Ironic conventional wisdom developing about Freakonomics’ success: I’m one of those bloggers who received a review copy of Freakanomics (but for a reason other than my blogging) and blogged it early and positively. But actually reading the book causes me to be amused by any punditry at this point that suggests a specific reason the book is successful. Chapter-by-chapter, the book debunks such “conventional wisdom” regarding why certain things happen the way they do, and concludes that such obvious “causes” are rarely correct but are likely, at best, corollaries. My suggestion to bloggers (even the ones who I almost always agree with) who may be tempted to use Freakanomics as a case study for showing cause-and-effect of anything: “READ THE BOOK FIRST!” and you’ll know why you should keep your day job and not go into economic analysis.
