Alchemy by Rory Sutherland

Alchemy by Rory Sutherland

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…a must 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.

This is a breakthrough book: Mother Reality makes sense in her own wayShe yields her secrets to practitioners, almost never to academics - something psychologists, economists and non-skin in the game people, no matter what they say, are functionally unable to grasp. And the book is funny as hell: I smiled and laughed at every paragraph.
Furthermore, this is the first such treatise written by someone who had true contact with reality via something called a P/L.
And this is wonderfully applicable to about everything in life, from how to announce airplane delays to how to handle unsold opera tickets.
Buy two copies of this book in case one is stolen.

* Nassim Nicholas Taleb, scholar and former trader; author of the Incerto. *
Revelatory and entertaining * The Sunday Times *
Reading Alchemy was, as its title promised, the process of turning paper and print into gold. 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 *
Deeply original * Robert Trivers, evolutionary biologist and author of Deceit and Self-Deception *
Sutherland’s book touches on many facets of life, but all come down to the importance of “psycho-logic”, or non-rational factors, in how we make decisions and how problems can be solved * CAMPAIGN magazine *

Rory Sutherland is the Vice Chairman of Ogilvy UK and the founder of the behavioural science practice. He writes the Spectator’s ‘Wiki Man’ column, presents series for BBC Radio 4, serves on the advisory board of The Evolution Institute, and is former President of the IPA (Institute of Practitioners in Advertising). The IDM (Institute of Direct and Digital Marketing) awarded Sutherland an Honorary Life Fellowship. His TED talks have over 6.5 million views. He authored a collection of blog posts, interviews, tweets and reference materials, The Wiki-Man, in 2011, and his first book Alchemy was published in 2019.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780753556528
ISBN 10	0753556529
Title	Alchemy
Author	Rory Sutherland
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Ebury Publishing
Year published	2021-05-13
Number of pages	384
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.