The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic at Work and at Home by Dan Ariely (PDF)

Description

“Dan Ariely is a genius at understanding human behavior: no economist does a better job of uncovering and explaining the hidden reasons for the weird ways we act.” — James Surowiecki, author of The Wisdom of Crowds Behavioral economist and New York Times bestselling author of Predictably Irrational Dan Ariely returns to offer a much-needed take on the irrational decisions that influence our dating lives, our workplace experiences, and our temptation to cheat in any and all areas. Fans of Freakonomics, Survival of the Sickest, and Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink and The Tipping Point will find many thought-provoking insights in The Upside of Irrationality.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐The author used a very easy-going manner in discussing some important ideas that we often take for granted and on which many of us are often wrong.One of the first concepts he discusses is the idea of the HEDONISTIC TREADMILL or the idea of keeping up with the Jones philosophy which in large part resulted in our present economic mess. As part of this concept the author discusses HEDONISTIC ADAPTATION in which people perform certain activities to either maximize their pleasure or reduce their pain. Intuitively we might think that if we were trying to study and our partner were running the vacuum, we would want that person to complete part of the cleaning,then quit for a while, do a little more and quit again, but that is not what the experimental results showed. We tend to build up an adaptation to an unpleasurable activity as it progresses and if it is stopped we lose that adaptation and must work harder to build up the adaptation a succeeding time[s] , so that in this case if would be better if the person continued with the unpleasurable activity until completed, another example of that might be completing your income tax return in one sitting rather than spreading it out over several days. The corollary to that is that it is better to break up a pleasurable activity into smaller portions to savor its effects for a longer period of time. An example of that might be sex; for that I can refer you to the Alan Jackson song in which the refrain goes “Nothing left to do after we done it!”The author also discusses concepts as people with certain levels of attractiveness seek partners of approximately equal levels of attractiveness, although a caveat is made that women are more forgiving on physical levels of partners attractiveness than are men. There are still a lot more men rated a 4 trying to hook up with a female 10 than a woman who is 4 believing she is going to find the 10 male.Another topic reviewed was can we really act rationally in a fit of anger and, if in such an angry state, how does it affect our ideas of fairness and unfairness [revenge] towards many other people not just the person we think caused us pain. These are just a few of the topics discussed out of many interesting areas.As others have mentioned and as has the author, he was severely injured as a young soldier due to a bomb blast and suffered some permanent scarring and limited range of motion from it, yet he overcame that and turned his life into a worthwhile endeavor in spite of injuries both physical and psychological and I speak as someone who interned at a VA hospital during the Viet Nam war, so am familiar with such wounds. It is obvious from the ease with which he discusses his various topics that he is learned and intelligent which is also supported by the fact that he was a professor at MIT and now a professor at Duke. As a disclaimer, I have never met nor talked to the author, but simply liked the book and think you will too.

⭐Ariely writes about behavioral economics: “We don’t assume that people are perfectly sensible, calculating machines. Instead, we observe how people actually behave, and quite often our observations lead us to the conclusion that human beings are irrational.”No one ever admits to being irrational, yet we frequently witness irrational behavior in others. After reading the book, I’ll have to begrudgingly admit that I’m not perfectly rational either !Throughout the 11 chapters of the book, various premises are tested by designing some easy to measure field tests which challenge our assumptions about behavior. The book is segregated into two sections – the first on “Ways we Defy Logic at Work” (Chapters 1 through 5) and “Ways We Defy Logic at Home” (Chapters 6 through 10).In Chapter 1, Ariely discusses the banking meltdown of 2008 and posits that huge bonuses don’t work to incent better performance. There is plenty of actual and anecdotal evidence to support this idea. In Chapter 2, he discusses various situations and experiments that demonstrate how important it is to each of us to imbue meaning in our work and to have meaningful work. There is a deep interconnection between identity and labor. Chapter 3, “The Ikea Effect” describes why we are so much more attached to things that we helped to produce, rather than things we did not have a hand in – “labor begets love”. The NIH (not invented here) syndrome is discussed in Chapter 4. The NIH factor is called the “toothbrush theory” – everyone wants one, everyone needs one, everyone has one, but no one wants to use anyone else’s. Chapter 5 discusses the irrational behavior of revenge which is one of the deepest-seated instincts we have. Ariely wrote: “The threat of revenge can serve as an effective enforcement mechanism that supports social cooperation and order.”In Part II (defying logic at home), there are some very interesting chapters on adaptation – how we get used to things and rationalize both bad and good situations. The chapters on dating and online dating are quite fascinating. Chapters 9 and 10 cover empathy and emotion and why we are more motivated to donate to a single suffering individual than to a larger cause by which thousands or millions of people are affected.The final chapter summarizes and encourages us to recognize the upside of irrationality: “some of the ways in which we are irrational are also what makes us wonderfully human.””The Upside of Irrationality” is a very thought-provoking book written by a believable and articulate professional. Ariely has a very personal style, incorporating many incidents from his own life and his struggles with debilitating burn injuries in his youth that altered the course of his life and certainly affected his point of view. I highlighted many passages in my Kindle and suspect that I will be picking up this book again from time to time to reread the highlights.

