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Review ------ “Alchemy, as Rory Sutherland’s title promised, turns words into gold. Veins of wisdom emerge regularly and brilliantly from these pages. Don’t miss this book.” (ROBERT B. CIALDINI, author of the million-copy bestseller Influence) “Buy this book. I loved it. It’s full of great ins.” (MATT RIDLEY, bestselling author of The Rational Optimist and Genome) “This is a breakthrough book. Alchemy is wonderfully applicable to about everything in life. Furthermore, it is funny as hell.” (NASSIM NICHOLAS TALEB, author of The Black Swan) “BRILLIANT, BRILLIANT, BRILLIANT: wonderfully heretical, naughty, funny, and wise. Alchemy has furnished me with enough good stories and sage aphorisms to keep my lecturers to tired students going for another ten years.” (JULES GODDARD, London Business School) “Rory Sutherland’s Alchemy is a deeply original book.” (ROBERT TRIVERS) Read more ( javascript:void(0) ) From the Back Cover ------------------- How does magic happen? Why is Red Bull so popular, though everyone—everyone!—hates the taste? Humans are, in a word, irrational, basing decisions as much on subtle external signals (that little blue can) as on objective qualities (flavor, price, quality). The surrounding world, meanwhile, is irreducibly complex and random. This means future success can’t be projected on any accounting spreadsheet. To strike gold, you must master the dark art and curious science of conjuring irresistible ideas: alchemy. Based on thirty years of fieldwork inside the largest experiment in human behavior ever conceived—the forever-unfolding pageant of consumer capitalism—Alchemy, the revolutionary book by Ogilvy advertising legend Rory Sutherland, whose TED Talks have been viewed nearly seven million times, decodes human behavior, blending leading-edge scientific research, absurdly entertaining storytelling, deep psychological in, and practical case studies from his storied career working on campaigns for AmEx, Microsoft, and others. Heralded as “one of the leading minds in the world of branding” by NPR, Sutherland is a unique thought leader, as comfortable exchanging ideas with Nobel Prize winners Daniel Kahneman and Richard Thaler (both interviewed in these pages) as he is crafting the next product launch. 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 -care system? * Why is it better to be vaguely right than precisely wrong? * What might soccer 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 s, like getting people to pay taxes, improving public outcomes, or encouraging more women to pursue careers in tech. Equally startling and profound, Sutherland’s journey through the strange world of decision making is filled with astonishing lessons for all aspects of life and business. Read more ( javascript:void(0) ) See all Editorial Reviews ( /dp/product-description/006238841X/ref=dp_proddesc_0?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books&isInIframe=0 )