Freakonomics Book Report
The Hidden Side of Freakonomics
Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner is a book aimed at exposing the secret within everything. The authors prove that in many cases, two items don’t have to be connected because they are correlated. Moreover, two unrelated items can in fact be connected. Proving so was less difficult than it would seem. All it took was the right information. They were able to prove the most unlikely of correlations. The authors stress that in a world where incentives influence every action, information is priceless.
The authors show the power of information through countless examples. For example, it’s reasonable to say that innovative policing techniques would have caused the huge crime decline that occurred in the late 1990’s. Surprisingly, the cause was the ruling in the Supreme Court case Roe vs. Wade. By legalizing abortion, all the would-be criminals were being aborted as babies. A mother who has an abortion is typically young, alone, or has a dependency of some sort. A child being born into that environment is 50% more likely than average to live in a poor home and 60 percent more …show more content…
The authors researched subjects in a very unorthodox manner. What I found most interesting was the case of the drug dealers. Researching something like that is not easy to do. Luckily, they had access to someone who lived with a crack gang and studied how they operated. It gave a very in depth look at a subject rarely discussed. Most importantly, this knowledge is useful and can be applied to almost anything. Many times, a problem is explained to me and the answer seems obvious. I’ve never second guessed the reasoning, frankly I never much cared. Now, however, it’s interesting to know that the answer could be wrong. It makes me want to discover the real answer. This book has turned logic and reasoning upside down and left me to sort out the
Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner is a book aimed at exposing the secret within everything. The authors prove that in many cases, two items don’t have to be connected because they are correlated. Moreover, two unrelated items can in fact be connected. Proving so was less difficult than it would seem. All it took was the right information. They were able to prove the most unlikely of correlations. The authors stress that in a world where incentives influence every action, information is priceless.
The authors show the power of information through countless examples. For example, it’s reasonable to say that innovative policing techniques would have caused the huge crime decline that occurred in the late 1990’s. Surprisingly, the cause was the ruling in the Supreme Court case Roe vs. Wade. By legalizing abortion, all the would-be criminals were being aborted as babies. A mother who has an abortion is typically young, alone, or has a dependency of some sort. A child being born into that environment is 50% more likely than average to live in a poor home and 60 percent more …show more content…
The authors researched subjects in a very unorthodox manner. What I found most interesting was the case of the drug dealers. Researching something like that is not easy to do. Luckily, they had access to someone who lived with a crack gang and studied how they operated. It gave a very in depth look at a subject rarely discussed. Most importantly, this knowledge is useful and can be applied to almost anything. Many times, a problem is explained to me and the answer seems obvious. I’ve never second guessed the reasoning, frankly I never much cared. Now, however, it’s interesting to know that the answer could be wrong. It makes me want to discover the real answer. This book has turned logic and reasoning upside down and left me to sort out the