“Freakonomics” by Steven Levitt & Stephen J Dubner
Posted by webmaster 6 November 2006
In the fields of continuous improvement we know that good decisions are based on sound facts, data and knowledge. Here is a book about what the data tells us and how we tend to interpret the data to suit our existing objectives, beliefs and agendas.
Don’t be fooled by the title, Freakonomics is a fascinating read. It is a book about using data and numbers to explore a range of questions in new and interesting ways. For example there is an amazing, yet altogether plausible theory on why the incredible crime problem in New York City decreased unexpectedly in the mid nineties. What do school teachers and sumo wrestlers have in common and the truth about real estate agents.
The premise of the book is that if morality represents the way we would like the world to work, then the available data and information represent how it actually does work. The book is accurately described by the cover illustration of a fruit with the external view of an apple, but the internal workings of an orange. Freakonomics: Steven Levitt & Stephen Dubner, Harper Collins Publishers N.Y. (2005)
NB: For those interested the freakonomics blog is always a great read.
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January 15th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
[...] This is a book that like Freakonomics which explores the hidden side of things, or if you like, another world beneath the world we routinely occupy. In the case of Blink it is about rapid cognition and about those decisions and judgements we make in the first seconds of our exposure to something. [...]