actually does work. Economics is above all a science of measurement. It com- prises an extraordinarily powerful and flexible set of tools that can re- liably assess a thicket of information to determine the effect of any one factor, or even the whole effect. Thats what "the economy" is, after all: a thicket of information about jobs and real estate and bank- ing and investment. But the tools of economics can be just as easily applied to subjects that are more-well, more interesting. This book, then, has been written from a very specific worldview, based on a few fundamental ideas: Incentives are the cornerstone of modern life. And understanding them-or, often, ferreting them out-is the key to solving just about any riddle, from violent crime to sports cheating to online dating. The conventional wisdom is often wrong. Crime didnt keep soaring in the 1990s, money alone doesnt win elections, and-surprise- drinking eight glasses of water a day has never actually been shown to do a thing for your health. Conventional wisdom is often shoddily formed and devilishly difficult to see through, but it can be done. Dramatic effects often have distant, even subtle, causes. The answer to a given riddle is not always right in front of you. Norma McCorvey had a far greater impact on crime than did the combined forces of gun control, a strong economy, and innovative police strategies. So did, as we shall see, a man named Oscar Danilo Blandon, aka the Johnny Appleseed of Crack. "Experts"-from criminologists to real-estate agents-use their infor- FREAK ONOMIC S   mational advantage to serve their own agenda. However, they can be beat at their own game. And in the face of the Internet, their informa- tional advantage is shrinking every day-as evidenced by, among other things, the falling price of coffins and life-insurance premiums. Knowing what to measure and how to measure it makes a complicated world much less so. If you learn how to look at data in the right way,