This sequel to "Predictably Irrational" is good, but not great.

Loving Irrationality? Or Just Living with It? | The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic at Work and at Home | Dan Ariely

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	• The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic at Work and at Home Dan Ariely Harper, 2010 - 352 pages average customer review:based on 43 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Well written, Faulty logic

I wanted to like this book on behaviorial economics but I had problems with the theses and proof the author offered. While it is true, he has stellar academic creditials as a professor of economics at MIT, I found his logic questionable. In his first argument, he offers that large bonuses are a double edged sword. For tasks requiring cognative ability, low to moderate performance-based incentives can help. "When the incentive is high it can command too much attention and distract the person's mind with thoughts about the reward." What? You mean people have a tendancy to choke when the stakes are high? I think the author confuses "performance anxiety" with "big rewards don't produce results". Though I am certain these ideas hold sway with people with a particular political bent, the average person would disagree.

The rest of the book engages in similar interesting thought experiments that defy commonsense.

Well written but not recommended.

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This sequel to "Predictably Irrational" is good, but not great.

I had a sufficiently positive impression of Dan Ariely from his first book, "Predictably Irrational", to be willing to give this one a try. My residual impression from the earlier book was of a smart, likable guy, with a knack for designing clever experiments to capture the irrational side of human behavior, particularly when making decisions with economic consequences. This area of investigation has risen to prominence over the past 5 to 10 years, there is now a flood of titles on the market, which shows no sign of abating in the foreseeable future. "Predictably Irrational" holds up well against the competition: it covers a lot of ground in reasonably concise fashion, and is very readable. Each chapter's primary message is grounded in, and illustrated by, specific experiments conducted by Ariely and colleagues, and this is the book's particular strength.

Given the strength of Ariely's first book, and the relatively short interval since its publication, it would be truly surprising if this second book reached the same high standard. "Sophomore slump" is a real phenomenon (just a manifestation of what statisticians would call "regression to the mean") and Professor Ariely is not immune to its effects. A reviewer predisposed to be critical of the author might argue that this is a sequel that is short on substance, presenting results that are either
(i) blindingly obvious (e.g. that people need to believe their work is meaningful to feel motivated),
(ii) needless and not particularly illuminating amplification of ideas already presented in the first book (overvaluing of ownership and the power of anchoring),or,
(iii)material presented previously, and better, by other authors.

That assessment seems unduly harsh to me - the sequel shares many of the positive qualities of the original - primarily Ariely's clear and engaging style, which guarantees readability at the very least. Unfortunately, an engaging style doesn't quite make up for some obvious weaknesses. The material in the earlier book was fascinating because most of the results were surprising -- counterintuitive or non-obvious -- but the experimental work was strong enough to be persuasive. The experimental foundation of the work discussed in the second book is noticeably weaker across the board, at times barely rising about the level of anecdotal data, with the author displaying a regrettable propensity to issue pronouncements of a general nature solely on the basis of his own personal experience. Even if one disregards the relative weakness of the empirical evidence to support them, claims made in the second book are simply not as interesting as the earlier work - either they are immediately obvious, or restatements of material likely to be familiar to anyone who has done any prior reading in this general area.

Finally, there is the unavoidable impression that a significant portion of the material is nothing more than padding (the book is studded with space-filling sidebars that are notably lacking in content: examples include a one-page explanation of the myth of Sisyphus, complete with stick-figure diagram, a verbatim transcript of an online rant about the 2008 banking bailout, graphs that were superfluous, cartoonish, or both). The most egregious padding is Ariely's inclusion of far too many personal anecdotes from his own life, a feature that severely tests the reader's patience and is an implicit acknowledgement that this is a book based primarily on anecdotal evidence, rather than hard science.

With these caveats in mind, I actually enjoyed the book quite a bit. But I can't give it a resounding endorsement. Instead, I would steer readers to Ariely's earlier effort (Predictably Irrational), and to "Stumbling on Happiness" by Daniel Gilbert and "Nudge" by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein . Cumulatively they afford an accessible account of the same material that is more thorough and more rigorous than that given by Professor Ariely in this slightly disappointing followup to his earlier masterpiece.

