2GOING HAYWIRE: What's the Relationship between Economics and Communication?
I've always been attracted to “the next big thing.” So, based on the University of Chicago's reputation for having produced the greatest number of Nobel laureates in economics, it was my first-choice school … and, besides that, Harvard wait-listed me. The university's open enrollment policy quickly lured me into the business school—first doing research for a professor and then taking classes.
Sarbanes-Oxley. Pink Sheets. Stock performance. Financial reporting. Somewhere there's a published paper by a brilliant Booth professor who was kind enough to give me a credit. In my sponge-like mode, I wanted to learn more about how all these Nobel laureates viewed the world and looked for classes to enroll.
There was one professor in the economics department whose classes I tried so hard, but failed triumphantly, to be in. His name was Steven Levitt, and he had just published his first book. You may have heard of it: Freakonomics.
There's a reason or two why Levitt's book sits on every smart executive's desk. First, the synergy Levitt had with New York Times journalist Stephen Dubner made for a great pairing of academic know-how with investigative journalism based on asking questions about everyday correlations. Dubner, arguably, helped translate the academic-speak of economics into language for the everyman, and in doing so attracted a cult-like following (including me) who wanted to absorb that ability to ...