A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
0060731338
Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner
Fundamental Ideas
- Incentives are the cornerstones of modern life.
- Understanding the incentives is the key to answering just about any riddle.
- Conventional wisdom is often wrong.
- It is often hastily formed and difficult to see through.
- Much wisdom on a matter is the result of an “expert” having to come to a hasty and intriguing conclusion.
- Dramatic effects often have distant, subtle causes.
- The answer to a riddle is almost never right in front of you.
- Experts use their informational advantage to serve their own agenda.
- The internet is making information more transparent.
- Experts can be beat at their own game.
- Knowing what to measure and how to measure it makes a complicated world much less so.