The Logic of Life: The Rational Economics of an Irrational World | Tim Harford

The Logic of Life: The Rational Economics of an Irrational World | Tim Harford | Sex, drugs, and on the dole

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The Logic of Life:...

	The Logic of Life: The Rational Economics of an Irrational World Tim Harford Random House, 2008 - 272 pages average customer review:based on 33 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Neanderthals and gender roles

The most interesting part of the book is the theory on the reason why Neanderthals died out, losing competition to Homo sapiens. Neanderthals did not have division of labor, while Homo sapiens did. And the division of labor here specifically means division of labor between MEN and WOMEN. Division of labor, come to think of it, is such a basic social arrangement which improves work efficiency dramatically and has been employed since the earliest time in history.

But in the 21st century, in the name of gender equality, Western societies are trying feverishly to do away with any division of labor between men and women. They argue that division of labor between men and women, a.k.a. traditional gender roles, is what kept women at home and hindered their fuller actualization / realization as a human being. But just ask why would anyone want to force clumsy, smelly, hairy men to take care of newborn babies? Their skin is coarse, unsanitary, and their voices low - not what babies usually like. And why would anyone want to put women in military special forces, when they can't lift heavy weapons by themselves? Their maybe some valid biological reasons, why across all societies and all ages, women are the ones who take care of babies, and men are the ones who went to fighting. Maybe, just like Neanderthals were, 21st century Western countries are on its way to extinction.

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Sex, drugs, and on the dole

Tim Harford's entertaining book is another volume in a line of somewhat similar behavioral economist books that try to make sense of the whacky world we live in, most notable of those being "Freakonomics" and the similarly-timed Predictably Irrational. The Logic of Life is more like Freakonomics in that Harford explains how there's a rational reason we do some pretty irrational-seeming things (like why we gamble, value things more when we own them, and why CEOs get such a ridiculous amount of money); as he puts it, life isn't illogical--the reasons are just sometimes obscure.

Along the way, Harford makes some bold statements about society and enlightens the reader through anecdotes, histories, and numerous economic studies. The most audacious claims involve the sexes and racism. Harford makes an interesting point about the division of labor between men and women and why that helped us humans become the most efficient species. The author also points out that racism, while abhorrent, can also be rational. If the racist bases his prejudice on statistics from the workplace (purple workers from a study were less likely to have an education, so employers quickly learned to hire them less). The confusing thing about Harford's book is that if so many seemingly-irrational things can be explained rationally, why can't all things be explained that way? Harford makes a distinction between "taste-based racism" (bigotry) and "statistics-based racism" (rational racism), but if we're rational based on workplace statistics, why is rationality excluded from the taste-based racism? There has to be a reason why someone doesn't prefer coworkers of a different skin color; in other words, that's not irrational either.

"Logic" is fascinating and enlightening and goes much further in drawing a generally sensible conclusion about life than the more entertaining "Predictably Irrational" and deserves a thorough read or two.

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Neanderthals and gender

The most interesting part of the book is the theory on the reason why Neanderthals died out, losing competition to Homo sapiens. Neanderthals did not have division of labor, while Homo sapiens did. And the division of labor here specifically means division of labor between MEN and WOMEN. Division of labor, come to think of it, is such a basic social arrangement which improves work efficiency dramatically and has been employed since the earliest time in history. But in the 21st century, in the name of gender equality, Western societies are trying feverishly to do away with any division of labor between men and women. They argue that division of labor between men and women, a.k.a. traditional gender roles, is what kept women at home and hindered their fuller actualization / realization as a human being. But just ask why would anyone want to force clumsy, smelly, hairy men to take care of newborn babies? Their skin is coarse, unsanitary, and their voices low - not what babies usually like. And why would anyone want to put women in military special forces, when they can't lift heavy weapons by themselves? Their maybe some valid biological reasons, why across all societies and all ages, women are the ones who take care of babies, and men are the ones who went to fighting. Maybe, just like Neanderthals were, 21st century Western countries are on its way to extinction.

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Sometimes on sometimes off

Bringing together research from top economists to make broad arguments about human behavior, The Logic of Life is another installment in the Malcolm Gladwell style of translating high-minded research into everyday language with a dose of humor.

Tim Harford applies economic theory to a logic beyond monetary. Some of the research is interesting and novel (for non-economists, anyway, who are the primary audience for this book). Harford looks at research examining the attraction of cities, for example, to understand the behavior of people moving to increasingly expensive urban areas that don't reflect particularly wise financial decisions.

However, as with any attempt to understand aggregate behavior, there are flaws of generalization, especially when it comes to women. Stuck with 1950s assumptions that women all desire marriage, and then with 1970s ideas that the main pro of birth control is "making parties more fun," Harford piles on the research to unearth a "surprising" phenomenon that is obvious to women who have benefited from the existence of birth control - that being able to control when to have children has granted women much more freedom in the planning of their professional and marital lives.

In addition, his argument that women are attracted to cities because there is a better "marriage market" of wealthier men has no basis in anything beyond demographics, and he doesn't seem to be able to incorporate arguments made in other parts of his book, about why cities are attractive to people in general and about the ability of women to exert more control over their lives reveals a base ignorance and a lack of understanding of the very research he presents. This instills some doubt about his analysis of other research as well.

In spite of its flaws, the general premise of the book invites you to think differently about what is the rationale underlying modern behavior, and is worth reading for that.

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Interesting read on underlying reasons people do what they do

Tim Harford writes an interesting book about what drives people to do what they do, and shows why sometimes things that are socially irrational are actually rational from the perspective of individual behavior.

He touches on a broad number of subjects that many people would view as societal negatives, like gambling, teenage sex, divorce, racism and overpaid executives, and then notes the underlying reason the behavior is rational. He notes that by recognizing the causes, society might be in a better position to do something about it - change the incentives, if you will.

Some of what he says makes good sense...like it is logical that special interests are so politically effective because, even though what they want only benefits a few (themselves), they are much more motivated to get what they want than the millions of people who won't benefit are motivated to try to stop them!

The book is a good read, but the reason I rated it 3-stars is because (1) it touches on a broad range of issues but doesn't delve too deeply into any of them, and (2) it doesn't propose any real solutions to the issues.

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, page 4, 5, 6, 7

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