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By Amanda, January 16, 2010

Superfreakonomics
By Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner

Who would have ever thought that a book about microeconomics would be so interesting?  Especially the second time around?  After really enjoying Freakonomics, the first book from this talented writing team of dueling Steves, I wanted to see what new and seemingly incomparable comparisons they made.  Here are some intriguing facts I learned:

1) The spread of television through rural India vastly improved the lives of women by decreasing the amount of domestic abuse they were forced to endure.  Whether this was because the women saw strong, positive role models and tried to emulate them, or their husbands were just too busy watching soccer to torture their wives, was indeterminable.

2) If a computer screen does not load in 1 sec., most people will lose their train of thought.  If it takes up to 10 secs., most people will have already started thinking about something else entirely.  Think about that the next time you are at a hospital as a patient waiting for a diagnosis and the network slows down…

3)  There is a group of scientists just outside of Seattle who have potentially figured out how to stop global warming.  If you want to know how, you have to read the book, but I’ve long held the opinion that if we put chemicals in the air that made it warmer, why couldn’t we put chemicals in the air that negated the original chemicals we had already dispersed? That’s basically their idea in a nut shell, and it’s actually a very interesting concept.

This book is full of thought-inducing ideas, and I think Round 2 was just as good, if not better than Round 1.  Thanks Steves!

- Amanda