Levitt

The bestselling book Freakonomics, which in my opinion is the greatest non-fiction book of all time for it's sheer thought provoking analysis which seems to happen at an entirely sublime level. I'm too insignificant to praise Levitt or to certify that he has has done an outstanding job!

Probably Prof. Godbole, the man who has been a great influence during my post-grad, would've loved a student like this guy!

In Freakonomics, Levitt has proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that most of what makes us, who we are, is not so much of the environmental factors and upbringing as much as it is the genetic material passed on from our parents. In his own words, parents have done the best they could've done for us even before we were born. And most of what the general public is obsessed with during parenting is in effect way too insignificant compared to the powerful genetic code that we've inherited.

It's a 70-30 split at the minimum.

I wont be elaborating much on other things that Levitt talks about. If you wanna know more read Freakonomics!

So lets safely assume that around 70%+ of what a person is capable of achieving is decided even before he/she is born. This really puts the collossal importance we give the other sub 30% into perspective too.

But one basic question... Was so much number crunching and data analysis really required?
If an uneducated murderer, extortionist, member of the Cosa Nostra could get this when Levitt was just a toddler then did it really need to be proven?

I'm talking about The Godfather... Don Vito Corleone... the nuggets of wisdom that this fictional character gives is mind-blowing! Just two lines encompass what Levitt has proved.

a) Each man has his own destiny
b) Never go against the family

If atleast 70% of what you can do is pre-decided then fat chance you can really deviate from the path to achieving your destiny! Those who think they made their own destiny can regale in the illusion... No issues with me!

Secondly, if someone's giving you 70% of what you have... atleast I wouldn't go against such people... On the other hand, when you actually go against them, the blame would fall squarely on the same folks who in a way contributed to this decision... Well... I'm going round in circles!!

Just kidding... I consider Levitt as one of the brightest people alive and this is my way of showing admiration to him - showing signs of connection between two of greatest pieces of literature in the fiction and non-fiction genre!

Cheers!