Last day of my first month! 1 down, 11 to go! It's been such a great experience so far.
My friend Matt is reading Freakonomics for the first time and that inspired me to finally watch the documentary version. I'd been putting it off for a few years because I had already read the book and never heard great things about the movie. It was so-so.
So the whole premise is to investigate the often neglected consequences of socio-economic events.With a sense of humor economists and journalists look into the many factors that influence our daily lives. They come up with some pretty crazy theories in the process: America's crime rates were greatly reduced because abortion became legal, thus removing a whole generation of potential criminals from ever growing up. That's pretty crazy.
What I learned: A whole bunch. Technically it's the same information from the book, but I read it so long ago I felt like I re-learned a lot of it. While studying names and their effects on a person's life, 40 years of names where researched in California. What they found was that there were over 228 variations on the name "Unique" in African American homes. Also, the most common white male name is "Jake", while the most common black male name was "Deshawn".
The whole doc is full of nuggets of interesting trivia and riveting theories. I could fill a book with the theories (get it?) so instead I'll just say to watch the movie.
What I liked: Again, the information and theories are fascinating. The lesson's that you cannot take life at face value. You have to view the cause and effect of every event separately. I can say this book reshaped how I view society, and the film reaffirmed that.
What I didn't like: I really wish there had been new information. It was exactly like the book.
If you haven't read the book yet, this movie is almost a must-see. If you have read the book, feel free to skip it because you won't get much new info.
Here's the trailer. The film can be found on Netflix:
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