Freakonomics Rev Ed

Interesting enough to hold my interest on the commute. Which is always the primary criterion. But it could be a third as long as it is. Preface is a summary of the book. Including information presented as surprising in the body of the book. Expanded portion of this edition is the original essays that began the authors' collaboration. Essentially, covering the same material again. Conclusions are interesting, but would have preferred more of the reasoning not to mention research citations. For example, conclusions regarding the economics of gun regulation are presented largely without evidence.

I loved this book, though I think the title is a bit misleading. It's not really about economics. In fact, he's showing you what interesting things you can discover when you apply statistical analysis to problems where you wouldn't normally think of using it. I use statistical methods a fair amount......more

Sure, this book was a compelling read that offered us all some great amo for cocktail party conversation. But ultimately I think most of what Leavitt claims is crap. He dodges accoutability with the disclaimer about his book NOT being a scholarly work, but then goes on to drop statistics, theories a......more

I won't deny that this is a very interesting, compelling and thought-provoking book. Even for someone like me whose general response to economics is *snore*. And it's mainly because Freakonomics is not really about economics, but involves applying statistical analysis to many social issues and quest......more

I guess some people don't like this book because it's not centered around one theme. Instead, it's more about the seemingly diffuse academic work of one of the authors Steven D. Levitt (the other author is a journalist, Stephen J. Dubner). Levitt is something of an economist but more like a social s......more

Extremely enlightening! Worthy of 15 stars out of 5! This is a book about the world and not about any science in particular. It's about learning to question the given and see beyond the obvious. An extremely useful gift in the misguiding modern world. Yeah, populistic much too much but neverthless co......more