Hacker Cinema
Freakonomics
2010 · Film · documentary · 93 min
Directed by Rachel Grady, Morgan Spurlock, Alex Gibney, Heidi Ewing, Seth Gordon, Eugene Jarecki
Some of the world's most innovative documentary filmmakers will explore the hidden side of everything.
8 positive4 neutralfrom 12 commenters
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13 comments on Hacker News
I remember watching that Freakonomics documentary on Netflix a decade ago. One of the authors mentions "not getting a HS degree is an economic death sentence". I guess times have changed.
I read the book. I think it's fairly obvious that the research he presents is pretty speculative. That said, it's a very popsci book, which is not really where you should be getting your facts from. It's fine, and was an interesting read on the current state on some theories coming out of Berkeley.
Ironically, this is why i really liked Freakonomics. All the studies they uses were just Levitt's studies, and you could just look them up and read them. I recently listened to a podcast criticizing the book and I couldn't even take it seriously, because you had a couple of laypersons who are politically aligned against the Chicago school and use that for the basis of their criticisms. I though it such a hilariously terrible "trashing" of the book that I couldn't stop shaking my head.
If Books Could Kill: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5wHpooGMRsSBrUHhQZbOZp?si=4951cc63356149c3
I would prefer if Walker provided the citations for what this author is asking for, but the entire point of a popsci book is that it's not a scholarly article. Walker isn't a doctor, he's a PhD in neurophysiology. I think the criticisms are warranted, but I think it's glaringly obvious from reading that the book isn't a work of serious scholarship.
> we are paying for multiple streaming services anyway.
I just cancelled my membership, for all of the reasons you cite. I had been letting my membership ride only because of their streaming video, but recently, they've started yet another dark pattern.
I rarely finish a movie in one sitting. Three times in the past month or so, I've started watching something for free, and then come back to find that it was no longer free when I wanted to finish it. Like, the next day.
Most recently, this was Freakonomics. It was free when I started it, then I hit the wrong button on my Apple TV remote (THAT'S real hard, amirite?), and when I went to restart it, it had become for-cost. I mean, seriously?
I can live without their exclusives, and the standard defense around here that they're not, actually, a monopoly for online shopping is certainly true, so I'm done.
As already mentioned by another commenter, freakonomics had a good series on CEOs, including an episode on the glass cliff: http://freakonomics.com/podcast/glass-cliff/
The hypothesis being: female/minority CEOs are more likely to be hired as CEOs at failing firms (perhaps) because male candidates are less likely to apply/accept. Which, if true, would contradict your hypothesis.
I listened to an episode of Freakonomics I believed where the (now former) CEO of PepsiCo said that it was harder for her to promote a woman because people would think that she was promoting them based solely on gender.
Can you imagine the uproar if Obama had appointed "too many Black people" to positions of power? He would have been called the "first affirmative action President". He was already being accused of being "a secret Muslim trying to bring Sharia law to the United States".
The example does not disprove the point. Somewhere around 50M surgeries / year. Some of those are going to be bad.
If you want to talk about defensive medicine and financial and legal malincentives that pressure doctors into anti-patient choices, I'm all ears. Freakonomics had a great mini-series on that.
But pointing to horrific botched or fraudulent surgeries and acting outraged? Meh. I accepted some humans were immoral a long time ago. If it's most surgeons or many surgeons, or they aren't getting sued and/or charged with malpractice, then it's an issue. Otherwise, I leave it to the local nightly news.
I highly recommend the two part Freakonomics episode "Why Hate the Koch Brothers?" which includes lengthy interviews with Charles Koch. He seemed to me a well meaning but somewhat naive libertarian.
Knowledge @ Wharton - sometimes interesting, I end up skipping about half of the episodes.
Exponent -Ben Thompson of Stratechery -- very insightful commentary on business and technology/
NPR Planet Money -- Economics is a second love of mine.
Startup -- by Gimlet Media -- Stories about the startup culture
Science vs -- Researches fad and compares them to the actual science.
Acquired -- discusses technology acquisitions
Internet History Podcast -- just what it says it is.
Freakonomics -- Because it's Freakonomics, should be required listening for anyone who wants to talk about economics.
Political Gabfest -- definitely liberal leaning political commentary.
Career Tools/Manager Tools -- I suggest these two podcasts to anyone who is working. Binge on them from the beginning and skip the ones that aren't relevant to you.
The Talk Show w/John Gruber -- required listening for Apple nerds.
Accidental Tech Podcast -- same as above/
Slate Money -- Did I mention I'm an economics nerd?
There's a Freakonomics documentary on Netflix as well.
The freakonomics movie has a great study on crime.
http://freakonomics.com/2005/05/15/abortion-and-crime-who-should-you-believe/
It may sound counter-intuitive, but I think access to the raw data in markets can. A good example can be found in a movie called "freakonomics". Purely based on analysis of data, data scientists can PROVE (statistically this would mean almost 100% chance that the numbers don't add up) that something is being rigged.
So you don't really need a confession or even to investigate anyone in particular. All you need is the data.
It is probably more accurate that allowing unwanted children to be aborted resulted in the drop of crime 20 years later than the removal of lead. This was mentioned in Freakonomics the movie as yukichan linked.
One thing you don't realize about the movie industry is that parts of it actually move a lot slower than you think.
Some of these scripts (actually, most of them) float around Hollywood for years, even a decade or longer. They get pushed from studio to studio, shopped around, then suddenly a director or star takes interest in it and a project begins to form.
One can definitely infer once the wheels start moving on a picture (OMG Brad Pitt signed on to do Freakonomics:The Movie!) and word spreads that copycats definitely pop up to try and take some of the action.
You can also add [A Bug's Life (Nov 1998) -> Antz (Oct 1998)] to your list. There's some background here: http://www.businessweek.com/1998/47/b3605013.htm