Blink-Freak-onomics

Yes I read the book that everyone I know and don't know is reading. Freakonomics. The book has a graphic on the cover - an apple, with a slice cut out. Hmmm. So? Look closely. The slice actually looks like an orange in the flesh. Steven Lewitt, a prof in the Univ. of Chicago, starts from that premise and delves into many things accepted as conventional wisdom, explores them, comes up with seemingly weird explanations. Only problem is, the unconventional wisdoms are supported by empirical data. The authors seem to enjoy playing the role of devil's advocate, street smart Davids against the establishment/system Goliaths, and the book makes for compulsive reading (I finished three quarters of the book in one sitting). Even funny at some places. But I was kind of hoping that the book would take the discussion to the next level at some point from simply picking holes in generally accepted theories. A disappointment in that regard. I.e. the cover tells the whole story, and the authors could be held guilty of playing to the gallery. Otherwise, I found a few things I learned in the Econ class - principal agent problems, asymmetry of information, and incentives, incentives, incentives - and some real world application of multivariate regression analysis (now I'm glad I killed myself taking that adv. stats course).

By queer coincidence, I read Blink by Malcolm Gladwell during the same time, which makes a pitch for thin-slicing - the first impressions we form about people, places, things, experiences - and on how to make proper use of this sixth, or seventh if you like, sense that humans seem to be endowed with. Very many anecdotal examples, some supported by statistical studies. My take on the book is that it reinforced something that my intution tells me all the time - intuition is, more often that not, right.

The two books merged into one in my mind somehow and I cannot tell where I found which example. And the fundamental philosophy evolved into this - conventional wisdom be screwed, the butterflies in your stomach may have a point.