Area 51 by Annie Jacobsen is a good effort in collating the various pieces of history regarding the ranch (most of which is still classified). Note that I had read this book via the kindle app on my ipad.

I had learnt about Area 51 from a couple of Discovery Channel shows that create a lot of viewer interest and awe regarding the activities that are believed to be going on there. This book tries to weave the accounts of various people who worked there and presents it in a chronological order of sorts. It is very informative regarding the role of US establishments such as the CIA, the Airforce and the Department of Energy (which has its origins probably in the Manhattan Project during the development of the first nuclear weapon). This book also serves as a good account of major events during the cold war.

The author take good care to skip the usual stuff that most of us might know and focuses only on key stories that have been declassified recently or learnt during invetigations by the author.

The author states concerns regarding the usage of humans for carrying out various tests at Area 51 and other clandestine sites. She tries to establish (with a possiblility of exaggeration) that there is very little information available in public domain and that various departments mentioned above seem to be hiding “majority of the iceberg”.

As a reader if you even an iota of interest in military, politics or science; you will get glued to the book from page one and soak it up in minimal number of sittings. There is also a section of photos towards the end of the book which contain photos from Area 51 and a couple of unreleased photographs.

One thing about the writing style that I sometimes found teasing and sometimes annoying was that whenever the author was reaching a point significant out come or a major issue, she would delay that part and move into the background of the persons involved, spend a page or so on it and only then disclose whatever happened. However, I am sure she has a good reason for pouring over the background in such detail, possibly to make the reader empathise with the character in that situation.

I recommend this book for anyone with slight interest in the topic or even if some one wants to read up a bit on the cold war period.

The Gods Themselves is a very popular novel by the great science fiction writer Issac Asimov. If you are an Asimov fan, chances are that you might have already read it. This novel was regarded by Asimov as one of his favourite works. It is one of the very few works of Asimov that contain vivid description of an intelligent alien life.

I managed to read the book on Kindle app on my ipad 2. The book is divided into three sections: (1) Give a history of the electron pump and describes us the characters and work of Fedrick Hallam and Peter Lamont. It also introduces Denison to us. (2) story on the other side i.e. the para universe (2) the story on moon and how a radio chemist resolves the problem with the electron pump.

The story is pretty gripping especially with the fictitious concept of electron pump and involvement of universes with varying laws. The consistency of scientific arguments (though fictitious) is incredible. In fact while describing various universes, in one conversation between two characters, Asimov also contemplates why the Big Bang happened. This is just the kind of stuff that a science fiction fan wants to read.

This novel has also won critical acclaim because Asimov describes alien universe and alien sex in detail. During his time, many of his fans had demanded description of aliens and sex in his works and through this novel Asimov had elated them much.

In my own experience, I found the second chapter on aliens to be a little dragging at time as I was very keen on seeing the progress in the story. The detailed description of the triad, their activities and their life, though incredibly appealing for the fans, was not some thing I enjoyed much.

In addition, it would have been great, if the story went back to Peter Lamont also in the third part. However, this is some thing that I feel due to attachment with the characters of the story during the course of my reading.

ISBN: 9780316010665

Tagline: The Power of Thinking without Thinking

Malcolm Gladwell covered business, science and medicine for the Washington Post before becoming the New York City bureau chief. Currently he is a staff writer for the New Yorker

Blink is an unconventional book on an unconventional topic and is extremely engrossing. The writing style of the author and the choice of the stories/examples used by the author ensures that the reader remains glued to the book cover to cover.

Blink is a very good effort to highlight the importance of alternate gut-feeling based decision making. It very lucidly explains the pros and cons of making snap decisions and encourages the readers to understand the power of human mind. It tries to explain how and why certain experts are able to reach a decision without the need for complex and lenghty investigation and analysis.

With reference to the recent global financial crisis, I think that the book also seems to teach us that over dependence on the so called well thought-out and highly intricate mathematical models must be avoided as they are not fool-proof. Decision making cannot be based solely on such models and decision makers need to use the insights of their inner mind in an appropriate manner at all times to optimize the decision making process.