If I were to grade on content alone, I'd give only 3 stars; Professor Ariely's clear, engaging style raises my rating to 4 stars.

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Loving Irrationality? Or Just Living with It?

This is a book I really wanted to love. I like it, but I don't love it. Ariely is an excellent speaker, so, having heard him speak, my expectations may have been a little too high. It's not that his book is poorly written or his conclusions full of howling errors, just that he is not as entertaining a writer as he is a speaker.

There's a tension in the book, as well. Ariely reveals, through experiments he's carried out in his academic career as a psychologist, ways in which we all fall well short of our rational self-image. It's not just that we occasionally do strange, irrational things, but that, as the title of his previous book says, we behave irrationally in predictable ways -- our buying decisions are influenced by the appearance of deals (real or illusory), our happiness is influenced by how close together or far apart in time the things that make us happy occur, our sympathy is aroused more strongly by a single case of suffering than by mass suffering, . . . and so on. Much of what he reveals is surprising, surprising about our own behavior. And all of this goes catastrophically against the grain of theories of rational agents in economics, game theory, etc.

But the title of this book implies that he is going to focus on the "upside" of irrationality. That's where the tension comes in. Often, revealing our irrational patterns is meant to allow us to overcome them (as in the buying decisions); other times it is meant to allow us to take advantage of them (as in his discussions of happiness and "hedonic adaptation"). The tension is between fully embracing and celebrating our irrationalities and resisting them, or even (as in the case of hedonic adaptation) learning how best to live rationally with them. Fully embracing our irrationality might mean such things as enjoying irrational urges to "get back" at someone even though it is against our long-term interests, or, maybe less self-destructively, giving ourselves more permission to play (without justifications in better relationships with our kids, our own fitness, our dog's fitness, . . . ). I don't think Ariely settled on either side -- of course, he doesn't have to, and maybe the tension is exactly right.

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Slightly Predictable

Overall, this is a good book. However, I find it more predictable and not as surprising and entertaining compared to author's first book (Predictably Irrational)

Since the experiments are designed and carried out by Dan Ariely, you get a good understanding on the design and the rationale behind the experiment. Sometimes I wonder whether the results are interpreted in a certain way to justify the "irrationality" but I am sure that is not the case due to academic integrity.

The description of the subject's participation can be lengthy at times; you don't need descriptions on many participants to get the point. I enjoy more from reading Part I - "The Unexpected Ways We Defy Logic At Work".

It is touching that Dan shares his personal ordeal throughout the book. On the front of human spirits and acadamic achievement, Professor Ariely deserves a round of applause. As in the first book, Dan shows a good sense of humor.

Through his writing, I can feel author's passion in research and teaching. It must be a great learning experience to have Dan Ariely as a professor.

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The provocative follow-up to the New York Times bestseller Predictably Irrational

Why can large bonuses make CEOs less productive? How can confusing directions actually help us? Why is revenge so important to us? Why is there such a big difference between what we think will make us happy and what really makes us happy?

In his groundbreaking book Predictably Irrational, social scientist Dan Ariely revealed the multiple biases that lead us into making unwise decisions. Now, in The Upside of Irrationality, he exposes the surprising negative and positive effects irrationality can have on our lives. Focusing on our behaviors at work and in relationships, he offers new insights and eye-opening truths about what really motivates us on the job, how one unwise action can become a long-term habit, how we learn to love the ones we're with, and more.

Drawing on the same experimental methods that made Predictably Irrational one of the most talked-about bestsellers of the past few years, Ariely uses data from his own original and entertaining experiments to draw arresting conclusions about how?and why?we behave the way we do. From our office attitudes, to our romantic relationships, to our search for purpose in life, Ariely explains how to break through our negative patterns of thought and behavior to make better decisions. The Upside of Irrationality will change the way we see ourselves at work and at home?and cast our irrational behaviors in a more nuanced light.

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