Alchemy
The Magic of Original Thinking in a World of Mind-Numbing Conformity
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Ebury Publishing
Published:13th May '21
Should be back in stock very soon
Discover the secret power of irrational thinking to create magic in branding, business, and life, with the breakthrough book from the advertising legend.
AS SEEN ON THE DIARY OF A CEO PODCAST
‘Revelatory and entertaining’Sunday Times
‘Sutherland uses his decades of experience to dissect human spending behavior in an insanely entertaining way…amust read’ Entrepreneur, Best Books of the Year
‘One of the leading minds in the world of branding’ NPR
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Why is Red Bull so popular – even though everyone hates the taste?
Why do countdown boards on platforms take away the pain of train delays?
And why do we prefer stripy toothpaste?
The answer? Humans are, in a word, irrational.
In his groundbreaking book, TED Talk superstar and Ogilvy advertising icon Rory Sutherland reveals why abandoning logic and casting aside rationality is the best way to solve any problem.
Based on thirty years of field work, his unconventional and relentlessly curious approach has led him to discover that the most compelling secrets to human decision making can be found in surprising places:
- What can honeybees teach us about creating a sustainable business?
- How could budget airlines show us how to market a health-care system?
- Why is it better to be vaguely right than precisely wrong?
- What might football penalty kicks teach us about the dangers of risk aversion?
Better “branding,” Sutherland reveals, can also be employed not just to sell products but to promote a variety of social aims, like getting people to pay taxes, improving public health outcomes, or encouraging more women to pursue careers in tech.
In his mission to turn us all into idea alchemists, Sutherland blends cutting-edge behavioural science with jaw-dropping true stories to show that the problems we face, both as an individual or in society, could very well be solved by thinking less logically.
To be brilliant, you have to be irrational. This book shows you how.
Wonderfully applicable to everything in life, and funny as hell * Nassim Nicholas Taleb, bestselling author of Antifragile and Black Swan *
Brilliant, Brilliant, Brilliant … wonderfully heretical, naughty and funny … Uncommon sense on stilts * Jules Goddard, Fellow of the Centre for Management Development at London Business School and co-author of Uncommon Sense, Common Nonsense *
Veins of wisdom regarding human functioning emerge regularly and brilliantly from the pages. Don't miss this book. * Robert Cialdini, bestselling author of Influence, Yes!, The Small BIG and Pre-suasion *
Brings together complex theory with stories and plentiful humour to both captivate and entertain. It’s an important work for our era of apparent irrationality. * The Spectator *
Both a book on human behavior and a rallying cry to stand up against the spreadsheet mafia dominating most government and corporate policies today * Forbes, "Best Books on Consumer Behavior to Help You in Business and in Life" *
Stimulating and funny * The Times *
[A] fun, quirky, hilarious page-turner…Sutherland is one of the all-time great raconteurs, polymaths, and ad men * Geoffrey Miller, evolutionary psychologist, author of The Mating Mind, Spent, and What Women Want *
Buy this book for the footnotes alone… As a committed devotee of rationalism, who thinks there is not enough of it in this world, I rationally ought to hate this book. Instead I loved it. * Matt Ridley, author of The Rational Optimist *
‘A must read for anyone who is in the people business’ * Dilip Soman, Canada Research Chair in Behavioural Science and Economics, University of Toronto *
ISBN: 9780753556528
Dimensions: 197mm x 127mm x 25mm
Weight: 266g
384 pages