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Pop economics has become a successful sub-genre lately, with best-selling books like Freakonomics and The Tipping Point examining the relationship between human behavior and economic principles. In his new book, econo-blogger Tyler Cowen (marginalrevolution.com) explores the applicability of economics to everything from getting a child to do the dishes to online dating. But there's a twist. Cowen is not out to demystify the industry side of things, like Steven Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner did with real estate and drug dealing in Freakonomics. He wants to demonstrate a more personal humanity to the "dismal science," believing that everyone, even the layperson, has an innate sense of economics present in their daily lives. They just need to be more aware of how incentives and choices present themselves.

Economists deal in scarcity, and Cowen believes that "in our highly civilized society the scarcities I notice most often are those of attention and time." He devotes his chapters to taking back control of these resources in our normal lives through a series of incentive exercises, tips and introspection. He devotes an entire chapter to the "dangerous and necessary art of self-deception" -- i.e., how as a society we will simply overlook counterproductive ways of spending our time. Brainstorming meetings at work fall under this kind of "illusion of group productivity." Membership at a gym is another delusion we all work under, as most often we'll never work out as much we think we will, or calculate how much we'll pay to think we will.

While not quite Chicken Soup for the Economist's Soul, Cowen's book is still a self-help text of sorts, shuffling the mundane experience of life through a thoughtful, examined perspective, aimed at personal growth. Economics is, as Cowen notes, more about choice than anything. In the self-conscious style of a seasoned blogger, Cowen's best moments come when he riffs on the "Me Factor," his term for ego-driven consumerism. As an avid art and food lover, Cowen's advice on broadening your taste focuses on transcending your own Me Factor, to trick yourself into paying greater attention to your life. Cowen offers this tidbit for not getting bored in an art museum: "In every room ask yourself which picture you would take home -- and why." Focusing attention, not letting it grow scarce, produces economic rewards just as much as investing in your portfolio.

Part life coach, part scientist and part "cultural billionaire," Cowen is a master at making interdisciplinary connections, many of which will have you immediately economizing your life, in a good way.