Think Like a Freak - Steven D. Levitt

From the rule-breaking authors of international bestsellers Freakonomics and Superfreakonomics, this is the ultimate guide to how to Think Like a Freak

The Freakonomics
books have come to stand for something: challenging conventional
wisdom; using data rather than emotion to answer questions; and
learning
to unravel the world's secret codes. Now Levitt and Dubner
have
gathered up what they have learned and turned it into a readable
and
practical toolkit for thinking differently - thinking, that is,
like a
Freak. Whether you are interested in the best way to improve
your odds
in penalty kicks, or in major global reforms, here is a
blueprint for an
entirely new way to solve problems.

Along the
way, you'll learn
how the techniques of a Japanese hot-dog-eating
champion can help you,
the reason an Australian doctor swallowed a
batch of dangerous bacteria,
why Nigerian e-mail scammers make a point
of saying they're from
Nigeria, and why Van Halen's demanding tour
contract banning brown
M&Ms was really a safety measure. You'll
learn why sometimes it's
best to put away your moral compass, and
smarter to think like a child.
You will be given a master class in
incentives-because for better or
worse, incentives rule our world. And
you will learn to quit before you
fail, because you can't solve
tomorrow's problem if you aren't willing
to abandon today's dud.

Levitt
and Dubner see the world like no
one else. Now you can too. Never
before have such iconoclastic thinkers
been so revealing-and so much
fun to read.

Steven D. Levitt, a professor of economics at the
University of Chicago,
was awarded the John Bates Clark medal, given to
the most influential
American economist under the age of forty. He is
also a founder of The
Greatest Good, which applies Freakonomics-style
thinking to business and
philanthropy.

Stephen J. Dubner is an
award-winning author,
journalist, and radio and TV personality. He quit
his first career-as an
almost-rock-star-to become a writer. He has
worked for The New York Times and published three non-Freakonomics books. He lives with his family in New York City.