[This entry starts my Booklogging category. If you're interested, see why I'm booklogging.]

So, I finally got around to reading Freakonomics, which makes me a lame Weblogger or something. I found it to be interesting, a nice thumbnail sketch of using statistical analyses to look at the world in interesting ways. A lot of the stuff that Leavitt argues for in the book is the same kind of thing I’ve been reading over the years with the folks who do sabermetrics—taking the data, looking for trends, seeking correlations, and possibly finding causalities.

Doing it from an economist’s point of view, however, widens the scope of the investigation. The things that Leavitt, his colleagues, and others he finds interesting study are really … out there. But they’re pretty doggone cool.

One thing that I found interesting, however, is how Leavitt’s regression analysis that found a correlation between abortion becoming legal with Roe v. Wade and a nationwide drop in crime pretty much kicks the leg out from under the anecdotal argument that Malcom Gladwell made in The Tipping Point about what worked in drawing down crime in New York City. Considering how much the blogosphere talks about both Freakonomics and The Tipping Point, you’d think I’d've run across someone remarking this before. [However, I've probably missed every reference to this contradiction. Oh well. In this case, I'm writing for my limited audience. ]

Anyhow, if you like unconventional thinking and having your preconceptions challenged a bit—or in watching others’ preconceptions shaken—it’s a good little read. It was great for a Saturday afternoon in Florida.