Without hesitation I would categorize this book as one of those mind-boggling, enlightining concepts. At least for me. The impact of the highly improbable.

We humans are used to see the world through patterns and information filters that enable us to comprehend a little bit of the reality arround us. Enough to survive. Self sufficient beings as we are, we like to minimize the importance of the unknown and the impact it has on us.

We, the self-sufficient simians

We are taught to think the circle is one of those perfect geometrical figure and disconsider nature for its inability to reproduce it. We overstate our intelligence and forget we might be unable to understand the perfect compostition of nature’s complicated geometrical figures.

We are taught we can predict and, my God, do we fail. The 1973 Oil Crisis was not only unpredicted but experts stated, in 1972, that 1973 was going to be a steady year in the cost of oil. They even thought it may decrease. It grew ten times. The world was in shock.

This was improbable. It had a huge impact. In hindsight, it was rationalized as expected and even predicted. Just like any other Black Swan event.

So…what’s with the birds?

The term comes from the fact that in the 17th century people assumed that all swans are white. The opposite was impossible or, at most, improbable. The 18th century brought the discovery of the Black Swan species in Australia. The impossible became possible and retrospectively, probable.

Who wrote this?

Nassim Nicholas Taleb, as improbable as it might seem, deals with prediction. He held a job applying financial mathematics that were used to predict stock market evolution in a couple of Wall Street companies.

The book itself describes some of his experiences in the field, some of the interesting people he used to know and autobiographical stories about his path to the Black Swan theory.

Freakonomics started as a column by Stephen Dubner in the New York Times. Once he met the smart mr. Levitt, they decided they can do more together

Freakonomics, the book is fun economy. It is written by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. To get a picture on the subject, Levitt has been characterized by Wall Street Journal as the “Indiana Jones of economy”. And for good reason: the young economist answers interesting, and clearly unusual, questions in the book, such as “What do Schoolteachers and Sumo Wrestlers Have in Common” or “Why do Drug Dealers Still Live with their Moms”?

It’s an exciting way to understand economy as a concept. Why? Because economy is not just about numbers , boring spreadsheets or board meetings and stuffy businessmen. It’s an explanation of life.

Adam Smith, founder of modern economy, was a philosopher trying to explain the reason people act the way they do. Just like him Levitt (which you can listen to here) uses different point of views to explain contemporary day-to-day behaviors of parents, schoolteachers or even drug dealers or ku klux klan members.

What will you learn?

First of all, you will understand that economists are people too . And that their interest do not always revolve around facts and numbers (at least not the way you thought).

You will also find meaning in things you thought were meaningless.

But most important you will have a great time reading a pleasant book explaining not always pleasant facts.