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A review by seclement
Alchemy: The Surprising Power of Ideas That Don't Make Sense by Rory Sutherland
4.0
This is a fun book that challenges the idea that logical analysis will help us understand human behaviour. If you've read behavioural economics a la Tversky and Kahneman, then a lot of this won't surprise you, but Sutherland's delivery is more engaging and amusing. Like all pop sci books, it suffers from "overegging the pudding" in the sense that it oversells or misrepresents studies, but Sutherland doesn't claim expertise. I would just say to proceed with caution in terms of taking this book and its discussion of "findings" to heart.
As a very logical person who is also a social scientist, I found his praise and critique of logic refreshing but also sometimes a bit exaggerated. Much of what he presents as "illogical" or contradictory has an internal logic, rather than what he describes as a mix of logic and magic, i.e. "alchemy". Or, at the very list, what he describes as unique to marketing is, in fact, what the process of hypothesis generation ought to be, even if it isn't always.
A very enjoyable read overall, and one I would recommend.
As a very logical person who is also a social scientist, I found his praise and critique of logic refreshing but also sometimes a bit exaggerated. Much of what he presents as "illogical" or contradictory has an internal logic, rather than what he describes as a mix of logic and magic, i.e. "alchemy". Or, at the very list, what he describes as unique to marketing is, in fact, what the process of hypothesis generation ought to be, even if it isn't always.
A very enjoyable read overall, and one I would recommend.