Think Like a Freak: The Authors of Freakonomics Offer to Retrain Your Brain

Thought Provoking and Impactful

“Think Like a Freak” is a thought provoking and at times unorthodox look at how it is possible to retrain the human brain to make impactful decisions. I thoroughly enjoyed the format of the book. The authors present big picture ideas and questions followed with illustrations of real-world antidotes. The stories appear so delightfully random and varied. It is fascinating to have a book that weaves together colonialism, birth rates, famine, crime rates, Bon Jovi, intestinal microbes, a hot dog eating contest, and Winston Churchill. They weave together modern-day urban legends and historical stories to highlight a unique perspective of the choices we make. It creates a fascinating and captivating story of economics and social decisions. How does human nature determine our decisions? Are we capable of making intelligent independent decisions or are we predestined to repeat the same mistakes? I love a book that comes full circle and Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner take seemingly random stories and connect them back to their message. This book features an at times unconventional approach to problem solving and is a fast read. The book tackles some fairly weighty issues in a lighthearted manner. They also take our preconceived notions and turn them completely upside down. I saw applications for their approach to tackling problems in business situations, educational environments, and personal life choices. A lot of the book was applicable to instructional design. How powerful would it be to be aware of how people make decisions and learn before designing a course. What if business entrepreneurs thought about not just their product and profit at a surface level but about how to create something truly impactful and successful in the long term? One of my biggest takeaways from this book was to find something that you love to do and obsess about it. So simple but so powerful. It is obvious from reading this book that Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner love what they do. Read ...