Here’s another story about a guy who wisely ignored the bad advice of a wise man: Hugo Lindgren (the guy who wrote Tyler’s profile in New York Magazine) told Steve Dubner not to co-author Freakonomics!
It should be noted, however, that after I wrote the profile of Levitt, and we were talking about writing a book together, I asked Hugo for advice. He counseled me, quite strongly, against doing the book. Having already written two books, with a third well underway, he thought I was well past my days of co-authoring a book, especially with an academic, and that it might be a bad career move.
As smart as Hugo is, I am glad I did not listen to him on that one occasion.
I’m glad too, how about you?
READER COMMENTS
aaron
Aug 3 2007 at 1:39pm
I’m glad, more so for that it lead to the launch of the blog. The book was ok, all it really did was reinforce what I already thought.
TGGP
Aug 3 2007 at 6:34pm
Perhaps it would have been better (though not from Dubner’s perspective) if Levitt had written the book by himself.
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