HOT READS FOR THE PRACTITIONER
Title: Predictably Irrational
Competencies:Â marketing and sales, customer service, finance, decision-making, judgment, self-development
Who benefits: should be considered mandatory for anyone in marketing and sales and customer service, could be beneficial to almost anyone
Consultant Usage: training in marketing and sales, customer service; background material for health and financial consultants; some leadership and management training courses
What’s it about? If you are only going to read one sentence of this posting, then read this: I have never given a more enthusiastic, two-thumbs up, higher recommendation than I am giving Predictably Irrational (PI).
I am sailing through my summer reading list. Today is book three of my summer bounty. What immediately strikes me is how these first three books are related, somewhat in content, but certainly in writing characteristics. It is an “ah-ha†moment for me. It at least confirms what I already think I know about how and why I choose a book.
The three books (Stumbling on Happiness, Blunders, and now PI) are characterized by the authors taking a complex topic and then writing in a clear and concise style so that the reader actually understands problem(s) being addressed, presenting the hard and soft data in an easily understood manner that supports the authors premises, and reasonable conclusions.
Or to put it even more simply, I like practical books with interesting stories.
Author Dan Ariely couldn’t be any clearer in his purpose: “My goal, by the end of this book, is to help you fundamentally rethink what makes you and the people around you tick.â€Â  He writes from the perspective of a behavioral economist (marketing, sales, customer service, finance). His major contribution is to refute the widely-held rational economic model that says we are capable of making the right decisions for ourselves – and he doesn’t just refute it, he smashes it to pieces.Â
Knee-jerk reaction: If I told you, you were unable to make the right decisions for yourself, what would you say? Ha!!! That was my reaction. But he nailed me in example after example, from retirement planning to diets. (He also has something to say about sex that was too accurate to review in this Blog.)
He observes that not only are we irrational, we are predictably irrational – that our irrationality occurs the same way again and again and again.Â
He explains why supply-demand economics only partially works. This should be required reading for all politicians.  Read this book and you will never look at the public issues of the day in the same way. Eye-opening just doesn’t begin to describe it.
The book will arouse your emotions. I guarantee you will laugh. You will probably feel anger at some point. You may feel sadness and will possibly have a tear or two in your eyes. You may feel other emotions as Ariely taps into your personal history (and he will).Â
I want to go on and on, but I think you get the idea of where I stand on this book. Before summarizing, let me tempt you further with some chapter headings. And please remember this is a serious book on Behavioral Economics. Here are my top five:
Chapter 5. The Influence of Arousal: Why Hot is Much Hotter Than We Realize.Â
Chapter 6. The Problem of Procrastination and Self-Control: Why We can’t Make Ourselves Do What We Want to Do.
Chapter 9. The Effect of Expectations: Why the Mind gets What It Expects.
Chapter 10. The Power of Price: Why a 50-Cent Aspirin Can Do What a Penny Aspirin Can’t.
Chapter 13. Beer and Free Lunches: What is Behavioral Economics, and Where Are the Free Lunches.
In summary, how good is this book? I love mystery and thriller books. I have been waiting months for mystery writer David Baldacci’s new thriller. It arrived the same day as this book. I picked up this book and read it cover to cover first. It reads like mystery and you could actually find yourself staying up late at night trying to finish it before work tomorrow.Â
Catch you later.
[tags]irrational, irrationality, predictably irrational, rational thought, behavioral economics, behavioral economist, rational economic model, supply and demand, decision making, judgment, judgment calls, bill bradley, william bradley, bradley[/tags]
Bill Bradley
Bill Bradley (mostly) retired after 35 years in organizational consulting, training and management development. During those years he worked internally with seven organizations and trained and consulted externally with more than 90 large and small businesses, government agencies, hospitals and schools.
Hi Bill,
Another great review. I’m ordering it after I write this.
Have you seen the book: Sway The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior? by Ori Brafman and Rom Brafman? Picked it up at the National ODNet conference and I love it. Have given it to some clients.
But you may have read enough on the topic.
Keep writing dear friend!
Jeanne
A great post about a great book, Ken. I’d add chapter 4, “The Cost of Social Norms,” to the list of things that anyone involved with compensation systems or workplace rewards should consider. Legislators should demonstrate master of the material before being allowed to craft, vote on, or debate any law involving incentives for teachers or other public employees.
The book was great but this chapter was a light bulb moment for me. For at least a decade I tried to find a way to reconcile the difference between the GM and Toyota suggestion systems.
According to a study from the 1980s, a thousand GM workers will offer slightly less than 200 usable suggestions per year. A thousand Toyota workers will come up with over 14,000. Explanations about Japanese culture or Toyota being more “supportive” didn’t seem enough to explain the disparity.
Then I read Predictably Irrational. Sometime during chapter 4, the light bulb went on and I put the book down and just thought. GM’s system was economic. It paid off big in dollars for a few suggestions. Toyota’s system was social. The reward was recognition. No money awards were made. Toyota got more suggestions, in part, because they didn’t pay for them.