I do not want to dicuss any of the stories mentioned in the book, over here. Strongly suggest that you read the book to understand what I am talking about. This particular book would surely give the readers the same level of thrill even after reading multiple times. Though I have read it only once, I am pretty sure of this gut-feeling of mine

Hi,

Yesterday I wanted to read this amazing short story by Isaac Asimov that I had read long ago during my MBA course. I did not know the title of the story and only remembered that it ended with the following line: “Let there be light”. So I googled “Let there be Light + Isaac Asimov” and stumbled upon this site (Recommend reading the story if you have time, otherwise try to follow the summary I have written below).

The short story I am talking about is titled “The Last Question”. It was originally published in 1956 by Isaac Asimov. You can read more about this short story on its Wikipedia Page.

The Last Question is undoubtedly the most fascinating short story and/or piece of science fiction that I have ever read. It addresses the ultimate question and what I believe gives the very meaning to our existence. While at the moment my mind is full of philosophy about human existence etc I will avoid going tangential.

Summary of the Story

Coming back to this story, it basically starts off with a question to which no one has an answer i.e.

“Can entropy be reversed?”

This question is posed to a super computer called Multivac which is the first true super computer with its own consciousness of sorts:

“Multivac was self-adjusting and self-correcting. It had to be, for nothing human could adjust and correct it quickly enough or even adequately enough”

On gaps of many millions of years this question is asked repeatedly by various people and they always get only one answer:

“INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR MEANINGFUL ANSWER”

Overtime the Multivac evolves into much more complex form and starts to exist in Hyperspace and across the cosmos connecting various galaxies in a manner which is best left to the whims of sci-fi authors. (I mean please read the story to get a sense; it’s very tough for me to explain this )

However even after all those evolutions; the main computer (called AC at the last stage of the story) is unable to find an answer to the question. For trillions of years the computer continues to collect data and try to solve this problem but is unable to do so. Read this short excerpt from the story:

“Cosmic AC,” said Man, “How may entropy be reversed?”

The Cosmic AC said, “THERE IS AS YET INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL ANSWER.”

Man said, “Collect additional data.”

The Cosmic AC said, “I WILL DO SO. I HAVE BEEN DOING SO FOR A HUNDRED BILLION YEARS. MY PREDECESSORS AND I HAVE BEEN ASKED THIS QUESTION MANY TIMES. ALL THE DATA I HAVE REMAINS INSUFFICIENT.”

“Will there come a time,” said Man, “when data will be sufficient or is the problem insoluble in all conceivable circumstances?”

The Cosmic AC said, “NO PROBLEM IS INSOLUBLE IN ALL CONCEIVABLE CIRCUMSTANCES.”

Man said, “When will you have enough data to answer the question?”

“THERE IS AS YET INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL ANSWER.”

“Will you keep working on it?” asked Man.

The Cosmic AC said, “I WILL.”

Man said, “We shall wait.”

Long after all humanity is gone due to exhaustion of all energy in the universe, the Cosmic AC continues to process data to find answer to this question. It finally finds an answer and then decides to demonstrate the solution as there was no human left to give the solution to.

It says “Let there be light”

According to Christianity, “Let there be light” are the words uttered by God after which Universe came into being (or let me say what I want to say: Big bang occurred and the natural processes unfolded and formed what we know and can see today)

What intrigues me?

Firstly any association of science and religion is something that I always find very interesting to read. And when it’s done by a master like Isaac Asimov, I have to write about it

Secondly it is very intriguing to read about various sci-fi concepts that are discussed in this story. Let me explain these and my thoughts about it by quoting from the story.

“Minds, not bodies! The immortal bodies remained back on the planets, in suspension over the eons.”

It instantly reminded me of two things:

1. Matrix: In this Hollywood blockbuster, most of the humans are plugged into the matrix and their bodies are actually immaterial. It is the prime program and the role of the mind in the simulated world that matters.

2.Bhagavad Gita: In Gita, Lord Krishna says that the loss of material bodies is not worthy of grief and one should not allow it to inhibit ones performance of duty. It is the soul that matters the most and the soul is eternal, indestructible and insoluble.

Well this is not to say that they borrowed from each other. I really don’t know about that. I am only trying to connect things in my mind.

