Freakin’ good read.

I stayed up last night to finish reading Freakonomics : A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything. It’s the first time I’ve ever found a book on economics (a subject I consistently failed in school) so mesmerising that I actually read it from cover to cover – and enjoyed it.

While the chapters on why drug dealers still live with their moms, and how incentives influence human behaviour were very interesting, I found the parts about children, education, names and parents the most intriguing. I won’t spoil the book for you by detailing everything in it, though. They say statistics lie, but Levitt’s managed to turn mind-numbing numbers into refreshing analyses showing how you as a parent can influence your child’s outcome as an individual. Read it and weep, as the case may be.