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| Link | Quote | Stars | Tags | Author |
| fa6b3b7 | Roland G. Fryer Jr., while discussing his names research on a radio show, took a call from a black woman who was upset with the name just given to her baby niece. It was pronounced shuh-TEED but was in fact spelled "Shithead."*" | Steven D. Levitt | ||
| 579f290 | A moral compass can convince you that all the answers are obvious (even when they're not); that there is a bright line between right and wrong (when often there isn't); and, worst, that you are certain you already know everything you need to know about a subject so you stop trying to learn more. | Steven D. Levitt | ||
| a382fa4 | There is no proven connection between being serious and being effective. | InstaRead | ||
| ccf0d23 | The evidence linking increased punishment with lower crime rates is very strong. | Steven D. Levitt | ||
| 61596a8 | conventional wisdom dies hard. | Steven D. Levitt | ||
| 564a270 | Most of us have a lot more experience being consumers than producers, so we tend to view things through the lens of demand rather than supply. | Steven D. Levitt | ||
| 98400b8 | When you are consumed with the rightness or wrongness of a given issue--whether it's fracking or gun control or genetically engineered food--it's easy to lose track of what the issue actually is. A moral compass can convince you that all the answers are obvious (even when they're not); that there is a bright line between right and wrong (when often there isn't); and, worst, that you are certain you already know everything you need to know a.. | Steven D. Levitt | ||
| 30f2f9a | Consider the Iraq War. It was executed primarily on U.S. claims that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and was in league with al Qaeda. To be sure, there was more to it than that--politics, oil, and perhaps revenge--but it was the al Qaeda and weapons claims that sealed the deal. Eight years, $800 billion, and nearly 4,500 American deaths later--along with at least 100,000 Iraqi fatalities--it was tempting to consider what migh.. | Steven D. Levitt | ||
| adcad62 | Running with the herd means we are quick to embrace the status quo, slow to change our minds, and happy to delegate our thinking. | Steven D. Levitt | ||
| 122b20a | When was the last time you sat for an hour of pure, unadulterated thinking? | Steven D. Levitt | ||
| 3596f3f | When it comes to solving problems, one of the best ways to start is by putting away your moral compass. Why? When you are consumed with the rightness or wrongness of a given issue--whether it's fracking or gun control or genetically engineered food--it's easy to lose track of what the issue actually is. A moral compass can convince you that all the answers are obvious (even when they're not); that there is a bright line between right and wr.. | Steven D. Levitt | ||
| 84297e3 | So there is little doubt that financial incentives work well, even if the outcome is undesirable. Consider a 2011 traffic accident in the Chinese city of Foshan. A two-year-old girl, walking through an outdoor market, was hit by a van. The driver stopped as the girl's body slid beneath the vehicle. But he didn't get out to help. After a pause, he drove away, running over the body again. The girl later died. The driver eventually turned hims.. | Steven D. Levitt | ||
| e5bec7e | The modern world demands that we all think a bit more productively, more creatively, more rationally; that we think from a different angle, with a different set of muscles, with a different set of expectations; that we think with neither fear nor favor, with neither blind optimism nor sour skepticism. That we think like--ahem--a Freak. | Steven D. Levitt | ||
| 6c20d85 | You may not like this idea; none of us wants to admit that we are pack animals. But in a complicated world, running with the herd can make sense. Who has time to think through every decision and all the facts behind it? If everybody around you thinks that conserving energy is a good idea--well, maybe it is. So if you are the person designing an incentive scheme, you can use this knowledge to herd people into doing the right thing--even if t.. | Steven D. Levitt | ||
| 70557f7 | That is a lethal combination--cocky plus wrong--especially when a more prudent option exists: simply admit that the future is far less knowable than you think. | Steven D. Levitt | ||
| 1d04a94 | Stories also appeal to the narcissist in all of us. As a story unspools, with its cast of characters moving through time and making decisions, we inevitably put ourselves in their shoes. Yes, I would have done that too! or No no no, I never would have made that decision! Perhaps the best reason to tell stories is simply that they capture our attention and are therefore good at teaching. Let's say there's a theory or concept or set of rules .. | Steven D. Levitt | ||
| 70399f3 | Correlation does not equal causality. When two things travel together, it is tempting to assume that one causes the other. Married people, for instance, are demonstrably happier than single people; does this mean that marriage causes happiness? Not necessarily. The data suggest that happy people are more likely to get married in the first place. As one researcher memorably put it, "If you're grumpy, who the hell wants to marry you?" | Steven D. Levitt | ||
| 9857269 | Pay attention to how people respond; if their response surprises or frustrates you, learn from it and try something different. | Steven D. Levitt | ||
| 5a0c1c5 | Human beings aren't the most candid animals on the planet. We'll often say one thing and do another--or, more precisely, we'll say what we think other people want to hear and then, in private, do what we want. | Steven D. Levitt | ||
| cc6aacb | People are complicated creatures, with a nuanced set of private and public incentives, and that our behavior is enormously influenced by circumstances. | Steven D. Levitt | ||
| 61e8d9d | It also means that the pain of negative feedback will for most people trump the pleasure from positive feedback. | Steven D. Levitt | ||
