Friday, August 19, 2011

Predictably Irrational

On the recommendation of a friend, I recently read this book.  Excellent.  So I started to read the second book by the same author.  As I was doing so, I noticed that I was already forgetting what I read in the first book.  I realized I should probably write down the interesting points from books I enjoy.

So here we are. 

Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces that Shape our Decisions is all about how humans behave in... drumroll please... predictably irrational ways.  Each chapter starts with an anecdote or observation that leads to a hypothesis.  The hypothesis is then tested via carefully crafted experiments.  Here are some highlights.  The videos below are not nearly as good as the chapters, but they give you an idea:

Chapter 1: The Truth About Relativity: Why Everything is Relative, Even When It Shouldn't Be

Chapter 2: The Fallacy of Supply and Demand

Chapter 3: The Cost of Zero Cost

Chapter 4: Why We Are Happy to Do Things, but Not When We Are Paid to Do Them

Chapter 7: The High Price of Ownership: Why We Overvalue What We Have

Chapter 8: Why Options Distract Us From Our Main Objective

Chapter 9: The Effect of Expectations: Why the Mind Gets What It Wants


The second book is equally engaging.  More on that later...