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Alchemy

The Surprising Power of Ideas That Don't Make Sense

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Alchemy

By: Rory Sutherland
Narrated by: Rory Sutherland
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Summary

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Alchemy: The Surprising Power of Ideas That Don't Make Sense, written and read by Rory Sutherland.

To be brilliant, you have to be irrational

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?

We think we are rational creatures. Economics and business rely on the assumption that we make logical decisions based on evidence.

But we aren’t, and we don’t.

In many crucial areas of our lives, reason plays a vanishingly small part. Instead we are driven by unconscious desires, which is why placebos are so powerful. We are drawn to the beautiful, the extravagant and the absurd – from lavish wedding invitations to tiny bottles of the latest fragrance. So if you want to influence people’s choices you have to bypass reason. The best ideas don’t make rational sense: they make you feel more than they make you think.

Rory Sutherland is the Ogilvy advertising legend whose TED Talks have been viewed nearly 7 million times. In his first book he blends cutting-edge behavioural science, jaw-dropping stories and a touch of branding magic, on his mission to turn us all into idea alchemists.

 Marketing Marketing & Sales Psychology Psychology & Mental Health Funny Thought-Provoking Witty Inspiring Business
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Critic reviews

Wonderfully applicable to everything in life, and funny as hell
Brilliant, Brilliant, Brilliant … wonderfully heretical, naughty and funny … Uncommon sense on stilts
Veins of wisdom regarding human functioning emerge regularly and brilliantly from the pages. Don't miss this book.
Brings together complex theory with stories and plentiful humour to both captivate and entertain. It’s an important work for our era of apparent irrationality.
Both a book on human behavior and a rallying cry to stand up against the spreadsheet mafia dominating most government and corporate policies today
Stimulating and funny
[A] fun, quirky, hilarious page-turner…Sutherland is one of the all-time great raconteurs, polymaths, and ad men
Buy this book for the footnotes alone… As a committed devotee of rationalism, who thinks there is not enough of it in this world, I rationally ought to hate this book. Instead I loved it.
‘A must read for anyone who is in the people business’

Featured article: Steven Bartlett recommends…


In the spirit of continuous learning we asked Steven to share with us the books he’s enjoyed and been inspired by. Covering psychology and health to business and technology, read on to discover Steven Bartlett’s top listening recommendations.

Featured article Steven Bartlett recommends…
All stars
Most relevant
Sutherland is always an engaging, entertaining public speaker. His insights are valuable and thought provoking. But...

The book is too long because it's repetitive (it feels a little padded, perhaps trying to justify it's gold packaging and price). The text - printed and audio - would have benefited from an editor.

Half the length would have been twice as good.

Press pause, not repeat

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There are no words that i can possibly say that could do Rory justice. There is so much gold in this book and a lifetime to try to mine it .....

Gold

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Rory Sutherland is both genius and humorous. I'm going to have to listen to it again.
Thank you Mr Sutherland for allowing a peak into your creative mind.

One of the best audio books I've listened to.

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Fantastically narrated, really easy to listen to. Very insightful with some great nuggets. Opens up your mind to a new way of thinking. Really enjoyed it, well done

Brilliant

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This is a brilliant and insightful book on the limits of using only logic in human decision making. Rory presents a spectacular re-frame on our so called ‘irrational’ or ‘emotional’ decision making behaviour caused by cognitive biases or ‘blind’ spots. Turns out they are not so blind after all. Evolution has made some of these baffling behaviours extremely useful in specific contexts and is what Rory terms ‘Psycho-logic’. He explains these counter-intuitive discoveries with the aid of a list of fascinating stories and vignettes from the world of advertising, marketing and consumer behaviour where the use of logic alone would lead you to think that we are all crazy. For example the use of soap and better hygiene prevented cholera outbreaks, and the addition of a scent makes no difference to this outcome. Scentless soap should make no difference to purchasing behaviour. People did not buy the soap for this purpose or for hygiene initially though - they bought it to signal social status and attractiveness to the opposite sex. The scent is critical for this purpose and useless in the fight against cholera. On a more serious note - a better understanding of the oddities of our psycho-logical behaviour may considerably improve human decision making processes in the future. Even if we are not aware of why it works!

Find out why using only logic in decision making can be a load of bollocks

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