Think Like a Freak, Levitt & Dubner

THINK LIKE A FREAK

9/18/2018

"The first step is to not be embarrassed by how much you don't yet know..."

— Steven Levitt & Stephen Dubner, Think Like a Freak

Maybe it was the eternal skeptic in me, or the bright orange cover and punchy font, or the fact that a Penguin Publishing scout passed me a free copy at a conference way back when—I'm not really sure. But from the get-go, I was spellbound by Think Like a Freak. It was an unexpectedly vitalizing mash-up of psychology and economics with outlandish examples and iconoclastic humor. This book is anything but dry and a fascinating portrait of odd-bird people, cultures, and situations across the globe:

How to catch a cheating sumo wrestler
Winston Churchill's quitting attitude
The pros and cons of breastfeeding
Ping-pong diplomacy
Gut science
And more

The authors' "Freak" mindsets as "rogue economists" to solve these head-scratchers is on full display throughout their afternoon-sized read—a mindset they contend that's completely learnable. Taught through nine, self-contained chapters, thinking like a freak, definitely involves some unoriginal conclusions (learning to say 'I don't know,' and 'I quit,' and respecting the relationship between human behavior and incentives), but the unconventional analysis of unheard-of examples is so compelling that it is for all intents-and-purposes new—it's alive; a perspective that sharpens your vision after setting the book down. Can't wait to crack open their debut, Freakonomics, also a runaway success.

Let's get freaky. [JG]

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner are "rogue economists" and bestselling authors of Freakonomics, Super Freakonomics, and When To Rob a Bank. I especially appreciated this talk above of the Stephens' key note at Microsoft about their work and 'Freak' mindset.