The Logic of Life

The Logic of Life

The Rational Economics of an Irrational World

3.9 (264 ratings from Audible, Overdrive)
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Read by: John Lee

Language: English

Length: 8 hours and 57 minutes

Publisher: Random House Audio

Release date: 2008-01-15

Life sometimes seems illogical. Individuals do strange things: take drugs, have unprotected sex, mug each other. Love seems irrational, and so does divorce. On a larger scale, life seems no fairer or easier to fathom: Why do some neighborhoods thrive and others become ghettos? Why is racism so persistent? Why is your idiot boss paid a fortune for sitting behind a mahogany altar?

Thorny questions - and you might be surprised to learn the answers from an economist. But Tim Harford, award-winning journalist and author, likes to spring surprises. In this deftly reasoned audiobook, Harford argues that life is logical after all. Under the surface of everyday insanity, hidden incentives are at work, and Harford shows these incentives emerging in the most unlikely places.

The Logic of Life is the first book to map out the astonishing insights and frustrating blind spots of a new economics in a way that anyone can enjoy. The Logic of Life presents an X-ray image of human life, stripping away the surface to show us a picture that is revealing, enthralling, and sometimes disturbing. The stories that emerge are not about data or equations but about people. Once you’ve listened to this addictive audiobook, life will never look the same again.