“I have a couple problems with this guy's psychological sleight of hand technique.He trots out the old saw--- it is safer to travel on a commercial airliner than drive a car. So, he concludes, People are silly to avoid planes & travel over the road. No matter how you slice it Air Travel, commercial or no, is inherently more dangerous than travel by Automobile. If a plane stops functioning at 30,000 you're all gonna die. Period. A car conks out, you pull over & call the road service.Not to mention the highway statistics are inflated by single car fatalities caused by circumstances you yourself would avoid such as driving drunk, seeing how fast you can take a turn or trying to beat a train through the crossing etc... or people that are deliberately trying to commit suicide.That aside, the reason most people have a fear of flying has nothing to do with statistics. It is a phobic reaction.He may as well compare car travel with public speaking. People are more afraid of speaking in public than driving a car even though cars are much more likely to result in death or injury. Shouldn't people be more afraid the former than the latter?Why aren't they?Also during his controversial take on Abortion = Lower Crime he makes an attempt to be even-handed by considering other explanations.He dismisses the Black Power Movement as a factor by saying, "The last I heard Bobby Seale was selling barbecue sauce." ???? I got news for the author, last you heard don't mean diddly. if you are going to address an issue, address it. ”
“I am currently reading this book and find it fascinating. I don't know if I "buy" all of it, but it certainly does open ones eyes and view things from a different perspective.”
“Well, creative, to say the least. I had wished for a more detailed documentation regarding the statistical methods used though. Don't know, maybe this information is available somewhere to evaltuate (if, so, pls. point me there) - I've created such an amount of heavily, hmm,'biased' statistical output, don't even trust myself, much less anybody else without clear description of what he/she did :-)”
“I should maybe add it to my shelf ! ”
“This book is fun, and I loved its obscure correlations that reveal irreverent and dogma killing facts. It doesn't get to deep, though. The entire book could have been a forward for a meatier book that presents more profound connections or draws some conclusions. Can anyone recommend a good follow up read that takes it to the next level?”
“What question would you want Levitt to answer?There will be a sequal to Freakonomics, which got me thinking about what questions Levitt would try and tackle. If you could select a chapter for them to write on, what would you have them write about?”
“Best Chapter?I am partial to the chapters on "why drug dealers live with their mother's" and "How are school teachers and sumo wrestlers alike".So what do you think is the best chapter in this book? ”
“I will never look at a baby name book the same way again!!!!!”
“I really enjoyed the part with the abortion and crime statistics link, and "why drug dealers live with their mothers."”
“I thought it was quite interesting that one of the criteria for school success was having books in the home, but one that was not was reading to your child.”
