Joey Chestnut and Takeru Kobayashi face off in a Coney Island hot dog eating championship. Yana Paskova/Getty Images University of Chicago economist Steven Levitt and journalist Stephen Dubner turned heads with their hit book "Freakonomics" in 2005 and its 2009 sequel "SuperFreakonomics," which use economics to explain why people do what they do.

The authors have returned with a new book, "Think Like a Freak," which lays out the unorthodox tactics and styles of thinking they use to reach their surprising conclusions.

This way of problem-solving, they argue, can allow you to overcome seemingly impossible challenges and soften up even the most stubborn people.

Read on to find out how you can "think like a freak." Along the way, you'll learn the genius of competitive eater Takeru Kobayashi and why Van Halen demanded that their dressing rooms be stocked with every color of M&Ms except brown.