SuperFreakonomics

In their 2005 best-seller, the authors Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner caused a sensation with their exposes of corrupt sumo wrestlers, poor drug dealers and the surprising and controversial impact of abortions on U.S. crime rates. Unfortunately, despite their assertion in the introduction of this “sequel” that it is a better book than its predecessor, the contents prove quite the opposite. The book comes up well short in providing the same fascination and excitement of Freakonomics, despite the use of the same formula, plus the book questionably includes a lengthy profile of a crazy scheme to solve global warming. This isn't to say that there aren't some interesting and entertaining parts of the book, but not enough to make it really outstanding.

In a way, this sophomore letdown is not surprising, given the difficulty in matching the tremendous success of the first book. Additionally, the concept just isn't as fresh as since Freakonomics came out, several authors such as Malcolm Gladwell have become popular by taking a similar approach, using statistics and research studies to provide compelling explanations of social phenomena. Gladwell's first book, The Tipping Point, actually came out quite a few years before Freakonomics, but his work has been compared to Dubner and Levitt's. Interestingly enough, in a footnote in SuperFreakonomics, Dubner and Levitt refer to Gladwell, among several authors; they mention that Gladwell's popularization of the idea in his book Outliers that birth dates are key to budding athletes' future success prevented them from including a chapter about the same idea.

SuperFreakonomics' shortcomings go beyond those aspects because many of the points are not very compelling or eye-opening. For instance, does the fact that a service that becomes widely available eventually drop in price surprise any of us? The book plods along in some parts, as the authors don't probe issues in-depth but just mention them to fill space.

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