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informative
medium-paced
The last section on climate change (still called global warming in the book) didn't sit well with me. Outdated information at best, plain wrong at worst. The author (or well, the scientist he cites) takes what seems like a defeatist attitude towards climate change mitigations as they were planned then (2009), and beginning to be executed today (2023). Projections of the future are seemingly based on the assumption that technology will not change or improve. For example, they claim that solar energy will "never be enough", citing some efficiency metric of 2009 PV solar panels which they then project into the future as if nothing will change with solar technology. It's hard to predict what the technological landscape looks like even a decade from now (e.g. 10 years ago we could've never imagined ChatGPT), but the authors attempt to do just that with clear-cut certainty.
funny
informative
reflective
medium-paced
I felt this was a little more serious than Freakonomics and I really enjoyed it. I would love to sit down and talk to Levitt about global warming!
It's very spastic. Jumping from one topic to another that are only loosely connected. Then jumping back. Also, in the end they kept saying how dumb capuchin monkeys are. Capuchins are the "chimps" of the new world primates. They use tools!
Overall, interesting concepts, but I think they drive their points as if they are truths a lot of the time.
Overall, interesting concepts, but I think they drive their points as if they are truths a lot of the time.
My Rating Scale:
5 - amazing, beautiful, life-altering, everyone should read
4 - really enjoyed, has staying power, would broadly recommend
3 - enjoyed while reading, limited staying power if any, would only specifically recommend based on interests
2 - didn't care for, would not recommend
1 - got 50% through and disliked so much I could not finish
5 - amazing, beautiful, life-altering, everyone should read
4 - really enjoyed, has staying power, would broadly recommend
3 - enjoyed while reading, limited staying power if any, would only specifically recommend based on interests
2 - didn't care for, would not recommend
1 - got 50% through and disliked so much I could not finish
I am a massive sucker for anything remotely related to behavioral economics. Even though it has been somewhat disparaged in academic circles, Freakonomics is still one of my favorite books (it's actually the book that got me interested in economics), so I decided to pick up its sequel SuperFreakonomics. Levitt and Dubner write wonderfully together (and Dubner also has a fantastic podcast called Freakonomics), and some of the curiosities they probe in this book are delightfully interesting.
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
Like the first, each chapter was completely unrelated to the others. Though I found this to be not quite as captivating as the first, and far from as engaging as Malcolm Gladwell. Some (ok, most) of the sections were long winded but I think that comes with the economist mindset. I wanted to rate this a 3, I found the book to be good but not great while I was reading it; however at least three times in the six days i was reading this book I talked about what I was reading to someone in normal conversation. That is the sign of a good book, no matter how much I thought they beat that horse.