Genre: Popular science
Synopsis: Why do we do the things we do? This book gives examples of times when we behave in a way that seems rational but upon closer inspection is influenced by all sorts of factors you never would have even considered.
Thoughts: I don’t read a huge number of popular science books, but from what I have read, this one was fairly typical. I enjoyed the conversational tone and personal feel (there’s quite a few personal anecdotes and stories). The examples of predictably irrational behaviour were interesting, but I disagree with the introduction: I don’t think being aware of these things will actually make any difference in how I do things. My only complaint is that things were spelled out a bit too much and too many examples of the same thing were given.
If you enjoy popular science books or you’d like to try one, then I would recommend this. It’s a quick read, so it’s not going to take up much of your time or require a good amount of effort. It’s fine to read out of idle curiosity as I did, but I wouldn’t overwhelmingly recommend it as it didn’t really stand out from the crowd for me.
Dan Ariely has a website which is probably worth checking out if you’re thinking of reading the book.
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