Thursday, March 18, 2010

Super Freakonomics: IndiaPlaza Review

If Indiaplaza.in was a physical store, we would need a 186,340 sq ft. Room (Approximately three football fields) to accommodate our daily visitors! 

If we make them wait in a long line. The line distance would be 26.47 miles!

And we would need to stock 23,293 gallons of drinking water per day to serve our customers! 

You guessed it right! We had spent the weekend with our heads buried in - the latest bestseller from the Stanford intellectual Steven Levitt. Sometimes statistics could just freak you out- in a good way that is and in an overwhelming way. But the truth of the matter is that we need statistics to make sense of the world around us. Numbers can challenge our thinking, expose hidden truths and patterns that we would have otherwise perceived as random and coincidental.

Freakonomics sold over four million copies in thirty-five languages and redefined the way people look at the world. As, Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner return with SuperFreakonomics, and fans and newcomers alike will find the sequel even bolder, funnier, and more surprising than the first.

SuperFreakonomics is packed with a rich mix of content to flex our brain cells and also entertains in equal measure. The book is a natural read for us Indians. After all our own Indian scholar-philosopher Chanakya (way back during 340-293 BCE) leads other scholars by a cool millennium and a half as the forerunner of modern economics. Since then, Economics has spelt terror for students and practioners alike. For the first time ever Economics is presented in an enjoyable format. This is the reason the Freakonomics series has the kind of universal appeal enjoyed only by few classics, having successfully bridged the chasm of information and entertaintment.

The book poses and answers tough, innovative, eccentric, enlightening (you name it!) questions only the Freakonomics duo of Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner can concieve of. The concepts of global cooling, the law of unintended consequences and incentive-driven behaviour reflect compelling contemporary research while rooted in the basics of good old Macroeconomics, Behavioural theory and Social Psychology.
Are people hard-wired for altruism or selfishness?

What's the best way to catch a terrorist? what has been most helpful in improving the lives of women in rural India? To know the answers to these and a lot of other mind bogglers in the course of a racy read, pick up SuperFreakonomics today!


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