there is a lot of great advice and educated thinking in this book. The author's background in economics is the most important influence on the writing and he applies that sort of thinking to many subject areas.

my paraphrasing of some of what i found interesting: many people hold erroneous believes about things they do not directly experience because it costs nothing to hold such beliefs. ethical dilemmas such as should one healthy person's organs be harvested to save five sick people from dieing? He creates an Economists Golden Rule to guide all decisions which is to include the benefit and loss felt by everyone involved.

He makes some interesting and controversial claims such as people with few sexual partners could better the world by having more sex which would take away partners from promiscuous partners who may be spreading disease. Also it serves poor people better to spend $2 billion on food than $1 billion on food and $1 billion on expensive medical procedures.