Freakonomics [Revised and Expanded]: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Freakonomics [Revised and Expanded]: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
Book Review: Overrated
Summary: 3 Stars
This book was a quick, fairly interesting read, but I can't understand why it's been so popular. The major idea the authors propose (the one about abortion) is still under contention. Their other points are very slight or obvious: real estate agents work harder to sell their property than when they sell yours - wow, who would have thought? Popular names follow fashion, race and social class - is that why I called my youngest Joseph and not Tyrone? People who sell crack on street corners don't actually earn much money - what insight!
If you want a book to occupy your mind when on a short flight, this is OK, but don't expect too much.
Book Review: Killer great book
Summary: 5 Stars
Loved this book. Totally worth all the hype: very thought-provoking, easy to read, fun, discussion-sparking, changes the way you look at and think about things. You'll love it.Book Review: Disappointing
Summary: 1 Stars
A very pessimistic take on our great country for purposes of pushing a political agenda. Its no wonder this book is so well liked by the New York Times. There is too much opinion and not enough evidence in the pages of this book.Book Review: I appluad the intent but not always the method
Summary: 3 Stars
Levitt and Dubner seek to reveal the true statistics and economics behind a myriad of topics. In one example the authors criticize a number of officials for taking credit for a decrease in crime rates because their analysis indicates that the legalization of abortion had more to do with the drop in crime than any other factor. Their logic is usually sound, though it misses a few points occasionally, for which I'll give them the benefit of the doubt - you don't write a book without considerable research. But there are most definitely times where the authors are guilty of the same mistakes they charge others with: misrepresenting the data.
Whereas the targets of the authors' criticism seek to gain public approval by making claims people wish to hear, the authors stand to gain by challenging conventional wisdom - they sell more books. It certainly takes an unbiased mind to assert that abortion prevents crime but I think that lack of bias also lead the authors astray, especially with the pool versus guns issue.
The authors say 550 kids under the age of 10 drown each year and there are 11,000 residential pools, therefore, the likelihood of death by pool is somewhere around 1 in 11,000. 175 kids under the age of 10 die each year from guns and there are 200 million guns so the likelihood of death by guns is 1 in 1 million-plus.
These data are perhaps informative separately but nowhere near comparable. I will assume the authors had the presence of mind and the ethics to not count kids who drown in lakes, bath tubs and who knows how else and I sincerely hope they're not counting the millions of guns stored at the thousands of police stations, military bases, museums, etc around the US. Even if that were the case (the authors don't say) the data still can't be compared. For one thing, every house only has one pool but if a house has at least one gun, chances are it has several. A more accurate statistic would be number of households with pools and number of households with guns. Is that enough to make a difference? I can't say and they don't either. What I do know is that in a book which criticizes hasty and irrational stretches of statistical claims you should be extremely careful about the claims you make. In this case I think it was a poor decision to try to compare pools and guns with the data they had. They should have either dug deeper or left the issue alone.
The book started well enough and I went along with the majority of their logic but the pool and gun issue was a big problem for me. Near the end they spent much too long talking about trends in names; it was overly tedious with lists and lists of names that correlate with economic status during given time periods. I would have appreciated further explanation and discussion of their logic on earlier topics and less lists of names at the end.
Book Review: Not For Everyone, But Worth Reading
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is definitely not for everyone - you really have to take the theories presented with a grain of salt. However, I think the authors clearly present the arguments as correlating factors, not causal factors.
But, putting that aside, the main premise of the book, that there may be correlations and causal relationships between the most unlikely factors in life is worth taking a look at and exploring - IF you are willing to put aside your own biases toward the subject matters presented.
For example, if you are willing to put aside your biases that abortion has nothing to do with changes in society, you may discover that overall, the legalization of abortion COULD have a far-reaching implication on society, such as changes in crime rate, then you may have something new to think about by reading this book.
OR, if you are willing to look at different factors that may contribute to student success rate, other than the quality of schooling, then you may have something new to think about by reading this book.
That's what I garnered from reading this book, and that is precisely why I believe it's a great book. In fact, that is, in my opinion, what makes a great book: one that opens and expands your mind beyond the ordinary.