Think Like A Freak

Lesson 1. Unorthodox Thinking.

The human mind is the most complex and perplexing thing. The main purpose of this book is to provide great insight into how one can question the orthodox mind and find unconventional ways to find solutions. The fact is, solving problems is hard. If a problem exists even now, you can easily bet that multiple people have already failed to find solutions in the past. Levitt and Dubner question the conventional way of approaching the answer to any problem. They question the whole notion of being right or wrong. Instead of following the trend of circling around the problem, directly approaching the centre is the boldest and most appropriate move.

Thinking like a freak helps to provide an edge by subletting our biases. It also aids us by letting go of our temptation to run with the herd. It galvanizes us for engaging in unadulterated thinking, which is the requirement of the current high-speed era. But, along with such positives, there are certain negatives too. You may say things that make other people squirm. You must also be accustomed to people calling you names, along with a lot of chastising. 

The authors summarize an incidence with the UK Prime Minister James Cameron. James was known for his hardcore political tactics. He focused on matters such as the UK's ill-shaped economy and global warming, which were quite persistent at that time. He was of the opinion that these issues were to be looked into straight away, because it was something that we owed to nature and society. He seemed confident, but little did he know that the healthcare cost of England doubled in the previous year alone. The ground reality of people in the UK was wrecked. National Health System’s (NHS) solution to this problem was to provide free services to the people under healthcare. Whether 100 dollars or 100,000 dollars, they could avail services at zero cost. Here, the problem was that the people would over-consume the services, if they were available at little or no cost. This would reduce the effectiveness of the services. The over-concerned crowd would outweigh the truly sick crowd. The needy ones might be the only ones who pay for the services. When suggested to the Prime Minister, he gave a snide remark and thought how crazy it was to find flaws in such an excellent solution. But that is the whole purpose of reasoning like a freak, thinking in a way that may sound weird, but might as well be logical. 

Lesson 2. Prediction – A painful truth.

When people are quizzed on