Becoming a Freakonomist through Freakonomics by Kevin Nunez

A true students’ mind-set is based on deductive reasoning and utilizes all of the information that it has in its arsenal in order to draw conclusions. Although not all students may understand the meaning of this, those who do choose to abide by this concept are skeptical. The authors of Freakonomics (2009), Stephen J. Dubner and Steven D. Levitt, named these individuals Freakonomists. Freakonomics is based on a series of bizarre complex questions, followed by an extensive analysis of large quantities of data that are answered through a process of deductive reasoning. Despite the fact that the questions presented may, at first sight, appear to be nothing but jokes, they are in fact concrete questions. One question presented is, “What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common?” Because Freakonomics implements critical thinking and does so excellently, based on my criteria, this book would receive a score of four, with a perfect score ranging to a five. The reason that Freakonomics would receive a score of four is because of the informal style of writing. However, the authors do an excellent job of presenting basic knowledge necessary to understand difficult topics without disrupting the flow of the text, which allows you to analyze the information and make decisions based on scenarios.

The decision of whether or not Freakonomics is the type of book you would enjoy was made long before you reached this portion of the book review. If you stopped to think about the question presented earlier, then Freakonomics is a book that will introduce you to a new way of thinking; however, if you simply sped through the question without much thought, then this book perhaps may not be the best choice for you, but may certainly be a decent one. That is because Freakonomics depends on the craving of information to diffuse ideas across smoothly to the readers, and if not much thought is given to the questions presented, then Freakonomics’ greatest aspects are nullified. However, I would recommend Freakonomics to every student with hopes to pursue a greater education because of the importance of the contents of the epilogue: Two Paths to Harvard.