Freakonomics

[strangeirish]

Saw a documentary the other night about the authors and their book. Has anybody read it? Basically, it's a different way to look at things. Here is a little bit more about it (http://www.freakonomics.com/thebook.php). Very interesting. Click on some of the chapter excerpts on the left.

[tiktok]

Yeah, read it a while back.
Very good, really enjoyed it.

The linking of the reduction in the crime rate in the states with Roe -v- Wade, is probably what's it's best known (and most controversial) for.

[monutdfc]

Read it. Thankfully I got a lend of it and didn't actually pay for it. Not very impressed. The guy who lent it to me didn't think much of it either.
Try "Fooled by Randomness" by Taleb, much better.

[Stuttgart88]

I'm halfway through it, and I find it far from compelling. It's just a big love-in ("Levitt is wonderful Levitt is this, Levitt is that") & the tone is smug and a bit patronising.

I've yet to read "Fooled by Randomness" but hear it's very good.

John Allen Paulos is a writer you should check out. "Innumeracy" is a classic. He's also written books which I've yet to read titled something like "A Mathematician Reads the Newspapaers" & "A Mathemetician Reads the Financial Pages", the latter I gather is similar to "Fooled by Randomness". This guy is excellent.

[wws]

I've yet to read "Fooled by Randomness" but hear it's very good

haha, love that title!