Thanksgiving Reading Book Review
Freak Out!
After failing to finish the below book, I tried out another nonfiction, Levitt and Dubner's Freakonomics. I basically didn't put it down until I was done. Highly recommended. In Freakonomics, we get a random selection of various research discoveries Steven Levitt has made. These range from abortion being the real reason crime went down in the 90's (that would have been when those unwanted children came of juvenile age- the trend also happened in other countries and states that legalized at different times), why your real estate agent may try to sell your house to early (the little extra money they make keeping it on the market is outweighed by just moving on to a new house), and how the number of books you have in your house will effect your child's intelligence more than how often you read to them.
What I really like about his approach is how he looks at the full range of incentives, and isn't pigeon-holed by a behavioresque punishment/reward mantra. For instance, I was very pleased to see that high stakes testing in schools may or may not increase intelligence, but they certainly increased cheating in Chicago schools. On the same point, my favorite finding was based on research done at day care. They had been having issues with parents picking up their kids late, so they tried an experiment where they added a fine to their monthly charge if they came in after the prescribed time. So what do you think happened? Yes, exactly, the late pick-ups doubled. Why? Perhaps because even though there was an economic incentive to be punctual, they had removed the social incentive. A major reason to be on-time was to not be rude. You don't feel bad though if you know they were compensated for your tardiness.
So, yes, great read. And not very long either! Just over 200 pages. Would make a very good x-mas gift for the resident nerd in your family.
What I really like about his approach is how he looks at the full range of incentives, and isn't pigeon-holed by a behavioresque punishment/reward mantra. For instance, I was very pleased to see that high stakes testing in schools may or may not increase intelligence, but they certainly increased cheating in Chicago schools. On the same point, my favorite finding was based on research done at day care. They had been having issues with parents picking up their kids late, so they tried an experiment where they added a fine to their monthly charge if they came in after the prescribed time. So what do you think happened? Yes, exactly, the late pick-ups doubled. Why? Perhaps because even though there was an economic incentive to be punctual, they had removed the social incentive. A major reason to be on-time was to not be rude. You don't feel bad though if you know they were compensated for your tardiness.
So, yes, great read. And not very long either! Just over 200 pages. Would make a very good x-mas gift for the resident nerd in your family.
posted by chuckdaddy2000 at 6:08 pm
5 Comments:
I read bits and pieces of "Freak" as well and found it filled with a-ha moments of enjoyability. Have you read "The Tipping Point" or at least the New Yorker article Gladwell wrote that basically sums up his 200 page book in 8 or 9 pages? Like "Freak" it theorized the cause and effect in a similar fashion.
I recently finished "The Sex Live sof Cannibals" which your wifey highly recommends but you refuse to read....I echo her recommendation.
My dad was raving about Tipping Point. It sounds good. But I like the idea of just reading the book review as well. Maybe I could start doing reviews of book reviews...
So Chuckdaddy,
Does it bother you to learn that Freakonomics has been hailed by some right-of-center 'cons as a great read as well? Does this affect your take on the book?
(I read it a few months ago as well - I found it a bit too mass-appealing. I mean, the guy's supposedly a world reknowned statistician, yet where are the hard numbers?!? Are we, his general reading public, too dumb to handle that? How do we know his studies weren't skewed?)
On the one hand, I find the issue of correlation of abortion to lower crime intriguing, yet isn't this a bit of a bug-a-bear for the left? What about those apples Chuckdaddy?!?!
I am too dumb to handle the hard numbers.
You want some?!?
It doesn't bother me that it's appealing to both sides. The fact that he didn't have an agenda he was using the stats to prove made me believe his findings more.
He was pretty soft on the numbers, and I think this is probably why it was such a nice read, but I think you have a point. There were certain parts where he seemed to draw huge conclusions from small research. Like the part about spending and elections. But it was hard to know since he didn't include the specifics, and instead just jumped to his conclusion.
Damn, I'm not very good at throw downs...
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