Think like a freak : the authors of Freakonomics offer to retrain your brain

Levitt, Steven D. (author.). Dubner, Stephen J., (author.).

Summary: Levitt and Dubner take us inside their thought process and teach us all to think a bit more productively, more creatively, more rationally-- to think, that is, like a Freak. Whether your interest lies in minor lifehacks or major global reforms, you'll learn to put away your moral compass, think like a child, and discover how incentives rule our world.

Record details

ISBN: 0062218336
ISBN: 9780062218339
Physical Description: xiii, 268 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm
print
Edition: First edition.
Publisher: New York, NY : William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, [2014]

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [215]-254) and index.

Formatted Contents Note:

What do King Solomon and David Lee Roth have in common?: A pair of nice, Jewish, game-theory-loving boys ; "Fetch me a sword!" ; What the brown M&M's were really about ; Teach your garden to weed itself ; Did medieval "ordeals" of boiling water really work? ; You too can play God once in a while ; Why are college applications so much longer than job applications? ; Zappos and "The Offer" ; The secret bullet factory's warm-beer alarm ; Why do Nigerian scammers say they are from Nigeria? ; The cost of false alarms and other false positives ; Will all the gullible people please come forward? ; How to trick a terrorist into letting you know he's a terrorist -- How to persuade people who don't want to be persuaded : First, understand how hard this will be ; Why are better-educated people more extremist? ; Logic and fact are no match for ideology ; The consumer has the only vote that counts ; Don't pretend your argument is perfect ; How many lives would a driverless car save? ; Keep the insults to yourself ; Why you should tell stories ; Is eating fat really so bad? ; The Encyclopedia of Ethical Failure ; What is the Bible "about"? ; The Ten Commandments versus The Brady Bunch -- The upside of quitting: Winston Churchill was right, and wrong ; The sunk-cost fallacy and opportunity cost ; You can't solve tomorrow's problem if you won't abandon today's dud ; Celebrating failure with a party and cake ; Why the flagship Chinese store did not open on time ; Were the Challenger's O-rings bound to fail? ; Learn how you might fail without going to the trouble of failing ; The $1 million question: "when to struggle and when to quit" ; Would you let a coin toss decide your future? ; "Should I quit the Mormon faith?" ; Growing a beard will not make you happy ; But ditching your girlfriend might ; Why Dubner and Levitt are so fond of quitting ; This whole book was about "letting go" ; And now it's your turn.