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I think this is a great read - what I like about these guys is that they make you think. Not as good as Freakonomics - but still well worth the read.
The first book was infinitely more interesting; it’s clear this material didn’t make the cut for the first book and was recycled with this one. I have some issues with their view of economics as being a “superior” discipline that they view as above morality and ethics; and I have a degree in economics. Their chapter on sex work is riddled with uninformed opinions and the chapter on climate change is very outdated.
informative
lighthearted
fast-paced
The chapter on altruism was somewhat interesting, but the smugness of the authors' tone overall I found off putting. In particular, the first chapter on prostitution really treated sex workers with a flippant attitude, lacking nuance. The stuff on climate change also feels woefully out of date and from what I gather, pretty factually incorrect. Often it feels like things were cherry picked to make points, there's no room for any sort of real analysis here. I can't recommend this book.
Was just mediocre. I was really interested in it for the first half of the book, but then became a bit bored with the statistics and analogies toward the end. For whatever reason, I found the first book, Freakonomics, a lot more captivating.
This was good but not that good (and not nearly as good as the original). I felt like this lacked focus on actual research and had more rank speculation about things that someone might maybe do in the future and how the world might maybe respond to those things.
Non-serious spoiler alert: the answer to the teaser on the front cover is super lame. Why should suicide bombers buy life insurance? The answer is not, as I expected, some interesting and surprising bit of trivia borne out by research that shows that intended suicide bombers die more frequently by other means. Nope, suicide bombers should buy life insurance because then data profilers will be less likely to identify them as potential suicide bombers.
In other news, if you want to get away from somewhere without being noticed, you probably should try walking calmly and blending into a crowd, instead of running for your life. It doesn't take a rocket scientist (or an economist) to tell you that if you don't want to be identified as different from everybody else, try doing the things that everybody else does.
Non-serious spoiler alert: the answer to the teaser on the front cover is super lame. Why should suicide bombers buy life insurance? The answer is not, as I expected, some interesting and surprising bit of trivia borne out by research that shows that intended suicide bombers die more frequently by other means. Nope, suicide bombers should buy life insurance because then data profilers will be less likely to identify them as potential suicide bombers.
In other news, if you want to get away from somewhere without being noticed, you probably should try walking calmly and blending into a crowd, instead of running for your life. It doesn't take a rocket scientist (or an economist) to tell you that if you don't want to be identified as different from everybody else, try doing the things that everybody else does.
I loved Freakonomics and I'm pleased to report that Superfreakonomics is an equally rollicking read. There are tons of these econs for the layman-type books on the market these days, such as The Armchair Economist and the Undercover Economist. I'd recommend Freakonomics and Superfreakonomics to anyone looking for an intro to econ. In terms of economic principles, Superfreakonomics and its predecessor don't really cover that much ground; both essentially illustrate the idea of incentives and how people respond to them. But the writing is much snappier compared to Harford's and Landsburg's efforts and the cases picked by Levitt and Dubner to illustrate their points are designed to arrest the attention and curiosity of the reader and draw them in. In Freakonomics, it was sumo wrestlers, cheating teachers, the KKK and children's names. In Superfreakonomics, it's about the economics of prostitution, Kitty Genovese, handwashing in hospitals and terrorism. If the Undercover Economist and the Armchair Economist are the equivalent of a cross country trip, then Freakonomics and Superfreakonomics represent a drive from NY to Florida on the I-95. It doesn't cover as much ground but it's a heck of a lot more fun.
informative
reflective
medium-paced
adventurous
funny
medium-paced