'Freakonomics' by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner

Hi there,

   Much has been said about this book. Despite that, still decided to share some of my thoughts. At first there were only some random opinions heard here and there, nothing truly shocking though. Generally – ‘a book for dumbies’, ‘quasi-economics’, ‘not much economics in economics’ and so on. And have to partly agree with such views. I would put ‘Freakonomics’, written by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, on the same shelf as Tim Hardford’s ‘Undercover Economist’ or Steven Landsburg’s ‘The Armchair Economist (even though I haven’t had a chance to read the latter one yet).



   A simple piece of reading for wider publicity, a relaxing lecture after a tiring day. Yes, it may dazzle you at times, however that will likely be caused by its undoubted charm and funniness than a massive amount of economics theory. Authors opted to take a rather different approach in presenting the context. What they did, was to form a list of several questions, unusual in its nature, such as ‘what do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common’? Common sense tells us nothing, but as you can surely guess, Levitt and Dubner obviously came up with something. Readers will definitely be astonished by the process of linking thoughts one to another, carefully led by the pair of economists. Have to admit that there is quite a lot of data and statistics in use, but in the end, that’s the only touch of economics. No models, no graphs, no extraordinary concepts – everything is kept as simple as possible. And maybe that’s why ‘Freakonomics’ proved to be so successful? Very likely to be so.

Rating: 6.5/10

Cheers,
John A62

PS Thanks to Chik for gifting me the book.

'Nudge' by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein

Hi there,

   For the first time I actually did read the book I was awarded. Quite remarkable I have to say, as I am generally used to receiving either heavy readings about Polish history (boring) or not-in-depth encyclopedias for children aged 6-10. This time around Bellerbys funded for their Student Ambassador a book that he is extremely pleased to be given.



   ‘Nudge’ written by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein is a 250-page lecture focusing around a subject of behavioral economics. Everyone seems to think that economics is only about maths, models and equations. Well, that is very much true, but after all, it is ought to be social science. Social, that is, um, correct me if I am wrong – for society, isn’t it? The authors are trying to convince us that little, almost unnoticeable actions can lead to more than significant changes. They refer to those minor actions as ‘nudges’. How many times have you found yourself denying your own opinion and opting to follow the herd? Ready to order chicken, but everyone seems to order cod, well, don’t want to be odd one out, do you? And how many times have you found yourself in a state of complete inertia? Too lazy to bother yourself about choosing on your own, let’s just pick a default option. Default rarely does mean the best. No worries though, as a human you are destined to make poor choices, at times. It’s only up to you how often that will occur. Thaler in cooperation with Sunstein explain how you can change your life with very little fuss and effort. Change for the better, obviously. Sounds like a good deal to me. Hope this little piece of review worked as a nudge for you. If not, then well, at least I did try, right …?

Rating: 7.0/10

Cheers,
John A62