| 61b5f9f | We'd like to bury the idea that there's a right way and a wrong way, a smart way and a foolish way, a red way and a blue way. The modern world demands that we all think a bit more productively, more creatively, more rationally; that we think from a different angle, with a different set of muscles, with a different set of expectations; that we think with neither fear nor favor, with neither blind optimism nor sour skepticism. That we think l.. | Steven D. Levitt | ||
| dab191e | A story, meanwhile, fills out the picture. It uses data, statistical or otherwise, to portray a sense of magnitude; without data, we have no idea how a story fits into the larger scheme of things. A good story also includes the passage of time, to show the degree of constancy or change; without a time frame, we can't judge whether we're looking at something truly noteworthy or just an anomalous blip. And a story lays out a daisy chain of ev.. | Steven D. Levitt | ||
| 2e0d5e1 | A person who is lying or cheating will often respond to an incentive differently than an honest person. | Steven D. Levitt | ||
| 70429ee | The data suggest that happy people are more likely to get married. | Steven D. Levitt | ||
| 05b8a26 | Could any man resist the temptation of evil if he knew his acts could not be witnessed? | Steven D. Levitt | ||
| f30299a | The market was particularly strong in Chicago, which had more than a thousand known brothels. | Steven D. Levitt | ||
| 867c3c7 | Karen Abbott reports that the Everleigh also offered sexual delicacies that weren't available elsewhere--"French" style, for instance, commonly known today as oral sex." | Steven D. Levitt | ||
| 5465588 | We are blind to our blindness. | Steven D. Levitt | ||
| de10ccc | Name-calling will make you an enemy, not an ally, and if that is your objective, then persuasion is probably not what you were after in the first place. | Steven D. Levitt | ||
| bab60f2 | The same lesson can be learned from one of the most widely read books in history: the Bible. What is the Bible "about"? Different people will of course answer that question differently. But we could all agree the Bible contains perhaps the most influential set of rules in human history: the Ten Commandments. They became the foundation of not only the Judeo-Christian tradition but of many societies at large. So surely most of us can recite t.. | Steven D. Levitt | ||
| 4012625 | One more story from the Bible, about King David. He slept with a married woman, Bathsheba, and got her pregnant. In order to cover up his transgression, David arranged for Bathsheba's husband, a soldier, to die in battle. David then took Bathsheba as his own wife. God sent a prophet named Nathan to let David know this behavior was unacceptable. But how does a lowly prophet go about imparting such a message to the king of Israel? Nathan told.. | Steven D. Levitt | ||
| 653260c | Incentives are the cornerstone of modern life. And understanding them - or, often, deciphering them - is the key to understanding a problem, and how it might be solved. Knowing what to measure, and how to measure it, can make a complicated world less so. There is nothing like the sheer power of numbers to scrub away lawyers of confusion and contradiction, especially with emotional, hot-button topics. The conventional wisdom is often wrong. .. | Steven D. Levitt | ||
| cd368bd | i want to be a singer | stephen manes | ||
| 8fec191 | From all over the planet they came.... They came in companies and alone, with money and without, knowing and naive. They tore themselves from warm hearths and good homes, promising to return; they fled from cold hearts and bad debts, never to return. They were farmers and merchants and sailors and slaves and abolitionists and soldiers of fortune and ladies of the night. They jumped bail to start their journey, and jumped ship at journey's e.. | H.W. Brands | ||
| d2f822d | Go on and finish your studies," Gore said. "You are poor enough, but there are greater evils than poverty. Live on no man's favor. What bread you do eat, let it be the bread of independence. Pursue your profession. Make yourself useful to your friends and a little formidable to your enemies, and you have nothing to fear." | H.W. Brands | ||
| 4ce3414 | Reagan to son: how really great is the challenge of proving your masculinity and charm with one woman for the rest of your life. Any man can find a twerp here and there who will go along with cheating, and it doesn't take all that much manhood. It does take quite a man to remain attractive and to be loved by a woman who has heard him snore, seen him unshaven, tended him while he was sick and washed his dirty underwear. Do that and keep her .. | H.W. Brands | ||
| f8e27be | He was like a man thinking on an abstract subject all the time. | depression work distraction vocation | H.W. Brands | |
| 5e71384 | It may be that the voice of the people is the voice of God 51 times out of 100. But the remaining 49 times, it is the voice of the devil, or worse, the voice of a fool. Theodore Roosevelt | discernment popularity | H.W. Brands | |
| 73c5f20 | Both sides had more confidence in their opponents' weaknesses than their own strength. | slander gossip | H.W. Brands | |
| 1d78a18 | or creed." These rights included: The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation; The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation; The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living; The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competiti.. | H.W. Brands | ||
| 64787d9 | The audience perked up the more. American conservatives were a combative tribe who didn't speak of liberals as their "friends," but here Reagan did. His tone was serious, but it wasn't angry, the way Goldwater's often was. Reagan criticized Democratic leaders, but he didn't criticize Democrats. He condemned the direction the American government was going, but he professed confidence in the American people." | H.W. Brands | ||
| 9ca4804 | Grant made the perfect candidate, a war hero with indistinct views on most political issues. | imagery patriotism | H.W. Brands | |
| fe0103c | The reason is that the people know that the Democratic Party is the people's party, and the Republican Party is the party of special interest, and it always has been and always will be. | H.W. Brands |