason to learn... especially in our inner city areas. Telling a 5th grader he will need the information in the future just doesn't cut it and trying to get a middle school kid to do anything that doesn't benefit them almost never works...

[Kressel]

I blame television and the media. No teacher can compare with TV, movies, and the Internet.

[Dee]

I think your right about the no incentive to learn - so many kids (IMHO) are just handed everything today and they don't have to work for and earn it. My parents tied rewards to my grades, if I got A's, I got something i'd been bugging them about. B's were ok, if I got a C - never a good idea ;)

[Javier]

Jen wrote: "No real good suggestions... I wish I did! We blame the teachers, we blame the parents... when do we blame the kids? In some cases, it's the kids who don't want to learn no matter how hard the paren..."
When I was in the fifth grade my teacher Ms. Connolly would hit my palm with a ruler. My Algebra teacher in HS swatted me on more than one occasion. I was a horrible student. But I loved to read....we would make counterfeit library cards get the books and keep them as long as we pleased. The problem is discipline, there aint any. Yesterday a Hawaiian chef told the students that the palate is where the taste buds are located. Of course all of you know how to spell potatoe. And Jay Leno stops women on the street and asks them where their prostate is located....and they dont know.

[Paul]

Noelle wrote: "I LOVEd this book. I read it right after business school where I discover economics is interesting, and this books uses applied economics in new ways to give insight in to social issues and misperc..."


For more detailed insight, I highly recommend Thomas Sowell's Economic Facts and Fallacies. You should also enjoy Super Freakonomics.

[Fred]

Betty wrote: "This was an interesting book, but takes a while to get through it. The point of view was interesting."

Try Malcolm Gladwell. You'll love his writing.

[Eric]

Paul wrote: "For more detailed insight, I highly recommend Thomas Sowell's Economic Facts and Fallacies. You should also enjoy Super Freakonomics. "

I personally didn't enjoy Super Freakonomics nearly as much as I did the original. It had very good insight, but the points the author's make felt like watching an M. Night movie, there were all sorts of twists and loopholes before it all congealed together. It was an OK book, but I enjoyed it about half as much as I did the original.

Fred wrote: "Try Malcolm Gladwell. You'll love his writing."

Couldn't agree more with Fred, Gladwell does an awesome job writing in the same type of fashion, Outlier's is far and away my favorite of his...

[Denise]

I'm currently reading The Signal and the Noise by Nate Silver. I'm in the first chapters so have no idea how it will eventually stack up to this book. Freakonomics had some fascinating topics, I felt some of the explanations were a little too simplistic and deserved further digging. For anyone familiar with Silver's book, I'd consider this book to be more hedgehog than fox. Still, overall, an interesting read.

[Brad]

The best thing about Feakonomics is that it reminds us that many of the things we believe are true or even take for granted do not check out when we examine them with rigor. That message ought to make everyone more careful with their opinions, which would be nice.

[Leonardo]

Just a quick FYI: if you like the books, check out the Freakonomics podcasts. They're great and they're free!!!

While I'm on the subject, here are a few more Podcasts (all free) that are worth your time:

1. Money for the Rest of Us -- by J. David Stein (Economics).
2. The Partially Examined Life (Philosophy).
3. Stuff You Missed in History Class (History).

Dr. Leonardo Noto
Physician and Author

[Martin]

Didn't like it, found it "wink,wink,nod,nod" racist at points.

[Brad]

It's not racist in the sense that it takes a pejorative view of one race vs another. It does document that inner city urban culture is dysfunctional in ways that other American sub-cultures are not, I suppose. That is a touchy subject with some people, of course.

[Kressel]

If you listen to the podcasts and get to know the lives of the two authors, you'll see that not only aren't they racist, they're committed to solving some of the worst problems the inner cities face.

[Leonardo]

Another cool economics perspective that I recently discovered. "Mr. Money Mustache." http://www.mrmoneymustache.com. The website is essentially about attaining financial freedom by changing some of your lifestyle choices. If you like Freakonomics you'll probably at least find his point of view interesting.

Dr. Leonardo Noto
Physician and Author

[Ana]

I really did find this book interesting, I thought that they really did think out of the box with this.
I was really impressed because this is not just another book that i s made because the authors wanted some fame or just wanted to be know by saying crazy things without a base because I seriously thought that there was no way that they could prove what they were saying. They actually could give and explanation behind what they were talking about.
I am exited to read the second book, which was the one I bought first and I was forced to read this one but anyway, I really liked it and I have to say that this book was a pretty easy read for a book that talked about economics.