Alchemy: The Surprising Power of Ideas That Don't Make Sense

Product Information

Flower is just a weed with an advertising budget. A flower can be worth stopping at, worth going out of your way or destination in itself. People do not choose brand A over brand B because they think brand A is better, but because they are more certain it is good. (minimising variance) Like classic behavioral economists Daniel Kahneman and Richard Thaler, Sutherland peels away hidden, often irrational human behaviors that explain how the world around us functions. In How to Be an Alchemist he examines why certain ads work and the broader truths they tell us about who we are. Why do people prefer stripy toothpaste, and how might that help us design retirement plans that young people would actually buy? Why do we think orange juice is healthy, and how does the same principle guide our feelings about nuclear reactors? Why do budget airlines advertise services they don’t offer—and what might insurance companies learn from them about keeping healthcare costs low? If we allow the world to be run by logical people, we will only discover logical things. But in real life, most things aren't logical - they are psycho-logical (i.e. involve emotion with post-hoc rationalisation). Its difficult to reply with “tap water” when you are being asked by waiter “Still or Sparking water?”

Buy two copies of this book in case one is stolen. Nassim Nicholas Taleb, scholar and former trader; author of the Incerto. The word "Alchemy" in the book title is more of a metaphor of saying "magic", like how the alchemists in the old days intended to turn low cheap metal (lead) into great metal (gold). Although the alchemists failed to do so in chemistry, the author believes we can still make alchemy happens in other areas (eg: business, policy making, human interactions etc) by using very cheap techniques but making great products/services.

Recommended Books

Of course, many solutions do require a rational solution. Rory Sutherland says, ‘I don’t want a conceptual artist in charge of air traffic control’. However, he argues that in decisions where the definition of success involves some element of human perception, the solution has to allow for that. Big data carries with it the promise of certainty, but in truth it usually provides a huge amount of information about a narrow field of knowledge. People are not cargo. We choose how and when to travel, influenced not only by speed and time but by habit, status, comfort, variety– and many other factors that engineering equations don’t capture at all. More from the Introduction - and why I was wondering if I'd ever get out of it - Sutherland has a subsection of a subsection where he warns "Be careful before calling something nonsense." Ordinarily, ,that might be good advice, but he explains with an example of a "1996 survey on the place of religion in public life in America [he's British]" by the Heritage Institute that found 1. Churchgoers are more likely to be married, less likely to be divorced or single and more likely to manifest high levels of satisfaction in their marriage.

Predator thinks if something is so brightly coloured, survived without concealment and need not camouflage must be having some strategy hence best avoided.Complex plans are designed to compensate for small vision or low self-esteem… The world is chaotic and complex — don’t try to cram the infinite detail of the real world into one neat grid.” 4. Design your future Find one or two things your boss is rubbish at and be quite good at them". Complementary talent is far more valuable than conformist talent. Rory Sutherland is an icon in the advertising world. As one of the founders of the agency AKQA, he has helped found 11 startups. He also has a lot of great points about how our society overvalues rationality and logic, and, as a result, we miss out on some pretty good ideas because we think they’re not rational. Morita hated the record button and was not first introduced in first Walkman by Sony. This would have confused the consumer for whom this product is primary. It’s not always a good idea to make everything versatile/multi-functional.