Super Freakonomics - An Amazing Read
It takes less than a day to read the 288 pages Super Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. But, boy do you want to remember what you read.
“What do you work for” is an underlying question to life itself and the fulfillment of one’s purpose. Th answers to the question depends on who you ask, and can range right from the material / physical aspect of things to utter non-sense. Super Freakonomics makes the message simple for the realists – “we work for the reward”.
Right from dealing with global warming, or prostitutes on the streets of Chicago, the book represents facts and numbers. The numbers support the facts and they reflect the reason why we work - it cannot get any more simple.
The whole book reads itself, moves easily from one page to the other, and weaves together the big-world picture. The facts are just amazing, and there are often times when you want to note them down for later references and to showcase how smart you are in the next party.
At the same time, I could not keep thinking about how Super Freakonomics is a pop-book, a book for the modern times. There is quite a lot to placate the crowds, but just enough. In some places the facts on just two pages are worth a book of their own. You do not read the book to deep-dive and ponder over stuff - there is simply no time.
The greatest hit story for me was the work of Intellectual Ventures. Though I should know better than trusting one source on the subject, the way Intellectual Ventures has been described and the depiction of their work reaffirms faith for humanity.