http://www.mikeroberto.com/2006/09/15/my-first-book-review-freakonomics-by-steven-levitt-and-stephen-dubner/ Berto's rants on technology, sports, and heavy music Fri, 21 Nov 2008 23:24:32 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 http://www.mikeroberto.com/2006/09/15/my-first-book-review-freakonomics-by-steven-levitt-and-stephen-dubner/#comment-78 Starolis Thu, 16 Nov 2006 20:18:23 +0000 http://www.mikeroberto.com/2006/09/15/my-first-book-review-freakonomics-by-steven-levitt-and-stephen-dubner/#comment-78 yo berto - i read this book a while back...you're right about it having the makings of a bestseller - quick, easy read, controversial (to most at least), and "young genius" author(s). I enjoyed the book and don't know how you couldn't finish it considering it's so short. Your friend has a good point - making correlations, regardless of how strong or weak, between things common thinking would not link is what the book is about. Hence Freakanomics, the study of those things. Sure it's not going to make your head spin in the process, but don't write this stuff off as being so trivial. It's so easy to say after the fact how obvious something is, but believe it or not these guys did put a signficant amount of effort into the research, which is more than anyone else did. Give Origin of Wealth a shot by Eric D. Beinhocker - much more depth and citation on the current thinking in economics. Good stuff man. yo berto - i read this book a while back…you’re right about it having the makings of a bestseller - quick, easy read, controversial (to most at least), and “young genius” author(s). I enjoyed the book and don’t know how you couldn’t finish it considering it’s so short. Your friend has a good point - making correlations, regardless of how strong or weak, between things common thinking would not link is what the book is about. Hence Freakanomics, the study of those things. Sure it’s not going to make your head spin in the process, but don’t write this stuff off as being so trivial. It’s so easy to say after the fact how obvious something is, but believe it or not these guys did put a signficant amount of effort into the research, which is more than anyone else did. Give Origin of Wealth a shot by Eric D. Beinhocker - much more depth and citation on the current thinking in economics. Good stuff man.

]]> http://www.mikeroberto.com/2006/09/15/my-first-book-review-freakonomics-by-steven-levitt-and-stephen-dubner/#comment-75 Dustin Fri, 15 Sep 2006 17:58:38 +0000 http://www.mikeroberto.com/2006/09/15/my-first-book-review-freakonomics-by-steven-levitt-and-stephen-dubner/#comment-75 Berto, I'm one of the 60%. It's been a least a year, maybe two, since I read this, so the detailsaren't fresh in my mind. I picked it up cause i saw one of The Steve's on Orielly, and while Bill was most fascinated with the abortion topic and trying to pin him down as pro-abortion, "Steve" spent the time saying that he's not neccesarily pro, or anti-abortion, and just sticking with what i thought was maybe the more unifying theme. That the way things are in the world are usually that way for a reason, and it might not be obvious, but if you do some digging you could find something that could be the cause, and also what you may percieve as the cause to any given effect, may infact have little correlation at all. Ithink at the very least it can get people to think about things more, which you acn't very well be against. Berto, I’m one of the 60%. It’s been a least a year, maybe two, since I read this, so the detailsaren’t fresh in my mind. I picked it up cause i saw one of The Steve’s on Orielly, and while Bill was most fascinated with the abortion topic and trying to pin him down as pro-abortion, “Steve” spent the time saying that he’s not neccesarily pro, or anti-abortion, and just sticking with what i thought was maybe the more unifying theme. That the way things are in the world are usually that way for a reason, and it might not be obvious, but if you do some digging you could find something that could be the cause, and also what you may percieve as the cause to any given effect, may infact have little correlation at all. Ithink at the very least it can get people to think about things more, which you acn’t very well be against.

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