<p>oh i totally agree, read Freakonomics for pleasure. I just took issue with the fact that people painted Freakonomics as some sort of magical intellectual masterpiece, which it’s not. sorry i sounded more than a bit arrogant. i just don’t like putting Freakonomics on the same list as, say, Practical Ethics. it’s not the same kind of book.</p>
<p>also, i agree, Dubner and Levitt are brilliant and well-educated, the book just doesn’t show off their analytical skills. for example, in one chapter, they talk about internet dating.The authors provide statistics that seem to show that people on internet dating sites discriminate based on race even if they profess not to care. Dubner and Levitt state that on one site 80 percent of the white men declared that race didnt matter to them. They then showed that these same men sent 90 percent of their e-mail queries to white women (81). This seems to be an indubitable indication of discrimination, but Dubner and Levitt fail to point out the percentage of non-white women on the site. They actually state that the site examined was predominantly white (80). In such a case, open-minded white men would have no choice but to go for white women, and even if some non-white women were on the site, there would be a smaller number to choose from and an even smaller number of ones desirable enough to e-mail. In the end, the authors seem to be digging too hard for a shocking nugget that doesnt quite exist.</p>
<p>that was an excerpt from my essay. ok, im no scholar, but the point still stands. and i take back my statement that you shouldnt Read freakonomics, and that it’s trash. Sorry. but it’s still no erudite treatise on economics, and is not in the same class as Practical Ethics or something</p>