⭐If anything, Professor Ariely’s second book is even better than the first. Starting with ordinary incidents from real life he proceeds to describe his research and gradually the principle in each chapter crystallises. Then he considers the applications of this in various domains. Here are a few of his discoveries:‘We overvalue our work’ (p. 83). People who were taught origami and shown how to construct paper cranes or frogs, judged their creations as a lot more valuable than other people did. The implications for teachers are huge: project work of all kinds is a lot better than getting students to do endless exercises – the latter are not something they can take pride in, as they feel their contribution is too small (see also: YouTube: Psychology and ELT – The IKEA Effect).‘Having created something, we want people to see it’ (p. 53). In a fantastic experiment, people told to construct Lego robots lost interest a lot faster when the robots were dismantled as soon as they had completed them than when they were told they would be disassembled later. The moral: although students may get all the linguistic benefits from having their essay/story marked and returned, in terms of motivation it makes a huge difference for us to display it in class (see also: YouTube: Psychology and ELT – The Pursuit of Meaning).‘We prefer our own ideas to those of others’ (p. 107). In an amazing study, subjects favoured the ideas they had generated themselves, even when it was in fact the researchers who had given them these ideas in sentences a little while earlier! The moral for us is clear: rather than assigning H/W for instance, why not ask the students themselves what they would think it would be best for the class to do? (see also: YouTube: Psychology and ELT – The NIH Bias).‘Short-term emotions can have long-term effects’ (p. 257). Here is how it works: we may be angry with our partner one day; we go to class; we snap at the students and we are unusually strict with them; the lesson is a failure. Later we reflect on the experience. Are we honest with ourselves? Of course not! Instead we try to justify our behaviour telling ourselves that we displayed the necessary firmness. But this ‘narrative’ actually impacts on our future behaviour; next time we are far more likely to be strict again! (A clear warning to all of us there… – see also: YouTube: Psychology and ELT – Emotions).OK – here is my favourite, discovery: ‘habituation: we get used to things’ (p. 157). And now for the amazing, counter-intuitive implication for maximising satisfaction: ‘Pleasant activities – break them up; unpleasant ones – just get them over with’! So tell your partner, it makes sense to stop that massage every 2 min or so and then start all over again! 🙂

⭐There are some interesting ideas presented in this book, and some of the arguments are pretty well constructed. I liked that there was enough detail on each of the studies for you to critically look at the claims being made. But the downside of that was that I often found the claims being made didn’t fit the evidence very well and some of the studies could have been improved. Tl;dr, it’s alright if you don’t think too much about how the studies are put together.

⭐This book is just fascinating, and totally made me start thinking about things in another way. Although he does approach things from a “behavioural economics” angle, his language and manner are so engaging, even for those of us who would never claim to be an economist in a million years! Who would have thought that lego and Ikea could help explain our behaviour so well?!

⭐Very interesting book, referring to both scientific research and personal findings, clarifying our limitations as ‘rational’ beings and the need for further experimental research also for both corporate and government decision-making (not just individual choices and actions). Strongly recommend it. Loved Dan’s recipe at the very end!

⭐This is a great book written in a very humble and down to earth way. We are shown how biases influence our behaviour and way of thinking. The author has been severely injured in his youth this is very regrettable but he has learnt so much by it and we learn with him. He looks at us and himself in an uncompromising way with humour and great empathy.

Keywords

Free Download The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic at Work and at Home in PDF format
The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic at Work and at Home PDF Free Download
Download The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic at Work and at Home 2010 PDF Free
The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic at Work and at Home 2010 PDF Free Download
Download The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic at Work and at Home PDF
Free Download Ebook The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic at Work and at Home