Even respected traditions are vulnerable to corruption when incentives and expectations clash.
<ul>
<li>Trust isn't a safeguard if rewards are greater for cheating</li>
<li>Cultures of honor can mask backroom deals</li>
<li>When patterns repeat statistically, the truth usually surfaces</li>
</ul>
Honor is powerful—but not bulletproof when winning means survival.

The hidden price of honesty

People respond to incentives, and when the incentives are misaligned, behavior warps.
<ul>
<li>Economic, social, and moral incentives often compete</li>
<li>Systems without accountability invite gaming</li>
<li>When outcomes are tied to metrics, people may manipulate the metric</li>
<li>Designing better incentives prevents unexpected outcomes</li>
</ul>
Fix the incentive, and you fix the behavior. Misalign it, and chaos follows.

Incentives run the world

Drug dealing looks glamorous from the outside—but the economic structure mirrors fast food chains:
<ul>
<li>The top earners make huge sums</li>
<li>Most street dealers earn less than minimum wage</li>
<li>The salary is risk-heavy, unstable, and often subsidized by family</li>
<li>Hope of promotion keeps people in the game</li>
</ul>
This isn’t about fast money—it’s about chasing slim odds of big power.

Drug dealers live with their moms

Names don't predict success—they reflect deeper social patterns:<ul><li>Lower-income parents often choose aspirational names</li><li>Popular names shift across racial and class lines</li><li>Social mobility influences naming trends more than names influence mobility</li></ul>What matters is not the label—it’s the opportunities that follow.

A name is not a destiny

Parental traits influence child outcomes more than parenting choices:<ul><li>Education level of parents predicts test scores better than bedtime stories</li><li>Passive traits (who parents are) outweigh active interventions (what they do)</li><li>Correlation is often mistaken for causation in parenting outcomes</li></ul>Being smart, stable, and safe matters more than obsessing over parenting hacks.

Parenting doesn’t work the way you think

You ever get that sneaky feeling something everyone believes might be totally wrong? This book is basically that—but with data. It digs into cheating teachers, sumo wrestlers, baby names, and drug dealers living with their moms. It's not just smart—it’s wildly fun and flips your brain inside out.

En esta obra, Levitt y Dubner demuestran, a través de ejemplos y una sarcástica perspicacia, que la economía representa el estudio de los incentivos. ¿Qué resulta más peligroso: una pistola o una piscina? ¿Qué tienen en común un maestro de escuela y un luchador de sumo? ¿Por qué continúan los traficantes de drogas viviendo con sus madres? ¿En qué se parecen el Ku Kux Klan a los agentes inmobiliarios? Quizás éstas no sean las típicas preguntas que se formula un experto en economía, pero Steven D. Levitt y Stephen J. Dubner no son unos economistas muy típicos. Se trata de especialistas que estudian la esencia y los enigmas de la vida cotidiana y cuyas conclusiones, con frecuencia, ponen patas arriba la sabiduría convencional. A través de ejemplos prácticos y de una sarcástica perspicacia, Levitt y Dubner demuestran que la economía, en el fondo, representa el estudio de los incentivos: el modo en que las personas obtienen lo que desean, o necesitan, especialmente cuando otras personas desean o necesitan lo mismo.