Freakonomics 《魔鬼經濟學》
精彩點評
A fun, interesting, and provocative book.
By Andrew S. Weber
While I'm not generally inclined to read economics books,
Freakonomics is very, very accessible.
The book is written in clear,
readily understandable language
(including the best description I've ever seen
of regression analysis, causality, and correlation).
The topics discussed are quite interesting
- why crime REALLY went down in the 90's,
the impact parents can REALLY have on their kids,
and several others.
Whether one ultimately agrees
with the authors' conclusions or not,
the book certainly encourages you
to think about everyday things more critically
and not just accept the conventional wisdom.
My only disappointment is that the book wasn't longer!
講解
Good Point（D. T. Jones）
In a nutshell,
I liked this; it looked at many things
that seem to cross the minds of normal
and abnormal people.
We can look at much in the world and wonder why,
where, and what for.
It certainly blows the doors off of several issues and ideas
that many folks seemed to take for granted.
I found this information and the conclusions
drawn in this book very enlightening and useful.
I can now see how and why some folks
are destined to succeed,
many more are going to fail
without truly understanding
that they could change just one thing about themselves,
if not to merely wreck the conventional wisdom
that seems to be prevalent everywhere today.
"Steven Levitt has the most interesting mind in America,
and reading Freakonomics
is like going for a leisurely walk with him
on a sunny summer day,
as he waves his fingers in the air
and turns everything you once thought to be true inside out.
Prepare to be dazzled."
- Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point and Blink
講解
"If Indiana Jones were an economist,
he'd be Steven Levitt.
The most recent winner of the John Bates Clark award
for the best economist under the age of 40,
Mr. Levitt is famous
not as a master of dry technical arcane
but as a maverick treasure hunter
who relies for success on his wit,
pluck and disregard for conventional wisdom.
Mr. Levitt's typical quarry
is hidden not in some exotic locale but in a pile of data.
His genius is to take a seemingly meaningless set of numbers,
ferret out the telltale pattern and recognize what it means.
講解
It was Mr. Levitt
who nailed a bunch of Chicago public-school teachers
for artificially inflating
their students' standardized test scores.
I'm dying to tell you exactly how he did it,
but I don't want to spoil any surprises.
His account of the affair in "Freakonomics"
reads like a detective novel." (more)
- Steven E. Landsburg, Wall Street Journal
"In an age of too much wishful,
faith-based conventional wisdom on the right and left,
and too much intellectual endeavor
squeezed into prefab ideological containers,
Freakonomics is politically incorrect in the best,
most essential way.
Levitt and Dubner suss out all kinds of surprising truths
-- sometimes important ones,
sometimes merely fascinating ones--
by means of a smart, deep, rigorous,
open-minded consideration of facts,
with a fearless disregard
for whom they might be upsetting.
This is bracing fun of the highest order."
- Kurt Andersen, host of public radio's Studio 360
and author of Turn of the Century
出版社：廣東經濟出版社
出版日期：2006-3
頁數：209