The "Free Economics" of Levitt: the law of unforeseen consequences
"Behold the root"
Kozma bars
The story about the book that thundered all over the world - such as " Phryconomics " - is supposed to begin with a list of regalia. Amazon's bestseller, excellent press reviews, the author is a professor, laureate of ...
Why such annotation is not enough for you to find this book worthy of your attention?
')
We all know what these estimates and awards are worth. Sometimes they are deserved "without fools" - but often all the goodies go to a work that does not represent anything outstanding, but just turned out to be in the right place at the right time. Let us recall the sensational opus about “afedron”: how did it happen that an objectively poor-quality novel received a significant literary award? And is it only in literature that one has to look for the roots of this phenomenon?
Stephen Levitt , the author of "Phroneconomy," was famous for discovering such unobvious reasons. He shovels piles of statistics, polls people; as if Sherlock Holmes, analyzes, compares - and gives out a brilliant solution of the problem, only he himself guessed about the very existence.
I inaccurately expressed. Levitt not only sees the problem where everyone sees a given thing - he sees that its solution is far from obvious. And it is not always convenient for society. That the reason for the recession of juvenile delinquency in the United States is not the growth of the economy and culture, but the legalization of abortions (if in plain English, most of the potential criminals are killed before they are born). That sometimes it is more profitable to bungle, getting little and often than working conscientiously and at a high price. What parents have done before the birth of a child affects his future even more than bringing up, and the pool in the yard is much more dangerous than a gun in the closet. That the rich are more prone to petty theft than people of moderate means.
In general, it is not by chance that he warns in the very first chapter: the economy has little in common with morality.
Having released the book, and then the sequel - “Superfriconics” - Professor Levitt did not leave his research. In a blog on the New York Times website, he is trying to understand why school buses' roofs are painted white, predicts the success of one-second commercials, promises iPhone owners more sex than Blackberry and Android owners ... Sometimes I feel like recalling an aphorism about lies, big lies and statistics - but Stephen confirms each of his paradoxical theory with facts.
“All this is curious,” the skeptic will say, “but where is Habr, a site about information technologies ?!” My answer is: "Phryconomic" teaches the method. Explains how to search for answers; search actively, broadly, unbiasedly. If Levitt were a system administrator, he would not post a single story about “freaking” computers and otherworldly phenomena on the network on “IT happens”.
"Freeconic" teaches to make discoveries. If you need it - I advise you to buy.
Book Website (in English)
Russian edition of the book
Kozma bars
The story about the book that thundered all over the world - such as " Phryconomics " - is supposed to begin with a list of regalia. Amazon's bestseller, excellent press reviews, the author is a professor, laureate of ...
Why such annotation is not enough for you to find this book worthy of your attention?
')
We all know what these estimates and awards are worth. Sometimes they are deserved "without fools" - but often all the goodies go to a work that does not represent anything outstanding, but just turned out to be in the right place at the right time. Let us recall the sensational opus about “afedron”: how did it happen that an objectively poor-quality novel received a significant literary award? And is it only in literature that one has to look for the roots of this phenomenon?
Stephen Levitt , the author of "Phroneconomy," was famous for discovering such unobvious reasons. He shovels piles of statistics, polls people; as if Sherlock Holmes, analyzes, compares - and gives out a brilliant solution of the problem, only he himself guessed about the very existence.
I inaccurately expressed. Levitt not only sees the problem where everyone sees a given thing - he sees that its solution is far from obvious. And it is not always convenient for society. That the reason for the recession of juvenile delinquency in the United States is not the growth of the economy and culture, but the legalization of abortions (if in plain English, most of the potential criminals are killed before they are born). That sometimes it is more profitable to bungle, getting little and often than working conscientiously and at a high price. What parents have done before the birth of a child affects his future even more than bringing up, and the pool in the yard is much more dangerous than a gun in the closet. That the rich are more prone to petty theft than people of moderate means.
In general, it is not by chance that he warns in the very first chapter: the economy has little in common with morality.
Having released the book, and then the sequel - “Superfriconics” - Professor Levitt did not leave his research. In a blog on the New York Times website, he is trying to understand why school buses' roofs are painted white, predicts the success of one-second commercials, promises iPhone owners more sex than Blackberry and Android owners ... Sometimes I feel like recalling an aphorism about lies, big lies and statistics - but Stephen confirms each of his paradoxical theory with facts.
“All this is curious,” the skeptic will say, “but where is Habr, a site about information technologies ?!” My answer is: "Phryconomic" teaches the method. Explains how to search for answers; search actively, broadly, unbiasedly. If Levitt were a system administrator, he would not post a single story about “freaking” computers and otherworldly phenomena on the network on “IT happens”.
"Freeconic" teaches to make discoveries. If you need it - I advise you to buy.
Book Website (in English)
Russian edition of the book
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/111817/
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