The Logic of Life by Tim Harford: Not logical as per me !!!! (The Logic of Life - Tim Harford)

Member Name: arjun22

Product:	The Logic of Life - Tim Harford
Date:	09/03/09 (40 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Simple language

Disadvantages: Delves more into social issues,Exaggeration of applying logic and rationality,Unrealistic

The Logic of Life by Tim Harford: Nothing logical as per me !!!!
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With all my excitement to read The Logic of Life -'book of the year 2008'(selected by The Economist & The Financial Times)
I purchased it very recently.Sorry I am against the popular voting for this book....

The book is based on the assertion that we all make choice rationally and there is logic underlying. This concept itself was hard for me to assimilate. Being a great proponent of rational-choice theory; Tim has tried applying this theory to host of issues and scenarios.

I personally felt the concept is force-fitted to social life and the book goes overboard to prove this. Just for instance Tim has highlighted that with the advent of anti smoking products smoking is less dangerous and this makes us to pick up the habit. I find it sturdy to agree to Tim's analysis of addiction
where he argues that addicts can respond logically or rationally to a rise of price of cigar and reduce consumption.
It really seemed unrealistic to me !!!!

I was not at all influenced with this book as it points out that we are logical and apply economic logic, consciously or unconsciously formulating a cost and benefit model. Come on !!!There have been so many cases ; we all do certain activities illogically without even thinking about the momentary repercussion forget about future consequences of current
choices.Right through the book Tim tries to solve wide range of problems like-crime,burglary,gambling,drug addiction,overpayment etc underpinning rational logic.

The problem with this book is that it covers too many diverse subjects without any definite direction. If you are looking for some specific statistics or logical tools/models you will be utterly let down.Albeit Tim has a knack for explaining economic principles in plain language but this piece of his work did not appeal me.

I am afraid the logic of life did not convince me and I did not find any economic or scientific models or establishment of true logic.

I find it disappointing and leave it to you to make a decision to try it out in case you believe in his premise as described in my review.

Best of luck !!

Summary: Disappointed with the force-fitting of logic and economic rationality