SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance
Freakonomics lived on the New York Times bestseller list for an astonishing two years. Now authors Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner return with more iconoclastic insights and observations in SuperFreakonomics—the long awaited follow-up to their New York Times Notable blockbuster. Based on revolutionary research and original studies SuperFreakonomics promises to once again challenge our view of the way the world really works.
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Community Reviews
This is a good continuation from the previous book. However, it loses its edginess from the original. It started off strong covering issues about drunk walking, cable TV in India and prostitutes all which I thought were clever economic topics. Similar to its predecessor, the topics covered typically aren’t talked about in the world of economics.
Then it took a nose dive covering issues such as altruism, doctors washing their hands and a huge chapter dedicated to global cooling. The reason I like the first book so much was I learned a lot on bizarre topics and it didn’t read like my college economics books. But in a few chapters the authors came off as the typical bland economics professors.
I did learn a few new points on global warming/ cooling, altruistic behaviors and the chances of actually being caught for drunk driving (which is surprisingly low). The book also did remind me the humans do respond well to incentives. But over all it just didn’t compare to the first book in terms of being an exciting read.
Stick around for the epilogue. There is a funny monkey experiment by an economics professor that proves that monkeys do respond the same way as humans when money is entered in to their world. Well, at least male humans.
Then it took a nose dive covering issues such as altruism, doctors washing their hands and a huge chapter dedicated to global cooling. The reason I like the first book so much was I learned a lot on bizarre topics and it didn’t read like my college economics books. But in a few chapters the authors came off as the typical bland economics professors.
I did learn a few new points on global warming/ cooling, altruistic behaviors and the chances of actually being caught for drunk driving (which is surprisingly low). The book also did remind me the humans do respond well to incentives. But over all it just didn’t compare to the first book in terms of being an exciting read.
Stick around for the epilogue. There is a funny monkey experiment by an economics professor that proves that monkeys do respond the same way as humans when money is entered in to their world. Well, at least male humans.
I hate this book a little (like the previous one) because it's making me challenge some of my strongly held liberal beliefs. But I'm going to breathe through it and educate myself more on the topics that concern me.
I will say, that again, the writers seem to have left out a lot of things in service to their particular points. For example there was no discussion in all of their positive talk about global climate change that while we wait for solutions certain species are disappearing from the planet while other invasive species are doing a lot of damage in the wrong- suddenly warmer climates. The latter is fixable but the former is possibly permanent, especially for species that have not been genetically mapped.
Also, wash your hands, people!
I know I've been reading especially quickly lately, but I have insomnia and what else am I going to do?
I will say, that again, the writers seem to have left out a lot of things in service to their particular points. For example there was no discussion in all of their positive talk about global climate change that while we wait for solutions certain species are disappearing from the planet while other invasive species are doing a lot of damage in the wrong- suddenly warmer climates. The latter is fixable but the former is possibly permanent, especially for species that have not been genetically mapped.
Also, wash your hands, people!
I know I've been reading especially quickly lately, but I have insomnia and what else am I going to do?
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