“One by one Man fused with AC, each physical body losing its mental identity in a manner that was somehow not a loss but a gain.”

Again it obviously reminds me of Matrix where the human bodies are fused with a main computer that simulates the virtual world for the human minds while drawing power from their bodies –  An interesting ‘symbiotic relationship’ which is certainly beneficial for both the parties. Machines get access to a virtually unlimited source of power while Humans are saved from their own self-destructive nature and get to survive as a race. As machines are a creation of humans they ensure (on behalf of humans) that the process of unraveling all the mysteries of universe goes on in a reasonable and unhindered manner while Humans (who are incapable carrying out the above mentioned process in an unhindered manner due to their self-destructive nature) continue to contribute to the same albeit in a tacit manner (assuming that the consciousness of the main computer is not derived from and/or is not the sum total of consciousness of all the human minds connected to it)

During the discourse of Bhagavat Gita to Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra , Lord Krishna displays his original form which Hindus normally refer to as the ‘Virat Roop’. In the Virat Roop, the lord shows that he is responsible for everything that we see around us. He is responsible for the life, death, calamity, success, happiness, grief etc. Two cool points arise out of this:

1. Matrix’s main computer does the same kind of simulation that god claims to do for us in his discourse in Bhagavad Gita.

2. In Isaac Asimov’s short story, there is not much clarity about how the main computer (referred to as the AC) utilizes the minds connected to it but what is certainly clear that humans consciously submit their minds to the AC and that the minds are living in a virtual/simulated world where they are capable of interacting with any other mind irrespective of the physical distances between them. In addition, the AC somehow derived its consciousness from the collective consciousness of the minds attached to it. Consider the excerpts (below) from the story based on which I have made the above-mentioned conclusions:

“Man considered with himself, for in a way, Man, mentally, was one. He consisted of a trillion, trillion, trillion ageless bodies, each in its place, each resting quiet and incorruptible, each cared for by perfect automatons, equally incorruptible, while the minds of all the bodies freely melted one into the other, indistinguishable.”

“Zee Prime’s thoughts fled back to his own Galaxy. He gave no further thought to Dee Sub Wun, whose body might be waiting on a galaxy a trillion light-years away, or on the star next to Zee Prime’s own. It didn’t matter.”

I might make additions to this post if I have any more thoughts and free time like I had today (I thought out and wrote the whole thing in office coz there is no other work )

While trying to keep alive, an effort to satiate my need for reading good science fiction, today I researched the internet to find an answer to a question:

Which book should I pickup to start reading Issac Asimov’s science fiction series, such that I extract the maximum benefit from the whole reading exercise?

According to Asimov’s note in the book Prelude to Foundation (a prequel to the original foundation trilogy), the entire foundation series comprises of fourteen volumes and a total of about 1,450,000 words! Therefore science fictions fans who are yet to read this series would want to be very sure of the reading order before they get down to business.

I have decided to share the reading order with my readers as one may end up spending some time browsing the next to compile this order of books. Here it goes:

As you can see that I have divided the chronological list into various series to which the books belong. So you start with The complete Robot from the Robot Series and end with Foundation and Earth in the Foundation series.

I also recommend that you check out the timeline for Issac Asimov’s Robots and Foundation series universe. It will give you a good overview of how the entire plot will unfold.

Sources used in compiling this post:

1. Cold Science Fiction
2.  Wikipedia – Robot Series
3. Wikipedia – Foundation Series
4. Wikipedia – Empire Series

ISBN: 8185984131

Tagline: A process of ongoing improvement.

The Goal was not on my reading list. However, it was lying around in the house and I decided to go ahead with it. The size of this book was very uninviting and from all the text on the covers and in the intro pages, I thought that I’d be better off reading this book during or after my MBA even though it was a best-seller. However, once I started to read I realized that this whole “Theory of constraints” thing is actually presented in the form of a story which is very easy to grasp.

About the Author

Dr. Eliyahu M. Goldratt is an internationally recognized leader in the development of new business management concepts and systems, and acts as an educator to many of the world’s corporations. He is the originator of the Theory of Constraints (TOC) and his ideas have revolutionized the way companies work.

