Morality, it could be argued, represents the way that people would like the world to work—whereas economics represents how it actually does work. Freakonomics

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This book has a special place in my life. It sparked my interest in quantitative social science which led to a career in data.

It’s a very light read that goes through various anecdotes generally exploring the themes of unintended consequences, when good intent is not enough to produce good outcomes, and incentives more broadly . The book explores rather taboo topics with a careless irreverence, earning it its title.

It can become a bit difficult to verify some of the claims in the book as the author introduces papers and studies very casually. It may be prudent to treat all the claims in this book with some skepticism.

At the end of the day, though, I don’t think the point of the book was to convince the reader of the absolute veracity of its analyses, but to introduce the reader to a new way of thinking that is completely pragmatic, a fresh perspective when compared to the dogmatisms of many personal and professional spheres today.