Freakonomics

Just finished this book by "rogue economist" Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner (orignally published in 2005 - I'm always right on top of the latest). The book was interesting and thought-provoking, but also frustrating. They say right up front that the book is random and has no organizing principle, and that's painfully true. The first chapter is an extensive discussion of the origins of the Ku Klux Klan. Interesting, but only related to economic analysis in a fairly marginal way. The most annoying section was apparently contradictory analyses - first of the key role schooling plays and a later analysis indicating the complete lack of influence that schooling plays. I never did figure out how those could coexist. My (totally brilliant) colleague Frank read the book on my recommendation and claims that a close examination of the footnotes (which obviously I didn't do) reveals that the conclusions that are drawn don't always follow validly from the data. In any event, the book demonstrates that conventional wisdom is so often wrong (and is very hard to change) and it also confirms that if you're open-minded - if you approach problems with a mind that is truly open to the data, you can learn a lot. It was worth reading just for that.