In addition to his pioneering work in manufacturing management, he holds patents in other areas, ranging from medical devices to temperature sensors. Other books from Goldratt, on this topic, are It’s Not Luck, Critical Chain and Necessary But Not Sufficient.

The Goal

Plainly speaking The Goal is a book on Theory of Constraints. However along with the message, another important side to this book is the method the author has adopted to deliver the message. The Goal is actually the story (probably fictitious) of a plant manager by name Alex Rogo who manages a plant that is unable to ship any of its orders on time and is also loosing money for its division. In addition, Alex has a messed-up personal life due to frequent fights with his wife.

Alex is given a deadline to make the plant profitable (failing which it will be closed). He desperately wants to save his plant and in the process he meets his university professor and acquaintance (from college days), Jonah (which I think is characterizing Goldratt because both have a degree in Physics from Israel). Alex’s interactions with Jonah show him the right path. Jonah is a kind of teacher who encourages his students to discover answers on their own and he does that same with Alex (regarding the problem with his plant). Through Alex’s process of discovery the author explains the theory of constraints is a very simple manner. I was particularly impressed by the use of simple yet powerful example of boys marching in a line. The author through Alex’s discussions with his co-workers also highlights the short comings of cost-accounting where inventory is viewed as an asset on the balance sheet and the blind emphasis of management to cut costs wherever possible (which many times leads to death of sick business units that could have been turned around).

Conclusion

Services have become the fad of today and it is amazing to think about the application of TOC to the Services scenario (though I need to grow-up a little more to think about it in detail). With the advent of Globalization 3.0 (in terms of Thomas Friedman) and the ability of a business to break up a process, digitize it and outsource it to various parts of the world where they can be done (for cheapest price and best quality) simultaneously and delivered back in one piece to the HQ control, the relevance of this theory is questionable. However, I am sure that it still has a lot of implications on supply chains where constraints or bottlenecks may exist (again I need to learn a lot more to think in detail).

In one of the management fests I had participated in during my college days, I had taken part in a production game where there was a production line with different work centers. The performance of the participants was measured in terms of their ability to meet customer demands and have least inventories and turn-around times at the end of the game. Had I read this book back then, before that event, I am sure I would have done much better than the third spot out of fifth that I had got in that event.

ISBN 0349114463

Tagline: How little things can make a big difference

I was looking forward to reading books by Malcolm Gladwell and finally got my hands on The Tipping Point. It is not a very big book and I managed to finish it in three days, reading only in my free time. Most of you might be aware that The Tipping Point is popular bestseller and a highly appreciated book. I am glad I was able to take time off to read this one.

About the Author

Malcolm Gladwell covered business, science and medicine for the Washington Post before becoming the New York City bureau chief. Currently he is a staff writer for the New Yorker.

The Tipping Point

The Tipping Point is a book in which the author tries to explain why certain things happen the way they do. In the numerous examples that he explores, he shows that for a big-time change to occur, very minor change (involving the right set of numbers) tends to be the cause. For example, Fashion changes regularly and lots of trends become a craze with the masses which the author calls social epidemics. This book analyses such fashion trends and how they came out of nowhere to become a social epidemic. In addition, it gives a general basis for why and how such things occur and the key players in the process.

The author incorporates data from a number of research reports by various professionals to provide a solid basis for his analysis model and with seemingly flawless knack for generalization uses the same model over and over to analyze a wide variety of problems like the rise and fall of crime in the New York city, the problems of corporate management and governance, trends in suicides and effect of celebrity suicides, truth about addiction to smoking.

This book clearly provides a scientific basis for the kind of solutions that we might discover by trial and error and convert it to conventional wisdom. The author shows how making seemingly unnecessary changes in the way information is presented can make it more useful and productive by leaps and bounds.

One thing particularly fascinating about this book is the huge number of sources from which the author draws out raw information, converts it into simple language and puts it in front of his readers. The number of examples, varying from individuals to corporations, is very good and well placed.

