The Logic of Life
by Tim Harford · first published 2008
63% recommend25% neutral13% critical
Why HN recommends it
Popular economics that uses everyday situations to explain serious principles, including how incentives and happiness are studied. It offers an accessible way for non-economists to think like economists.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Life sometimes seems illogical. Individuals do strange things: take drugs, have unprotected sex, mug each other. Love seems irrational, and so does divorce. On a larger scale, life seems no fairer or easier to fathom: Why do some neighborhoods thrive and others become ghettos? Why is racism so persistent? Why is your idiot boss paid a fortune for sitting behind a mahogany altar? Thorny questions--and you might be surprised to hear the answers coming from an economist. But Tim Harford, award-winning journalist and author of the bestseller The Undercover Economist, likes to spring surprises. In
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…about economics every day. I would recommend some pop-econ to become familiar with a stylized version of how economists think. I'd recommend Tim Harford's The Undercover Economist Strikes Back and The Logic of Life and Robert Frank's The Economic Naturalist. (Dubner's and Levitt's books are entertaining, but I wouldn't try to learn much about economics from them) The world of professional economists has been fascinating…
on “Ask HN: What are the must-read books about economics/finance?” ↗…this issue in fairly vast—see, for example, Daniel Gilbert's <i>Stumbling on Happiness</i>, Dan Ariely's <i>Predictably Irrational</i>, and Tim Harford's <i>The Logic of Life</i>. Together, those might help explain some of the social issues with mass customization.
on “Why Mass Customization Isn’t Mainstream” ↗…weekend." There isn't a stable equilibrium if the number of males and females and fluctuating; for more on this and how small numbers of people influence mating/dating markets, see Tim Harford's _The Logic of Life_. Note too that variations among individuals are greater than variations between groups, so those of you who are about to tell stories about your guy friend who is asexual and your female friend who…
on “Worries Over a 2-to-1 Ratio: Where the Boys Aren't ” ↗Tim Harford's http://www.amazon.co.uk/Undercover-Economist-Tim-Harford/dp/..."Undercover Economist and http://www.amazon.co.uk/Logic-Life-Uncovering-Economics-Ever... Logic of Life are both excellent at drawing out serious economic principles from everyday experiences. Philip Coggan's http://www.amazon.co.uk/Money-Machine-Penguin-Business-Libra... Money Machine is not directly…
on “Good book for economics” ↗…Seattle and wrote about it here: http://jseliger.wordpress.com/2008/03/04/dan-ariely-in-seatt... Check out in particular the link the ball video. His book also pairs well with Tim Harford's <i>The Logic of Life</i>: http://jseliger.wordpress.com/2008/02/06/the-logic-of-life-a...
on “Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions” ↗The issue of pluralistic ignorance doesn't address the relatively large changes that relatively small changes in gender imbalance can have on norms. For more on this, see Tim Harford's The Logic of Life and in particular his chapter on "The Marriage Supermarket." In any event, I wrote an essay about modern sexual culture in response to "The New Dating Game" in the Weekly Standard: http://jseliger.com/2010/05/05/the-weekly-standard-on-the-ne...…
on “Why 'hooking up' has become so prevalent on campus” ↗…neutral: http://www.introecon.com/ A good author is Tim Harford, who has some "popularized" economics books that are, once again, reasonably neutral. In particular "The Undercover Economist" and "The Logic of Life".
on “For the first time ever, the number of poor people is declining everywhere” ↗1) Biology and Knowledge by Jean Piaget 2) Ontogeny and Phylogeny by S.J. Gould 3) The Logic of Life by Francois Jacob These books have very little fluff and will challenge you to think in new ways about evolution, biology, and the development of human knowledge.
on “Ask HN: Books with a high signal to noise ratio?” ↗I was just going to say something like this. In The Logic of Life, Tim Harford writes about how CEO pay reformers thought that making CEO pay public would cause companies to reduce pay because high pay was so outrageous. The opposite happened. Why? Because who wants…
on “The Programmer Salary Taboo” ↗…another race, I would not like it much. I suppose you don't see many black scientists pushing the "genetic IQ" hypothesis. What is your race, just wondering? Worse, as is explained very well in "The Logic Of Life" by Tim Harford, there is such a thing as rational racism. It goes like this: if employers expect on average black applicants to a job would be less qualified than whites, it would make economical sense…
on “Jewish legacy inscribed on genes?” ↗…those criteria (since I submitted it): few if any sources covering mating markets and their incentives in as much depth; the stories match some of the data, as developed in books like Tim Harford's The Logic of Life; I hadn't realized the extent to which sexual politics change as one ages. Consequently, "Marry Him!" seems like it would be interesting to the HN crowd. So does the article on Haskell first impression,…
on “Marry Him: The case for settling for Mr. Good Enough” ↗…everyone can find a partner. But what happens if you take away one man? You might not think this would make much difference. You would be wrong, argues Tim Harford, a British economist, in a book called "The Logic of Life". With 20 women pursuing 19 men, one woman faces the prospect of spinsterhood. So she ups her game. Perhaps she dresses more seductively. Perhaps she makes an extra effort to be obliging. Somehow or other,…
on “Sex and the single black woman” ↗…opportunity cost is, then you'll never forget after he's drilled it into your head a thousand times. 3) If you're serious about learning econs, I'd steer clear of popular books like Freakonomics and the Logic of Life. They're fun and enjoyable to read, but not particularly rigorous and occasionally quite dodgy.
on “Ask HN: Favorite Books or Articles about Economics?” ↗