A few nights ago I watched Freakonomics, a documentary based on the book by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. Not only is the cover graphic awesome, but the subject matter is interesting as well. I haven't read the book yet, but have picked it up at the store with interest in the past and plan to read it in it's entirety in the future. The book includes more examples than the documentary, but I believe the documentary went more in-depth on some subjects.
The documentary opens with Stephen and Steven talking about realtors and their motives for selling your home; and it's immediately established that these two have a sense of humor (as if you didn't get that already from the title and the apple/orange on the cover of the book). They start with a blooper and then head on to a really great animation of themselves, demonstrating why, when it comes to your relationship with your real estate agent, your "interests aren't aligned".
The entire idea is totally interesting. Steven D. Levitt, an economist, (boring right? NOT.) has spent his career researching the reasons behind everyday occurrences: crime, parenting, swimming, all sorts of stuff. He challenges conventional ways of thinking and shows that by asking the right questions and drawing connections between seemingly unrelated data, you'll find answers some people didn't think were there.
Stephen J. Dubner is a journalist. He profiled Levitt for The New York Times and that was how the idea for the book came together. Together, they make a great team - they look at the topics from interesting angles and come up with some very unconventional conclusions.
Plus it's just cool that both of their names are Stephen, even thought they spell it differently.
The animations in the documentary were done extremely well and the filming and music was great too. It had a real innovative feel to it, which I think went really well with their unconventional, out-of-the-box thinking.
The entire documentary was interesting, but as with all films, I believe the book will be better. (Not to mention that the book covers more topics.) I'm looking forward to reading it.
P.S. - They wrote a second one! It's called Super Freakonomics. I'll definitely be checking this one out after I finish the first one :)
