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

Written by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

Narrated by Stephen J. Dubner

The New York Times bestselling Freakonomics changed the way we see the world, exposing the hidden side of just about everything. Then came SuperFreakonomics, a documentary film, an award-winning podcast, and more.

Now, with Think Like a Freak, Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner have written their most revolutionary book yet. With their trademark blend of captivating storytelling and unconventional analysis, they take us inside their thought process and teach us all to think a bit more productively, more creatively, more rationally—to think, that is, like a Freak.

Levitt and Dubner offer a blueprint for an entirely new way to solve problems, whether your interest lies in minor lifehacks or major global reforms. As always, no topic is off-limits. They range from business to philanthropy to sports to politics, all with the goal of retraining your brain. Along the way, you’ll learn the secrets of a Japanese hot-dog-eating champion, the reason an Australian doctor swallowed a batch of dangerous bacteria, and why Nigerian e-mail scammers make a point of saying they’re from Nigeria.

Some of the steps toward thinking like a Freak:

• First, put away your moral compass—because it’s hard to see a problem clearly if you’ve already decided what to do about it.
• Learn to say “I don’t know”—for until you can admit what you don’t yet know, it’s virtually impossible to learn what you need to.
• Think like a child—because you’ll come up with better ideas and ask better questions.
• Take a master class in incentives—because for better or worse, incentives rule our world.
• Learn to persuade people who don’t want to be persuaded—because being right is rarely enough to carry the day.
• Learn to appreciate the upside of quitting—because you can’t solve tomorrow’s problem if you aren’t willing to abandon today’s dud.

Levitt and Dubner plainly see the world like no one else. Now you can too. Never before have such iconoclastic thinkers been so revealing—and so much fun to read.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperAudio
• Release date: May 12, 2014
• ISBN: 9780062218384

Steven D. Levitt

Steven D. Levitt, a professor of economics at the University of Chicago, was awarded the John Bates Clark Medal, given to the most influential American economist under forty. He is also a founder of The Greatest Good, which applies Freakonomics-style thinking to business and philanthropy. Stephen J. Dubner, an award-winning journalist and radio and TV personality, has worked for the New York Times and published three non-Freakonomics books. He is the host of Freakonomics Radio and Tell Me Something I Don't Know.

Reviews for Think Like a Freak

[salilmalkan · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

yeeeaaah

[ajimenezr · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt should learn that the world is not all about numbers, reason, and statistical metrics. This book certainly addresses many issues, but in their analysis the authors undoubtedly remain at a very shallow level staying well clear of challenging the fundamental structural and systemic causes that actually produce many of the phenomena mentioned in this book. Although the authors like to portray themselves as unconventional economist, their views and opinions are as conventional and mainstream as one can find. Definitively not a book that I would recommend.

[Pierce Franklin · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I got smarter after listening to this!! :) thank you!!

[heike6 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

If you listen to the Freakonomics podcast, most of this book covers the same topics. Still good though.

[vanderschloot · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is an interesting book, and offers some good insights, and it's also just a great concept for a book. Of course you should mix self-help with freakonomics! That being said, it doesn't say a whole lot that is new, particularly for those who have read Freakonomics. The book felt a bit thin, and almost more like a repackaging "for dummies" version of their earlier books.

[davevanl_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Having read this, I now want to go back and reread their earlier works.

[vivak · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

One of the best books out there. It's very rare a person can gain this much insight from one book. This book helps you think outside the box as they do

[Abdulrahman · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A great book really fun I do recommend it to all

[newsieq · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Levitt and Dubner, authors of Freakonomics and Superfreakonomics, look at the world differently than you and I. They question conventional wisdom. They say, “I don’t know” when they don’t know. They teach readers new words. My favorite is ultracrepidarianism (definition: “the habit of giving opinions and advice on matters outside of one's knowledge”). And they make economics funny. In Think Like a Freak, they give a crash course in thinking like an economist. The book reads much like their earlier books and it’s only a slight exaggeration to say that it would take less time to read the book than it would take to explain what the book’s about. I finished it in a few hours and felt better for it. I don’t know if I think like a freak now, but who knows?

[iffland · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

If you read "Fast and slow thinking" by Kahnemann, "Black Swan" by Taleb and "Influence" by Cialdini then it´s completely unnecessary to read this book but as it´s fun and a short read that you can finish in a day it´s not a completely waste of time.

[achmorrison-789479 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I liked this better than Superfreakonomics, although it still suffers from a lot of repetition from the podcast. I did enjoy how the book was structured as ways to think more critically rather than just a collection of case studies.

[mike_b-645943 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Largely a rehash of earlier work. It felt like I had already read this.