While reading the chapter on suicides, I was able to think of similar situations that had happened in India in the not so distant past. Once there was a case of a child committing suicide because he was frustrated with academics and felt overwhelmed by studies during his examinations. Once the news of the suicide and the reason for it came in, a number of similar cases from all over the country started to appear in the print media and television. People were suddenly worried about the increasing load of education on teenagers and I observed that they started dealing with them very cautiously. For example, in my Junior College (that’s last two years just before start of bachelor courses), lecturers stopped roughing up students for not completing their home-works or scoring low in weekly exams because the teachers’ committee was too scared to even imagine some guy from their college committing suicide for study-related reasons.

In all, The Tipping Point is a book that I recommend everyone should read at least once.

ISBN: 0141022728

Tagline: The Globalized world in the Twenty-First century

Hanging around for almost a month with The World is Flat, I finally completed it despite all the time constraints I was under. I have never read such a thick book back-to-back in my life until this one and this book is very special not just in that sense. I could have completed it within a short span but the sheer density of information and ideas in this book forced me to read it slowly and in parts.
So I used to read a couple of pages and then sit back and ponder about them in my free time in order to assimilate the information well.

After reading the first few pages of this book I understood how important and dense this book was and to beat the density which posed such a challenge, I actually used a pencil to underline important points as I read this book. Why? This isn’t just a book to be read and kept in the cupboard to gather dust; it can serve as a great reference book for a variety of purposes.

About the Author

Thomas L. Friedman works for The New York Times and is one of the world’s most respected journalists, renowned for his expertise on international affairs and economic issues. He has won the Pulitzer Prize three times and is the author of international best sellers like “From Beirut to Jerusalem”, “The Lexus and the Olive Tree” and “Longitudes and Attitudes”.

The World is Flat

In this book the author has charted the technologies that have affected our lives most profoundly and made the world a much smaller place (or Flat) by breaking the barriers to communication and cultural exchange. This book is a dense store house of information which covers stuff from 11/9 when the Berlin wall came down to 9/11 when the tragic WTC attacks took place and beyond. It tells us why the world shrunk and what technologies and players are responsible for this.

In the next set of chapters the author discusses the affects of the Flattening of the world on America with clear emphasis and the out-sourcing phenomenon and moving of jobs from America to Asia. The author is rightly concerned about the falling number of fresh American engineers and rising average age of the existing group of engineers. He emphasizes on the need for America to revamp their education system at the school level so that it continues to drive the world into new frontiers of innovation and technology. The author talks about the kind of jobs that can be outsourced or automated and the people (which he calls The Untouchables) that cannot be affected by this out-sourcing phenomenon as they always stay one step ahead of it.

Then there is a chapter about developing countries in the Flat World. The author highlights some of the short comings of various developing countries bring to forefront the lack-luster performance of the respective governments in certain cases.

The author also discusses about the people who have not been able to take advantage of the Flat world i.e. poverty stricken people in various developing and under-developed countries and people living in closed societies which have made themselves impervious to external influences. He has also written at length about certain obvious and not so obvious forces that hamper the flattening process of the world and also talked about how terrorists are using the Flat World platform to their advantage.

In the chapters pertaining to the affect of Flat world on America and the Developing Countries of the World, the author has mentioned many points which are very unique and innovative in my opinion. What he has mentioned seem to me like the characteristics or the directive principles to any country to become a superpower in this world. Another very good point in my opinion is the idea of America moving to alternative sources of energy and reducing its dependence on Oil imports which will help cut down on pollution, Global Warming, exhaustion of non-renewable energy sources and also shut the income sources of certain dangerous state and non-state players which are a threat to World Peace. I think this is not just for America but can be extended to many countries like India and China which are contributing massively to Global Air Pollution levels.

I have spent almost a month with this book and analyzed the length, breadth and depth of ideas mentioned in here. The author has traveled to many countries, spoken to many people and learnt many new thing while writing this book. Tremendous efforts have gone into the development of this book and no wonder this book is so dense with ideas. I was glad to learn about the early nineties era of technology which I knew about only in fragments because I sprang up on the I.T scene only around mid 1998 after seeing a computer game called Shadow Warrior at a Friend’s house

Immediately after completing this book, I had felt that if some one in Year 3K will look back at the beginning of the Millennium and try to study the history of technology and its influence on the world, one of the books they might like to refer to will be this one. I have not read any book from this author before but after reading this one, I am convinced that I got to read his previous works as well.

