Captain's Book Review: "Freakonomics"

"Freakonomics : A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything" by Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner

I checked this book out after listening to an interview with one of the authors on NPR's Diane Rehm show.

Just like the title says, the authors try to uncover the truth about important issues - like crime, education, racism (ok, so its not everything). The authors' premise is that things are not always as they seem - meaning that sometimes we think we have the answers, but they turn out to be wrong.

What I like...
The authors' approach to asking the right questions - which is key to cutting through all the politics and moral baggage attached with many important issues. I love reading the kinds of books that expose how people really behave - not how we would want them to - and this book is a great example. It makes you be more diligent when dealing with people. For example, when dealing with a realtor to buy or sell a house, always ask if they own property in the area and what they bought and sold it for and why. It turns out that realtors, like many other "information" professionals (those who have a big informational advantage over the average person), try to take advantage of that gap in information. If you ask the right questions, and do the right research, that gap can be eliminated - hurray for the Internet.

This is one of those books where I constantly found myself wanting to share with my friends and family. After reading a chapter, I would go home and say "I read in Freakonomics that..." and my friends and family would be surprised with the outcome. The single biggest "wowwer" is that legalized abortion was the main reason for a drop in crime in the 1990's - but not a single news story reported on that.

What I Didn't Like...
Actually, I liked the entire book. I wish it were longer and included more topics.

Conclusion
If you're going to read this book, you need to be open-minded. I've learned from this book not to believe everything I heard (well I didn't really do that anyway, but this reinforced it) - especially from so-called experts.