[pdcread · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Freakonomics and the follow up book, SuperFreakonomics were two of those books that changed the way people looked at the world and the things that happened in it. In this third volume, Levitt and Dubner are aiming to teach you the way of thinking outside the box as they do.

With chapters as diverse as The Three Hardest Words in the English Language, How to Think Like a Child and Like Giving Candy to a Baby, they bring more stories and anecdotes that demonstrate just how lateral thinking can bring a fresh perspective on a problem, and that sometimes the uncomplicated answer is the correct one.

Whilst this is a great read, Dubner writes some very readable text, it feels like a thin veneer rather than having the depth that the earlier books had. Interesting though, and may be the place to start if you have never read anything by these authors before.

[skybalon · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A good read that perhaps is too much of a collection of stories that you've already read in the other books to be perfect. There are certainly some good ideas here though. Worth reading and trying to apply some of their helpful suggestions.

[jerry.yoakum · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

There is a lot to like about this book. I really enjoyed the multiple short stories format that remained connected without repeating large chunks.

[montzaleew · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Think Like a Freak by Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner is a book I wish had been around (or I had thought like a freak) thirty years ago. We used to call it 'thinking outside the box ' but I like their phrase much better! Excellent book to try to retrain my brain, not that it is trained now. I think everyone should read this, especially young people.

[glennbell_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I liked this audio book because it presented several interesting ways of looking at things. I hope to be able to apply these concepts to my thinking. The book was short and the concepts are few. So most of the book is spent explaining the concepts largely by example. One concepts is that telling stories helps persuade. I recommend this book.

[maryhollis · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Ho Hum.....

[shadowbarbara · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Easy read with some interesting tidbits. Not a good as their earlier books

[neurodrew · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Think Like a FreakSteven D. Levitt and Stephen J. DubnerAugust 20, 2016I own this book because it was a free hand out after hearing Steven Levitt give a lecture at a "MAPMG Day" event last October. Levitt is a very entertaining speaker, and his fame rests on economic analyses of unusual problems, like the economics of drug dealing. He partners with a journalist who translates the insights into vivid prose. I picked it up while feeling idle and tired, and read it over a few evenings. There was a long discussion about the hot dog eating champion from Japan, how he trained and changed the techniques of competitive eating. The discovery of helicobacter was mentioned reverently, and this is a good source for a discussion of the Nigerian scheme, and why it made sense to be so transparent about the source of the email. Read quickly, enjoyable, not very profound

[daniel5estes · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I love Steven and Stephen. I was blown away a few years ago by Freakonomics and now I tore through this book, Think Like a Freak, in just two nights. Along the way I was reminded that I somehow missed SuperFreakonomics. (Now added to my to-read list.)The process of thinking like a freak starts with a fundamentally simple underlying principle, a classic tenet of science: Look at the data without bias and draw your conclusions accordingly. The key here is "without bias." That problem alone could account for the deficit of useful scientific discourse in the world today. On the flip side, as any Freak will tell you, bias sells so that's a powerful incentive to overcome.With the above foundation in place Steven and Stephen next go looking for hidden causalities that may be undergirding everyday phenomenon. Here I'm reminded of H. L. Mencken, "For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong." In the economic arena of cause and effect it's easy to think the root of a problem is one thing when it might be something else entirely. Or maybe there are entrenched incentives blocking an obvious solution. Sometimes the truth is hidden; sometimes our biases cause us to want to not see the truth. This book provides plenty of real-world examples to explore these ideas. To Think Like a Freak is to not only think outside of the box, but to think outside of our own preconceived notions.

[eachurch-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A marvelously entertaining look at making decisions which emphasizes the importance of stories, asking questions about things that seem obvious, and the value of questioning our thoughts and perceptions. Levitt and Dubner talk about the importance and difficulty of speaking our truth—whether is it saying ‘I don’t know’ or ‘This isn’t going to work’—as well as the importance of incentives and identifying what incentives are at work. The story about David Lee Roth and the brown M&Ms make the entire book worth reading. It is a quick and easy read which has the potential of changing how we approach our work and home life.

[ailinel-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Think Like a Freak is a book encouraging its readers to do exactly that. Freakonomics authors Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner combine thoughtful advice on how to look at the world and how to approach problems with real-world examples. They look back at issues addressed in their previous books and describe new areas of their research and situations they've found themselves in. The book is a quick read, and both the advice sections and economics sections are simply stated and often thought-provoking. While the authors do reach back to topics they have discussed previously, someone unfamiliar with their work will not have a problem sitting down and reading this book.