P.S. If you have a flare for I.T. and Business quizzing, this can be a good book to lookup the names of major I.T. companies, their founders and CEOs.

ISBN: 0553296981

I had finished reading Anne Frank: The Diary of a young girl a few days ago. This book is the most popular war documentary of the Second World War and perhaps of all times. It was published in 1947 and since then it has been translated into more than thirty languages and adapted for theatre film and television. In her introduction to the diary’s first American edition, Eleanor Roosevelt described it as “one of the wisest and most moving commentaries on war and its impact on human beings that I have ever read”. The Soviet writer Ilya Ehrenburg had said: “one voice speaks for six million, the voice not of a sage or a poet but of an ordinary little girl”.

About the author

This book is the diary of a girl by name Anne Frank who lived in Amsterdam during the Second World War. She, her family and her brethren were the victims of the draconian and ghastly policies adopted by the Nazi government (Third Reich) of Germany.

The book contains good details about Anne Frank’s early years. As per the information given, Anne Frank had learnt using short-hand and even developed secret codes of her own at the age of fourteen. I still cannot do that. Another aspect that struck me, was that Anne was very widely read and spent most of her time during their 25 months of stay in the secret Annexe (their secret hiding place) reading and learning. The variety of subjects which she had covered was broad and incredible.

Anne’s biographer Melissa Miller said that she wrote “in a precise, confident, economical style stunning in its honesty”. Her writing is largely a study of characters, and she examines every person in her circle with a shrewd, uncompromising eye. She is occasionally cruel and often biased, particularly in her depictions of Fritz Pfeffer and of her own mother, and Miller explains that she channeled the “normal mood swings of adolescence” into her writing. Her examination of herself and her surroundings is sustained over a lengthy period of time in an introspective, analytical and highly self critical manner, and in moments of frustration she relates the battle being fought within herself between the “good Anne” she wants to be, and the “bad Anne” she believes herself to be.

The Diary

The first entry in the diary is dated 14th June, 1942 i.e. when Anne was 14 years old and the last entry is dated 1st August, 1944. Anne Frank had started using this diary just a few months before they moved into their secret hiding place to escape the Gestapo (German Police) who had called Anne’s sister Margot for deportation to one of their concentration camps.

As this diary covers the life of a common girl, it has some thing of interest for every one. The initial entries reflect the good mood of the writer and slowly (as they move into and stay in their secret hiding place) it gets serious. This does not mean that when Anne started writing this Diary all was well for Jews. Nazis were all over Holland and discrimination was in full swing. Jews were asked to wear yellow star badges when in public and Jewish children could only attend Jewish schools.

The Secret Annexe was a contingency plan devised by Anne’s father Otto Frank (the only surviving member of the family (died in 1980)) and some of his co-workers at their office, to escape arrests by the Gestapo. Along with the Franks, there was another family. The Van Daans (3) and one Mr. Albert Dussel (Otto Frank’s acquaintance and a dentist by profession, who joined in later) also took shelter in the Secret Annexe.

Anne’s diary contains a vivid description of the hiding place, the daily schedule of the people living in there and her own musings. The diary shows the straining relationships between Anne and her parents (particularly her mother) as well as between the other members living there. Readers must understand that Anne or other members of the Annexe could not come out in open, even to breathe fresh air. They lived in a constant fear of being discovered and deported to concentration camps. In addition, they faced limited rations, food supply shortages, sanitation problems and severe emotional challenges which most of us might (and should) never experience in our lives.

Towards the middle of the diary, Anne Frank falls in love with Peter (only son of the Van Daans) and both of them share a sweet and secret intimacy which she covers in good detail in her diary. This episode in her life, gives her respite and the feeling of being loved (which she missed from her family). There are certain entries where Anne expresses guilt and seems confused/ contradictory with reference to her relationship with her parents. Towards the end of the Diary Anne starts writing more about the politics and the Allied invasion of Nazi captured regions. With the invasion and news of progress coming in at regular intervals, the Annexers were sure that the Nazi rule would soon end and they would once again be free. The diary ends with the last entry on August 1, 1944.

