Freakonomics

I just finished listening to an awesome book called Freakonomics by Stephen Levitt. It is now one of my favourites. Highly recommended. The bad thing is it means I spent 7 hours in my car this week – way too much driving. I only got the CD’s on Monday and I am already finished them.

Stephen is a unique economist that has an interesting way of looking at the world. A lot of it speaks about motivating people and why motivation systems often fail. I can learn some for our compensation systems (although compensation is more of an art than a science). He has a morbid interest in cheating and crime so lots on that. There is even a section on parenting.

He sifts through data and correlates it to try to figure out the cause and effect of what is happening in the world. I used to sit on the board of Angoss Software for about 10 years. They sell advanced data mining tools that do these sorts of correlations. I have always had an interest in it. It is even more interesting at SYNNEX since I deal with such a mass of data. The book is interesting and stimulates thought.

My time tip for tonight is to use the time in your car to learn. I can go through a ton of audio material even in short trips. It passes the time faster and I learn. I often rent audios from audiobook connection in Burlington. I have only ever been there once but have rented probably 50 audio books over the past few years – all by email and phone. I am fortunate enough to have an assistant that arranges most of it (another time tip)