THINK LIKE A FREAK, by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

THINK LIKE A FREAK
(How to think smarter about almost everything)



By Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner


Also this time, the authors of Freakonomics and Super Freakonomics won't miss the chance to let you think quite more intensively than you usually do. Just as the last two books, also "Think like a Freak" is in good part talking about incentives of all kinds. Considering this, this book can be read also independently but you should read the other two either after or before since they are very connected.

This time, their will to make the reader think is more explicit. Their approach sounds pretty much like "ok now take a couple of minutes/hours and think about this" then you may keep reading,  Their bold way to comunicate is the core of this reading, as an added value to the carefully selected cases reported within the 268 pages of the book.

I think that most of the situations described in this reading - most of them accompanied by clear statistics - are to be interpreted at least twice. In fact, they will provide an overview and eventually a solution of a specific problem (be this the security and safety of a concert's stage, or the need to let the entire world believe in what you say etc.),  before applying that problem and that solution to a more general context. They kind of give away life-shortcuts for complex situations that require a lot of thinking efforts. Personally, I loved the paragraph

If you are a curious person, asking yourself too many questions, this book my represent the key to answer some of those questions. Its language is direct and it totally lacks technical words, or at least, whenever one of these words is presented, it is also explained.


Best quotation on my opinion:

None of us want to look stupid, or at least overmatched, by admiting we don't know an answer. The incentives to fake it are simply too strong.

*Talking about: why is it so hard to say I don't know
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I hope you found my post useful and that therefore you'll decide to buy/read this "commercial marvel" which makes you think. Please feel free to write me if you have any question! Keep reading and thinking.

Just in case you are wondering, I do not receive any kind of benefit from any sponsor for writing my reviews.

Following this book:

FREAKONOMICS

by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

THE ALMOST NEARLY PERFECT PEOPLE 

(Behind the Myth of the Scandinavian Utopia)

by Michael Booth