[jpsnow · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

To call it unorthodox proves you really get the point of it. Think differently. Give up on the patterns that have inherent assumptions so built in that you can't even see them. Our brains are trained to establish connections and then use them without even being conscious of it. The freak sees past those assumptions, either by remembering a few basics that drive human behavior, or finding (or creating) an experiment that exposes the assumption to us. I've enjoyed the Freak books and this one is equal to the task as a (the) sequel.

[zimbawilson · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An excellent, fun, entertaining read from the authors of Freakonomics. The authors have done a great job of making various points about looking at things differently. The book doesn't suggest you flush all your beliefs and change to some radical economic model. It simply gives you ideas that might just make more sense than conventional wisdom or even better, spark creative ideas of your own. I think to a lesser degree (based especially on the section about herd mentality) that if we could all have a little more time to really think and delve into societal/political issues we'd have a very different look in Washington and local governments in a few short years.

[kathy_dyer-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

When I read Freakonomics my whole perspective of economics changed. Making connections among sumo wrestlers, baby names and cheating was fascinating. In Think Like a Freak, authors, Steve Levitt and Stephen Dubner have once again opened our minds to connections we might have missed such as predictions and witch hunts or hot dog eating contests and King Solomon. They stretch our thinking with “simple” topics like finding the root cause or admitting we don’t know something. Levitt and Dubner push us to think “a bit differently, a bit harder, a bit more freely.” One big take away for me is the authors’ idea that common sense may be something we don’t take full advantage of. One of my favorite things about this book was the style of the table of contents…which I admit made it hard to start with chapter 1. For me the challenge to think differently is one I am willing embrace.

[dkcampbell · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

"Think Like a Freak" is a fun and easy read even for those who have not read any of the other books by the authors. Because it is chock-full of stories, I sometimes lost track of the subject at hand until it was summarized in the last paragraphs of each chapter. I felt like the main two takeaways I had from the book was the concept of sunk cost and digging for the root cause of the situation at hand, even if it meant thinking like a child and asking overlooked or "trivial" questions. Because it was a quick read, perhaps I should read it again in order to get more out of the topics discussed. It would still be enjoyable a second time, however, since I feel like I need to reread it to get the full effect, perhaps the attention-grabbing stories pulls you in too much to the point where you lose focus on what you are trying to learn in order to "think like a freak."

[cecilturtle · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

With their usual wit and clear, concise writing, Levitt and Dubner explain in layman terms the methodology that they used for their now famed Freakenomics series. Illustrated with curious yet compelling examples, it reveals basically two elements: you need lots of data and you need to be curious. Experimentation, long relegated to the sphere of "hard" sciences can, and should, be applied to social sciences. In this book, the authors debunk some of the steadfast assumptions that we hold and challenge the reader to reframe and reset filters and world views.Their conclusions are not great ones, but they are well formulated, sound... and an entertaining read if nothing else!

[lbeaumont_8 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a quick and fun read. Talented storytelling brings alive well-tested techniques for problem solving in this third book in the Freakonomics series.The Freakonomics team, Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner are well known for their unusual approach to analyzing and solving rather quirky problems. They enjoy challenging conventional wisdom and discovering surprising results. This book is dedicated to teaching us their problem solving approach rather than solving more problems. Learning to think like a freak may provide a fresh outlook on your own life.Memorable stories illustrate each step in the process. We learn the best strategy for winning a soccer penalty kick, the value of feedback from field experiments, the dangers of dogmatism, how to win a hot dog eating contest, the power of M&M’s , the impact of drinking bacteria, and the value of fun.Several stories about the price of wine, the power of advertising, and paying workers less show us how Freaks use evidence to debunk ideology. Once revealed and understood, their process for solving problems is rather ordinary: 1) admit you don’t know the answer, 2) define the correct problem, 3) dig deeply to uncover the root cause, 4) think like a child to explore new viewpoints, 5) understand how incentives motivate, 6) use clever game theory approaches to “get your garden to weed itself” if you can. Additional chapters describe research from the Cultural Cognition Project on persuasion, and highlight the benefits of quitting.The stories are fun to read, fun to know and fun to retell. The stories help make the process steps easier to understand and remember. Reading this book may make you a better problem solver.

[rivkat_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Free review copy. Breezy and readable version of the authors’ standard schtick: incentives matter; try asking different questions than other people are asking; don’t be afraid to quit when things aren’t working out. Did you know that a penalty kick in soccer is 7% more likely to succeed kicked down the middle than to either side, because the goalie is jumping away? But people worry about looking dumb so they don't do it much. There’s some good advice in here about asking new and unusual questions, but I still can’t get over the authors’ unwillingness to look beyond the US when it comes to health care—they insist that the only way to keep costs down is for people to have to pay for their own health care, as if the rest of the world didn’t exist. It’s a bizarre sort of unwillingness to ask questions in defiance of their own rules.