Book of the Week: Think Like a Freak

23 Aug 2014

Think Like a Freak From the writers of Freakonomics and SuperFreakonomics. They got tired of answering people’s questions, so they wrote a book to teach everyone to Think Like a Freak. Three Hardest Words

Every time we pretend to know something, we are doing the same: protecting our own reputation rather than promoting the collective good. None of us want to look stupid, or at least overmatched, by admitted we don’t know an answer.

The three hardest words for people to say is “I don’t know”. Admitting you don’t know is the first step in learning. To be a Freak, you need to admit you don’t know something and endeavor to find the answers.

The key to learning is feedback. It is nearly impossible to learn anything without it.

You won’t immediately get the answers by admitting you don’t know, but you will have taken the first steps toward learning what the right answers are. Right Questions

But when serious people talk about education reform, they rarely talk about the family’s role in preparing children to succeed. In our society, if someone wants to be a hairstylist or a kickboxer or a hunting guide—or a schoolteacher—he or she must be trained and licensed by a state agency. No such requirement is necessary for parenthood. Anyone with a set of reproductive organs is free to create a child, no questions asked, and raise them as they see fit, so long as there are no visible bruises—and then turn that child over to the school system so the teachers can work their magic. Maybe we are asking too much of the schools and too little of our parents and kids.

To get the right answer, you need to ask the right questions. Some of these questions may seem politically incorrect or ill taste or racists. Instead of asking how can we make our schools better, we should be asking why aren’t the parents doing better. Or maybe the poor kids need glasses instead of more teachers. With any optimization problem, you need to focus on the bottlenecks. Hosting women oriented silicon valley startup events is not going to get more women interested in computer science. You need to get young girls interested and have more women VCs. Small Problems over Large Problems

The fact that it remains a problem means it is too damned hard to be cracked in full.

It is easier to make progress on a small problem than a large problem. Usually the large problem is like a big knot. By attacking the smaller problems, you can slowly unravel the knot. Incentives

Look around the world and you’ll find overwhelming evidence of the herd mentality at work. It influences virtually every aspect of our behavior-what we buy, where we eat, how we vote.

In order to get the behavior you want, you need to be able to incentivize people correctly.

  1. Figure out what people really care about, not what they say they care about.
  2. Incentive on dimensions that are valuable to them, but cheap for you.
  3. Pay attention to how they respond and adjust.
  4. Creative incentives that switch frame from adversarial to cooperative.
  5. Never, ever think people will do something just because it is the “right” thing to do.
  6. People will game the system.

Persuasion Some people are stubborn. You need to apply a little persuasion to turn them. Persuasive points:

Stories are powerful. People forget facts, but remember stories. Quitting

Resources are not infinite: you cannot solve tomorrow’s problem if you aren’t willing to abandon today’s dud.

Why people don’t quit:

Freakomonics has a podcast about quitting. It is one of their favorite subjects. You need to be smart about failing. Most people let things drag on too long before quitting. Quitting faster or smarter leads to better outcomes. Silicon Valley destigmatizes failure, so people are more likely to take chances with a safety net.