The Inside Scoop on Freakonomics
Reading business books is a past-time of mine, so when my economics teacher had told me last year that I needed to read Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubnar, I instantly added it to my list of books to read...which was already quite long. After I put the title on my list, I quickly forgot about it, that is until I saw a movie with the same name on Netflix about two weeks ago. I read the summary and sure enough, it was a movie about the book my professor recommended to me many months before. I instantly clicked on it and added it to my list.
Just the other day, I finally got around to watching it and it was far from what I expected. From studying how your name affects your success to an entire culture of cheating within sumo wrestling, I was feeling more and more as if I was watching a conspiracy documentary rather than a movie based on what I thought was going to be business and economics.
The film was more about emphasizing that there is often underlying factors and outside influencers that create results different than we ever expect. The most memorable of claims from this film suggests that the large drop in crime rates in the US in the late 90s was not from new policing strategies or increased gun control, but instead a byproduct of a court decision made two whole decades prior.
Freakonomics pushes us to challenge conventional wisdom and go back to our imaginative, unbiased, child-like thinking when viewing things. Whether you are obsessed with economics or are just looking for another unique movie to watch in your free time, after watching Freakonomics, you will never view the world the same way.
Leave a comment below listing some of the most thought-provoking books or movies that you have come across.
© 2016 Colin Wattonville