Freakonomics

By Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner

Do you think that school students are the only ones who try to cheat on exams? Well, teachers do it too.  Do real-estate experts always try to find the best deal for you when selling your house? Or do they want to sell it as quick as possible and get their commission?

Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner pose bizarre questions and present insightful answers in the book “Freakonomics”. What strikes me most is not their answers, although very surprising and interesting, but the weird and original questions they put to the reader.

Can more police on the streets really lower crime? Or maybe legalizing abortion is a better way to make our neighbourhoods safer. Would you more likely allow your child to play at a neighbour’s house where there is a gun, or at another house where there is just a swimming pool? Guess which is more safe and which causes more deaths.

At first you may think there is little sense in their questions and no obvious answers, but what they are doing is to help jump-start your brain into thinking in a different way. This is a very clever book.  Personally, I think it’s good to read something like this from time to time to get a balance in your life, to take stock and look at the world around you from new perspective.

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