Understanding The Construction of the Society

Understanding The Construction of the Society

The contemporary society has created an environment in which most of the information that is obtained is used in analyzing a concept. To be particular, most of the data that has been collected in the contemporary times has been used to statistically analyze events and also predict the occurrence of future events. Taking an example of the changing economy from an agriculturally based one to a business-oriented with the incorporation of advanced technology, that has contributed to the improvements of the business world. Contemporary society deals with more of the statistical data in the analysis and interpretation of data. For instance, before entering into a new market, most firms conduct an investigation that mainly involves the number of people who but the goods, the preference of the targeted audience, the amount of money that these people are willing to pay for a particular product. Through this analysis, the marketing consultants get the required data to make a conclusion and decide on the product that they will sell as well as the strategy to use in the entry into the market. After gathering data, most of the time, people will get involved in the attempts to make sense of the events of the society using the data that they have at hand. Ideally, the concept of Freakonomics opens the eyes of many people to see and understand the reasons why people do what they do. Reading and analyzing the book “Statistics,” by João Ramalho-Santos, will be effective in enhancing our knowledge about the concept of Freakonomics.

In his book, Ramalho explains that life is full of so many puzzles that are waiting to be solved.  True to his words, the mathematical sum can only be resolved after a student has gained the right amount of knowledge on how to solve the problem. Until then, however, the sum is always sitting there just waiting. It does not really matter how long the sum can wait to be solved. All that matters is that at some point, it will eventually be solved. Allison explains that “if a lesson has gone well, students will show that they understand the content you have introduced to them. In other words, they will be able to repeat and perform the task that they have been taught”. Similar to Allison and Thardby, many people will often question the need to learn or even try to understand something. It is common to hear people questioning why they had to take mathematics in school when, in real sense, they do not see how this has been applicable in their present careers. This is also comparable to the introduction of new concepts in the place of work for a person. Most of the time, when a new concept such as technology is introduced among the activities that are carried out in the firm, then the employees are often enlightened on how to handle and operate the technology.

Santos further explains that people try to make sense of the things that happen in their daily lives, especially around them, since they get the chance to find evidence to support the claims and believe it as the truth. According to Santos, “Interestingly, she knew that at its core, the word “mediocre” did not mean “bad.” It basically meant “average,” by definition, not bad.” To a certain element, the author believes that identifying proofs can contribute effectively to making decisions and, at the same time, contribute to having the right knowledge that a person requires to handle a certain situation. For instance, Santos explains that for a person to be in a position to manage and control a weakness effectively, the best thing to do is to learn about the way that thing works and find the best way that a person can avoid plunging more in-depth into the concept. There is no better way to manage something other than through understanding the idea. A person can also wonder how genuine the idea of making a diagnosis can be in the world. It is common to go to a hospital, and after explaining to the doctor the symptoms that one has, the doctor will have a ready diagnosis and even tell one that he or she might be suffering from an illness that he mentions by the name.  As much as the doctors have read and possibly know the symptoms of different diseases, it is common for people to question the diagnosis, especially for something that the patient has been curing for a long time. Arguably, people would want to really understand what is happening most of the time but are hindered by the creation of the many aspects that look convincing. Understanding something, however, gives a person the right amount of confidence that the person needs in order to be helped by another person.

Additionally, there are things that a person finds himself or herself knowing without really having the knowledge of how they came to know these things. Vega explains that “Should this international educational cooperation be studied within the scientific discipline of Comparative Education” (2). For example, a person grows up knowing how to keep away from properly who are not only mean but are bullies. As much as it does not make sense, it is also relevant and useful for a person in the course of their life. Santos explains that there are factors that are determinant of the manners in which the society nurtures a person to be as opposed to the way that a person’s personality is constructed. For example, some conserved individuals will get away from the bullies and prefer to stay on a different lane despite the manners in which they are frustrated by these bullies. On the other hand, some people believe in retaliating, and as such, they can get involved in a fight with the bullies. As much as many people may feel that this is the right move, one cannot understand the reason that pushed the person to make such a decision. There might be an issue or a factor that might push the person into making such a rush decision to fight the bullies. Another factor that many people fail to understand is the idea of shame. What is the cause of embarrassment, especially after pride? Ideally, the nature of a person’s ability to be shamed according to some is equated to humanity. However, it is not clear whether the person is human because he feels ashamed of the things that he did that, in the end, resulted in the decisions that the person made. This raises the question of whether the action that is used to judge the action that made the person feel ashamed is even the right action. In other words, what are some of the things that are used to determine whether something is moral or not?

Santos questions the reason behind the idea of people conducting the analysis. Ideally, figures are calculated, especially when trying to understand the phenomenon that a country is an experience. The conduction of senses, for instance, is an example of analysis that is used in a country to make sense of the population and, above all, for the country to be able to budget effectively for its population. Other than learning the reason behind the formation of the senses, it is not easy for these people to collect accurate data, and as such, the data that the government presents is also based on false data. Santos explains that “All of this was made harder by the fact that most of the results were blinded; the statistics team wasn’t supposed to know exactly where they had come from unless the epidemiologist could prove that some sort of major finding.” The question that arises in this case, however, is why it is often happening that the process mainly involved the calculation of the number of people, employed individuals, and in some cases, the gender and ages of the citizens of the nation. Understanding the reason why the government chooses explicitly these areas to explore and not things such as houses will enhance the understanding of why people would love to get involved in the affairs of the country. In other words, Santos tries to understand the reason why people do what they do and the results that they hope to achieve at the end of it all. Through these approaches, in terms of the responses that the individuals get from such processes, they get an understanding of why something happens the way it has, and at the same time, a person can learn the behavior of a person.

Conclusively, Freakonomics create a platform in which the people try to understand the meaning of the occurrence of different phenomena and, at the same time, learn the reasons why the people get the chance to behave the way they do. Through the explanations and the arguments that Santos gives, the readers get to learn of the importance of learning about the reason behind the occurrence of things and the kind of response that these people expect. Ideally, a teacher can determine that the students have understood a certain concept if, at the end of the lesson, they can illustrate what they have been taught without having to refer to any book. The author further explains some of the reasons why he believes that society is constructed the way it is. Ideally, without any of these explanations, the author believes that there is no way that we could have learned the operations of the society.

Works Cited

Kenny, Caroline, et al. “Approaches To Assist Policy–Makers’ Use Of Research Evidence In Education In Europe”. Empires, Post-Coloniality And Interculturality, 2014, pp. 117-133. Sensepublishers, doi:10.1007/978-94-6209-731-5_8. Accessed 15 Mar 2020.

Santos, João. “Statistics:From the LabLit short story series.” May 2018, www.lablit.com/article/937. Accessed 15 Mar. 2020.

Allison, Shaun, Andy Tharby, Doug Lemov, and Jason Ramasami. Making Every Lesson Count: Six Princlipes to Support Great Teaching and Learning. , 2015. Internet resource.