An interesting quick read, just random enough for my taste. How do teachers cheat on standardized tests? Why do drug dealers live with their mothers? What are the "whitest" and "blackest" names? Malcolm Gladwell raved about this book, and it's very much on par with his books. If you liked them, you'll probably enjoy this, too.

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Has some very interesting statistical analyzes of a number of subjects including that the drop in crime is the result of legalized abortion not the great doings of politicians. debunks a number of the assertions about what's wrong with our educational systems and the non working fixes

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Fascinating look at many segments of our society - from teachers and sumo wrestlers to drug dealers and parenting. The authors present some shocking and outlandish information. Parts of this book may even be useful to a reader.

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The book makes interesting connections between events we may see as unrelated. It's well written and combines an interest in sociology and economics. It's a great discussion starter!

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This is a very fascinating book, which I highly recommend to everyone. Essentially, the authors use economic principles and ideas to analyze several very interesting questions, such as why drug dealers live with their mothers. Trust me when I say that you never knew just how large of a role economics plays in our everyday world. I came away from the book looking at everything in a whole new way, and with a whole new level of appreciation for economics as a field of study. The anecdotes are amusing, the questions explored are relevant and interesting in ways you have never realized, and the entirety is tied together nicely and written in a very approachable fashion. The one downside, if you can call it that, is that not a lot of the data and information used in the analyses was provided or explained, with the authors instead largely falling back on saying what they found, with the reader basically taking their word for it. While this makes the book far more approachable and interesting for an everyday reader, it means that the education in actual economics that is provided is severely limited in scope, and their conclusions cannot be investigated further (based on what is provided in the book alone) if someone wishes to do so. They basically manage to make economics readily approachable for the everyday reader, while also allowing for very little true additional understanding of the field of study itself. This is only a minor weakness overall, as most would not be reading it for those purposes, but it did jump out at me a bit.

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What a fascinating book! The author has an amazing ability to look at long established âfactsâ in a completely new way, overthrowing commonly accepted wisdom, and finding the real causes behind changes in our society. I highly recommend this to everyone. It is short, to the point, and - regardless of whether you agree with his conclusions or not - it will make you think.

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Fascinating, and I learned a lot!

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This book will blow your mind! I loved it! It is very much accepted that to truly understand the nature of things you need to turn them around and look at them from a new perspective. THis book does it, and it still amamzes me!

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Very scattered, but I guess that's the idea.

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