Mga app ng Google
Pangunahing menu

Post a Comment On: Steve Sailer: iSteve

"Not enough exclamation points!"

8 Comments -

1 – 8 of 8
Blogger Eric Falkenstein said...

Levitt highlights good marketing, relying a lot on his status as an 'academic superstar', to give his trivia seeming depth. Bureaucrats cheat on tests? Sumo wrestlers engage in quid quo pros? Wow. That's great science. He presents himself as an elite, cutting edge economist, which makes reading things you might find in Mental Floss seem more profound. Yet, as you noted, his important assertions are generally not true.

Then again, Levitt himself noted he would rather have a correct answer to a small question than an incorrect answer to a big question. You can be sure that when he writes, what's true is unimportant, what's untrue is important.

10/3/09, 5:26 PM

Anonymous Lover of Wisdom said...

Steve:

Do you think there will be HBD related material in this book? I recall their first book discussing the genetic basis for intelligence.

10/3/09, 5:41 PM

Blogger Greg said...

As "economics" Freakonomics was the abortion.

10/4/09, 12:05 AM

Anonymous Gene Berman said...

Eric F:

I think you inadvertantly miswrote what you'd intended:

"what's true is unimportant, what's important is untrue."

The statement is the same but the cogency or appropriateness lies in the word order.

10/4/09, 3:59 AM

Anonymous Mr. Anon said...

"Eric Falkenstein said...

You can be sure that when he writes, what's true is unimportant, what's untrue is important."

I am reminded of Samuel Johnson's reply to a publisher regarding a book he was given to review: "This manuscript contains much that is interesting and original. Unfortunately, the parts that are interesting are not original, and the parts that are original are not interesting."

$1 million for the movie rights for "Blink"? How does one make a movie from "Blink"? Will they get Tom Cruise to play the part of an unexamined premise.

10/4/09, 1:22 PM

Anonymous Josh said...

"Do you think there will be HBD related material in this book? I recall their first book discussing the genetic basis for intelligence."

I thought the abortion > lower crime theory was very HBD. Also, wasn't there a chapter showing books in homes make little difference. The main thing is whether the parents are smart, which is essentially an HBD explanation.

10/4/09, 2:10 PM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Steve, that abortion crime link was a clever and it sold books. He's got an accomplished NY Times writer as a sidekick which also helps.

Doesn't mean people take him seriously. There's no Freakonomics party, except maybe for libertarians.

10/4/09, 7:10 PM

Anonymous Harry Baldwin said...

Title suggestion for follow-up to "Superfreakonomics":

"I'm Steve Levitt, Bitch!"

10/5/09, 9:36 PM

Comments are moderated, at whim.
You can use some HTML tags, such as <b>, <i>, <a>

Comment moderation has been enabled. All comments must be approved by the blog author.

You will be asked to sign in after submitting your comment.
OpenID LiveJournal WordPress TypePad AOL