Comments on: Freakonomics – Book Report! http://www.hung-truong.com/blog/2009/05/18/freakonomics-book-report/ I say potato, you say potato... Mon, 06 Feb 2012 03:56:23 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: santhosh http://www.hung-truong.com/blog/2009/05/18/freakonomics-book-report/comment-page-1/#comment-135175 santhosh Tue, 29 Jun 2010 04:49:43 +0000 http://www.hung-truong.com/blog/?p=1372#comment-135175 I think that one of the overarching ideas of the book is that incentives drive the behavior of people. People cheat because it benefits them and they can get away with it. They don’t always do what’s best for them, though they might do what seems best given their situation. The world is much more complicated than a few variables in a regression analysis (though it’s still a pretty useful tool!). Also, correlation does not imply causation. The book takes a strictly practical approach (“if morality represents an ideal world, then economics represents the actual world”), which is nice, if you can handle having some of your underlying beliefs questioned. In fact, I think the main thing I learned from the book is to really question “common knowledge” and “popular opinion,” because it almost always seems to be informed more than just fact. I think that one of the overarching ideas of the book is that incentives drive the behavior of people. People cheat because it benefits them and they can get away with it. They don’t always do what’s best for them, though they might do what seems best given their situation. The world is much more complicated than a few variables in a regression analysis (though it’s still a pretty useful tool!). Also, correlation does not imply causation.

The book takes a strictly practical approach (“if morality represents an ideal world, then economics represents the actual world”), which is nice, if you can handle having some of your underlying beliefs questioned. In fact, I think the main thing I learned from the book is to really question “common knowledge” and “popular opinion,” because it almost always seems to be informed more than just fact.

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