Think like a freak

Do you think like a freak?

Are you able to see solutions to a problem that others have been struggling with? Do you properly analyse why you and others around you react to situations and incentives in particular, predictable ways even if those actions are not in your best interest?

People who have followed my blog for a while will hopefully know by now that I enjoy these kind of ideas. Some of my favourite books have revolved around the idea of adopting a different mindset, often including assessing problems in a scientific way to find a solution. In Think Like a Freak, this concept has been captured perfectly and as a result it has been one of my favourite reads over recent months.

Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner have built a career of this kind of thinking. Helping individuals, companies and even governments to see their problems in a different light, running experiments and helping to carve out new paths and opportunities. Think Like a Freak gives examples of their work and of others around the world to show how powerful it can be to adopt this kind of inquisitive mindset.

In the book is the single best explanation I have seen of why incentives schemes are so powerful and how redefining the problem at hand can completely change the way you attack it. See the attached photos for a snippet of those sections. There is also a great part about how successful people can persuade others to do things that they weren’t previously planning on doing but will be in everyone’s best interest.

Think Like a Freak is a great book. One that I will definitely be revisiting in the future and so many people from business owners to teachers to organisation managers could really benefit from this kind of thinking. If you would like to learn how to think like a freak for yourself go here: https://amzn.to/2KDsmwD