{"id":34490,"date":"2014-09-04T10:12:38","date_gmt":"2014-09-04T14:12:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/?p=34490"},"modified":"2014-09-04T10:44:26","modified_gmt":"2014-09-04T14:44:26","slug":"think-like-a-freak-the-authors-of-freakonomics-offer-to-retrain-your-brain-by-steven-d-levitt-and-stephen-j-dubner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/think-like-a-freak-the-authors-of-freakonomics-offer-to-retrain-your-brain-by-steven-d-levitt-and-stephen-j-dubner\/","title":{"rendered":"Think Like a Freak: The Authors of Freakonomics Offer to Retrain Your Brain by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Think<\/a>Let me begin with the reasons to go aural on this one: co-author Stephen J. Dubner<\/a> narrates (his near-breathless energy is downright contagious), plus you get additional bonus selections\u00a0(including commitment devices<\/a>,\u00a0banning tipping<\/a>, and\u00a0not-men women<\/a>) at book’s end from the authors’ Freakonomics Radio<\/a> archives during which you finally get to hear the more\u00a0elusive Steven D. Levitt<\/a> chime in (wow, he talks fast!). As eruditely entertaining as these partners are, getting more is most definitely\u00a0a good thing.<\/p>\n

Check out that subtitle: “The authors of Freakonomics<\/a> offer to retrain your brain.” This latest book, the third in their Freakonomics streak, is\u00a0actually a reaction\u00a0to readers’\u00a0queries and requests: “Readers seemed to think no riddle was too tricky, no problem too hard, that it couldn’t be sorted out. It was as if we owned some proprietary tool\u00a0\u2013 a Freakonomics forceps, one might imagine\u00a0\u2013 that could be plunged into the body politic to extract some buried wisdom.” As powerful as this dynamic duo is, they didn’t\u00a0have answers to everything (shocker, I know!). “So rather than trying and probably failing to answer most of the questions sent our way, we wondered if it might be better to write a book that can teach anyone to think like a Freak.” And here they\u00a0are … sitting right on top of the bestseller lists to boot.<\/p>\n

The first step? Practice “The Three Hardest Words in the English Language”: “I don’t know.” Imagine that! Add “‘… but maybe I can find out,'” and you’ll be well on your way to Freak-ish thinking\u00a0indeed.<\/p>\n

Ready to move on? Let a slender 23-year-old Japanese record buster of the Coney Island hot-dog contest show you how to solve a problem. Need guidance in analyzing the cause of a challenging quest? Consider\u00a0a centuries-old illustration strangely named “An Englishman Tastes the Sweat of an African” which might explain\u00a0why mortality rates are higher for\u00a0African American communities, or\u00a0how swallowing a batch of virulent\u00a0bacteria can lead\u00a0to a Nobel Prize.<\/p>\n

More? Don’t ignore your childlike instincts. Incentivize wisely and<\/em>\u00a0creatively: M&Ms can work wonders. Just hold the brown ones \u2013 and no,\u00a0David Lee Roth is not just another diva. To\u00a0convince someone of something, tell\u00a0stories rather than set\u00a0rules (among U.S. adults, only 14% could name all Ten Commandments<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 in comparison, 25% could\u00a0recite\u00a0the primary ingredients of a Big Mac<\/a> and 35% could name all the Brady Kids<\/a>!). Quitting (albeit the hubby read that as ‘grabbing the next opportunity”) can be\u00a0okay. And use a\u00a0coin toss<\/a>\u00a0to determine\u00a0major life decisions (eek!).<\/p>\n

Will you agree with everything between these pages (on these tracks)? Of course not. But that’s the point, too … Steven and Stephen offer\u00a0you the tools to think differently. To Freak or not to Freak: what you ultimately decide do with those insights is always your choice.<\/p>\n

Readers<\/strong>: Adult<\/p>\n

Published<\/strong>: 2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Let me begin with the reasons to go aural on this one: co-author Stephen J. Dubner narrates (his near-breathless energy is downright contagious), plus you get additional bonus selections\u00a0(including commitment devices,\u00a0banning tipping, and\u00a0not-men women) at book’s end from the authors’ Freakonomics Radio archives during which…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34491,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,81,60,20],"tags":[6608,364,2814,2815,5956],"class_list":["post-34490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adult-readers","category-audio","category-nonethnic-specific","category-nonfiction","tag-bookdragon","tag-sociology","tag-stephen-j-dubner","tag-steven-d-levitt","tag-think-like-a-freak"],"yoast_head":"\nThink Like a Freak: The Authors of Freakonomics Offer to Retrain Your Brain by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. 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Dubner narrates (his near-breathless energy is downright contagious), plus you get additional bonus selections\u00a0(including commitment devices,\u00a0banning tipping, and\u00a0not-men women) at book’s end from the authors’ Freakonomics Radio archives during which...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/think-like-a-freak-the-authors-of-freakonomics-offer-to-retrain-your-brain-by-steven-d-levitt-and-stephen-j-dubner\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-09-04T14:12:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-09-04T14:44:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2014\/08\/Think-Like-a-Freak.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1688\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"2555\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@SmithsonianAPA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Think Like a Freak: The Authors of Freakonomics Offer to Retrain Your Brain by Steven D. 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