On 3rd August, 1944, a Dutch informer thrashed their hopes and Gestapo penetrated into their secret hiding place, arresting all of them along with their helpers. After the arrest, grim fate awaited the Annexers and other Jews of the region. The Annexers were among the last lot of the Jews to be sent from Holland to the concentration camps. According to the available information, Anne’s mother died in a concentration camp, followed by her sister Margot and then Anne herself. Similarly, other annexers also died except for Otto Frank who survived and was liberated by the Russian army.

When I started reading the book, I knew that Anne Frank was a victim of Nazi oppression, with no specific feelings about it. But after I completed the book I felt sad and out-of-place as though a close relative or friend of mine had suffered. This is a powerful book and people of any age group can relate to it very easily. Also, readers should remember that Anne Frank was just one among millions who were butchered for nothing and take home, the lessons learnt regarding the horrors of war.

ISBN: 006073132X

Tagline: A rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything.

I had completed reading Freakonomics over a month ago and was pretty much glued to it then. However, now that I have decided to pick up The world is flat and a few Malcolm Gladwell’s books, I thought that I should finish this book’s review so that I do not mix things up.

About the authors

I am not an avid reader, probably that’s why I may have not read any thing else from any of these authors, ever before. Freakonomics has been authored by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner.

Steven D. Levitt has done his PhD (I guess in economics) from MIT, teaches economics at the University of Chicago and is the winner of American Economic Association’s John Bates Clark Medal, awarded every two years to the best American economist under forty.

Stephen J. Dubner writes for The New York Times and the New Yorker, and is the best selling author of Turbulent Souls and Confessions of a Hero-Worshipper.

Unlike many other economists, who cover stuff like economic growth, GDP, inflation, demand and supply etc and bore you with a load of math, Levitt’s work is based on riddles of every day life. Riddles that atleast I have never even imagined. Levitt believes that economics is a science with excellent tools for gaining answers but a serious shortage of interesting questions.

Freakonomics

I found it a little difficult to write a review for this book and I don’t exactly know why. My problem was that I did not know how to start it. It has answered such varied, complex and seemingly irrelevant questions in such a simple manner that I was spell-bounded by it.

Why did the crime graph in U.S. nose-dive when everyone predicted that it’s going to rise and become horrific? Levitt has an answer that seems all encompassing and the most appropriate. I was so impressed by his startling answer that I could readily apply it to the situation in India as well but in a slightly different manner. It was so intriguing but simple that I could associate it with Malthus’s essays on population and realized how bad it can get for India.

In modern world, we have an expert for every thing and always prefer to employ their services to get our work done. For example, if you want to invest in stock market or get your money growing, you may seek advice from an investment expert. If you wish to buy a house or a land, you seek advice from a local real estate agent and perhaps even hire the agent or a broker to sell/ buy stuff. Levitt in this book shows that the modern world, despite a surfeit of obfuscation, complication and deceit, is not impenetrable. The authors expose the game of deceit played by real estate agents to make quick money, in this book.

Using collected sets of data and analytical approach, Levitt exposes the dark side of school teachers and Sumo wrestlers. If you think how can Sumo Wrestlers and School teachers be related or analyzed by the same approach, you got to read this book. In the chapter on drug dealers, Levitt actually uses the financial data of a crack (tiny rocks of cheap smokeable cocaine) dealing gang to reveal startling facts about these gangs that a common man would have never been able to learn. He also writes about the affect the crack dealing business has had on the literacy levels and demographic parameters of the African-American population.

Other chapters cover topics like crime, parenting, names of people etc pose and answer a number of questions like Why the 1960s were a great time to be a criminal? Why capital punishment doesn’t deter criminals? What is the reason for extreme crime reduction in certain states when compared to others? Why parenting experts like to scare parent to death? Which is more dangerous: a gun or a swimming pool?

After I completed this book I was left craving for more. I want to read more of such stuff, more such questions and their answers. I would love to read a Freakonomics 2 with more intriguing riddles and their answers. This book is fun to read and I recommend you try it if you haven’t already.