Review:

Freakonomics is another one of those books that make you think twice about almost everything. I would put it in a very similar category as Blink and The Tipping Point in the out of the box type of thinking that both authors exude. Stephen Levitt is a young (only in his mid-twenties), brilliant economist gone author, although he probably would not classify himself as being either of those. The best way to describe Levitt is as a thinker. He’s a thinker who can do so in ways that scarcely existed before his time.

Levitt is able to use his gift of deep, creative and profound thinking to see relationships in things that at first thought could not seem any more dissimilar. Let’s be honest. How many people do you know who could see similarities between sumo wrestlers and teachers or gangs and corporate America? How about someone who is able to trace an effect in our lives today back to a cause that occurred twenty years ago? This is exactly what he did when he saw the relationship between the legalization of abortion to the strong and unexpected declined in the crime rate throughout the U.S. twenty years later. If that does not get you thinking then it is hard to say what would. Some ask what the topic is of a book like this. The truth is that the topic can be described as no topic at all. Levitt has chosen to discuss what he has and in turn has fascinated the masses. It is up to us to take it all in.

The most compelling part of this book for me was Levitt’s discussion about incentives. He makes us realize that incentives run our lives. It is pretty obvious once we take a minute to think about it. Why do we work? Well one reason is the financial incentive. Why do we go to school? Financial and social incentives. Why do we do good deeds? Because of the moral incentives. The point is that every decision that we make in our lives is based upon some type of incentive whether our conscious mind realizes it or not.

Incentives are a very powerful tool that can do wonders for one’s motivation and drive to achieve something. The key is making sure that one uses the proper incentives to accomplish the intended positive outcome. As you go through your life, especially after reading this book, try to identify what incentives are driving you to do certain things. Which one’s are negative and which are positive? What incentives can you avoid to keep you out of trouble and which incentives can you develop that will allow you to experience even greater success than you do today? Incentives can be very controlling. Make it such that they control your life in an empowering way. Do this and you can bet that the success will follow.

-Reading for Your Success