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July 6, 2005
Not as Freaky as the Title Might Suggest
A friend recommended I pick up a copy of Freakonomics : A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything, which I did a month or so back. I finally picked it up, and when I put it down three hours later, I had finished it.
It was a good book - the authors are good at two things:
1. identifying the right control group in order to ask meaningful questions of existing data (often using regression analysis), and
2. not confusing correlation with causality
The book doesn't have a much of a theme, really - a fact the authors warn you of up front - but it hangs together well regardless.
With chapters including "What Do Schoolteachers and Sumo Wrestlers Have in Common?" (answer: they both have strong incentives to cheat), "How is the Ku Klux Klan Like a Group of Real-Estate Agents?" (answer: they both depend on an information asymmetry), and "Why Do Drug Dealers Still Live with Their Moms?" (oh read the book, I'm tired of parenthetical answers) there's something there for everyone.
I'd say you should find a copy at the library, but if you want to read it soon, you're better off buying a copy than getting in line with a billion other people waiting for the two copies the library has.
Posted by dberger at July 6, 2005 8:59 AM