Review of the book 'Think Like A Freak'

(This review has first appeared in Business World Oct 2014 issue)

The risk one runs with writing a book like Freakonomics is that with each chapter the reader understands the way of thinking and eventually catches up. It’s like one of those puzzles that really holds your attention till you figure out the logic of cracking it and then suddenly lose interest in it post that.

There is no denying that the authors challenged the conventional manner of our thinking by narrating real life societal and individual instances in Freakonomics. They followed it up with Super Freakonomics which was in a similar vein. They definitely used economic models well to explain the reasoning behind certain events of our time.

They did realize that they would have to try out something different for the third book if it had to repeat similar level of success. So they decided to teach or rather guide us on how all of us could ‘think differently’ or as they term it ‘like a freak’. Unfortunately it doesn’t measure up and turns out more like a one time fun, light Sunday afternoon read.

Having said that the book holds interest in sections especially when they are narrating stories or instances (which by the way is one of the ways in which you thinking differently). My personal favourite is about the spammers from Nigeria. The question that the authors are trying to address is Why do the spammers continue to send out scam emails stating the fact that they are from Nigeria when pretty much the whole world is aware by now of this scam activity?

Or take another one keeping in context of the recently concluded football world cup. Why is it that during a penalty most strikers shoot to the right or left corner of the goalpost when statistics suggest that success rate is seven-percentage points higher when struck in the center. Then there is a story about why David Lee Roth of the biggest rock-and-roll bands Van Halen insisted that he and crew not be served brown M&Ms while on tour to different cities.

While these questions are surely intriguing the answers aren’t! Don’t expect to unravel or learn answers to serious economic concerns affecting our society. It is more of understanding & using behavioral and attitudinal patterns of people and deriving your approach to completing the goal. This book makes for a light fun reading as you flip through these specific instances

Both authors Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner will really have to think hard on what they would like to write in their next book cause one can safely assume that they would definitely be writing. So to use one of the laws of economics, there is a diminishing return on enlightenment and fun with every new book on similar lines