Hero Regime Change

I think I have a new hero/man-crush: Sudhir Venkatesh.

My first experience regarding his work was with Freakonomics, where he contributed on the chapter analyzing similarities between drug-dealing gangs and corporate structure. Apart from making some really brilliant points about the structure itself, he sheds a lot of light on possible sociological causes in re gang formation. But the brilliance aside, the sheer hang-low it took to approach and spend years with an inner city Chicago gang is just insanity. It would be rad if quarks talked -- or dealt crack to less elementary particles.

Anyhow, you can find his research online and here's his bio:

http://www.iserp.columbia.edu/people/venkatesh.html