Freakonomics Summary

In the book Freakonomics, written by economist Steven D. Levitt and journalist Stephen J. Dubne, the authors go through different parts of modern life to show how economics describes why people act a certain way as well as the way specific outcomes occur. They look into different aspects of society and view them with different perspectives. With the use of specific data and the fundamentals of economics, the very obscure comparisons and the different chapters in the book show correlation between economics and human nature. The main point of this book is to explain a few fundamental ideas through the answers of strange questions and how they play a major role in society.

In the video, Successful Thinking, Heather Collins states that the three questions about thinking are “What did you learn? How do I know? What is the rest of the story?” (Collins) While asking yourself what you learned, you become aware of your

Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, Levitt and Dubner utilize intriguing rhetorical questions, compelling anecdotes, and interesting allusions to refute the legitimacy of conventional wisdom. Freakonomics also attempts to inform and entertain readers with interesting facts. Levitt and Dubner explicitly reveal their purpose when they state that “the aim of this book is to explore the hidden side of . . . everything” (Levitt and Dubner 14). The authors intend to debunk commonly held beliefs by looking into a wide range of unusual inquires, and they use rhetorical questions such as “what do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common?” in order to lead into deeper issues(Levitt and Dubner 15). Like Socrates, Levitt and Dubner rely on questions as a means of achieving deeper understanding, and while outwardly sumo wrestlers and schoolteachers don’t have much in common, Levitt and Dubner reveal that both are connected in an unexpected way:

Over the course of the last six weeks, I have come to realize that critical thinking is an important asset as I continue my journey in life. I have found this course to be both challenging and rewarding. Most importantly, I find myself viewing problems and conversations in a completely different light. While I would not consider myself an expert at critical thinking, I would assess myself in as a Beginner Thinker. Paul and Elder point out in the beginning thinker stage an individual actively begins to take command of their thinking process across multiple facets of their life (Paul and Elder, 2012). Furthermore, we recognize that there are problems in the way we think and begin to consciously attempt to better understand we can improve our thinking.

Varying situational standards reflect the behaviors and actions of the parties involved. This topic relates directly to respect of anopther country 's customs and social standards. In relation to project management, a project manager should respect the situational standards of another country 's standard ethical behavior and adapt them to their personal ethics. It is in the best interest of the project manager to determine the proper ethical behavior that is required based on the parties involved in the project. This can be a difficult decision in most cases, especially when asked to do something that may be considered unethical in the United States, but ethical in another country. Reading about the varying social ethics and culture of another country may give valuable insight into how to respond to such situations, or respectfully communicating the situation with a manager or stakeholder to alleviate or prevent a possible unethical decision.

For this review I read Freakonomics written by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner. This book was published by William Morrow an Imprint of HarperCollins and is copyrighted 2005. Freakonomics is a unique book where there is no central story. It is not a story where it goes from point a to point b and follows a traditional storyline. This book is broken up into a collection of mini stories where the authors try explore issues and approach them from a non-conventional way of thinking. Some of these issues in the book include comparing Ku Klux Klan members to real estate agents, why drug dealers live with their moms, and linking abortion to criminal rates. The book addresses the issues at hand and uses data they have accrued and in their

Have you ever bribed someone to do something? Did they accept? Why did you bribe them with that? It may be because you know their values and incentives. If they accepted your bribery, you must have touched their incentive. Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner talked a lot about incentives in their book called Think Like A Freak. Problems may be solved, but only with the right incentives.

Critical thinking is the process that allows us to develop, evaluate, and reinforce the strength of our own, as well as other people’s arguments. Critical thinking is an important concept in philosophy, as well as in every other subject, because it allows us to ask deeper questions, and thus, receive deeper answers. Without critical thinking,

In the book Freakonomics, Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner note “An incentive is a bullet, a lever, a key: an often-tiny object with astonishing power to change a situation” (16). This is to showcase the amount of power an incentive can have over a person or a situation; either good or bad. Humans are found to use incentives when it comes to making daily decisions. Often, people need motives to proceed with their plans. Some tend to make either moral, social, or economic incentive. The moral incentive is about self-respect; keeping in check with what was taught to believe is right and wrong. The social incentive is how the public views the person; wanting to look good in front others. Economic incentive, however, would relate to monetary benefit. While all three incentives can affect people’s decisions, economic

Steven Levitt was born May 29th, 1967 in Chicago. Levitt is an american economist that is known best from his podcasts, and books, Freakonomics and Superfreakonomics co-authored with Stephen Dubner. Steven Levitt is also known to study some very different topics such as crime and the link between legalized abortion and crime rates. Levitt attended the University of Chicago, the Chicago school of economics, and he attended Harvard University to receive his Bachelor 's Degree and went on to MIT for his PhD in economics. In 2003 Levitt was awarded the John Bates Clark medal, an award that is given to recognize the most outstanding economists under the age of 40.

Stakeholders-investors, customers, interest groups, employees, the legal system, and the community often determine whether a specific behavior is right or wrong, ethical or unethical. Judgments of these groups influence society’s acceptance or rejection of a business and it’s activities.

Having buy-in from key stakeholders is crucial for the success of an incentive pay system. For example, if top management does not support such a program, lower-level managers will place little importance on effectively administering the program. Hence, a lack of top management support often leads to a lack of accountability. (Gordon, Kaswin)

People solve unfamiliar problems inductively. Every person solves a problem in a different way. Our

This particular questions will drive curiosity and can remove ruts. The idea of this questions to engage both sides of the brain to overall increase innovation. Developing 2-footed questions is a way to trigger deeper ideas that you would not traditionally get. In addition, when you use this strategy to inquire another person, you must show respect for their knowledge, input, and experience. Unique insight will integrate much faster when a facilitator welcome ideas across both sides of the brain. Knowing this will help me implement this approach in my own work

Project managers encounter several stakeholders, and they generally have a direct or indirect concern in the results of the project. There are a unique set of circumstances which causes ethical dilemmas to develop rapidly effortlessly. For instance, as in regards to the simulation in module 6, it is demanded by the senior management from Delphi Printers & Peripherals to complete a multifunctional printer within 12 weeks with a budget of $40,000. There is one unique characteristic that pertains to this project and it is the pressure to accomplish results in a relatively short time frame. Since it is demanded to deliver this product within the 12-week timeframe, there are outside resources to utilize, however, it is costly to use the vendors. In addition, the team members may become frustrated and a overbudget may occur. Therefore, when I complete a run of a simulation, the project is most likely to be overbudget and the team process might be around 75-90/100 and this affect the score, however, demands have been delivered. There were times during the simulation the project was completed after the 12 weeks. When