In the past, if I was having trouble falling asleep at night, thinking about economics might have been the answer (counting sheep is economics), but that all changed after I read a book a few years ago called Freakonomics. The authors "redefined the problem" of boring statistical data analysis and came up with a fascinating set of non-fiction stories uncovered by analyzing data. Now the book has been made into a motion picture.
Yesterday I had the chance to meet and hear from Stephen Dubner,
To make his point, he gave the example of Takeru Kobayashi, the skinny (130 pound) Japanese guy who wins all of the hot dog eating contests. As it turns out, Kobayashi is an economist and studied the problem from many different angles to develop his technique, and in his first competition in New York he didn't just beat the
Another example that he spoke about at length was about washing hands after using the restroom. He started by asking the room full of approximately 150 people who doesn't wash their
Anyway, I highly recommend the books, and I hope that you can each find a way to redefine a problem that makes your business or your life better.
* As a footnote, the one guy who raised his hand and said that he didn't wash his hands in public restrooms later admitted to being a doctor and explained that he believes he has less chance of picking up bacteria by not touching things in the restroom... Food for thought.
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