I really wasn’t sure what Dan Ariely’s “The Upside Of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic at Work and at Home” would be like. He was not familiar with his previous best-selling book, “Predictably Irrational”. It looked like it might be interesting, so I checked it out. I am very happy to have done it! It was very interesting, and I really enjoyed reading it.
The author, Dan Ariely, is a behavioral economist and in this book he shares personal experiences along with various experiments he has conducted that illustrate the positive effects that irrationality can have on our lives. My favorite chapter, because I found it very interesting, apart from a chapter that explains certain feelings that I have had and witnessed, was the chapter on revenge and why revenge is so important to us. It was really amazing that people would hurt themselves to get revenge, but I guess when reading a newspaper or listening to the news, people do crazy things to get revenge, even to their own detriment. (Most of the time to their own detriment)
While the revenge chapter was my favorite, I found the entire book interesting. Ariely addresses topics like why big bonuses can make CEOs less productive, what really motivates people at work, why misdirection can help us, what we think will make us happy and what makes us really happy, how we learn to love the people we’re with (well, sometimes), why online dating doesn’t work (and what can make it better) (The story of the guy who had collected data on over ten thousand women blew my mind, over ten thousand!), how emotions but lack of thought drive us to act and how one wise action can become a long-term habit. Again, the experiments are unique and entertaining, and I appreciate Ariely’s conclusions. She definitely gave me some things to think about.
I also greatly appreciated the author’s candid honesty about the devastating accident he experienced that left 70 percent of his body covered with third-degree burns. He begins the book with the story (his first book of his told more), but then also discusses some of his experiences related to this accident in different places in the text. I appreciated that he was able to use those experiences as examples to draw additional conclusions related to how and why we behave the way we do. I also liked his suggestions on how we can improve ourselves and our society.
Again, I really didn’t know what this book would be like, but I’m so glad I decided to check it out. It was fascinating and provided great insight into why we behave the way we do. Also, it was written in a lively and entertaining way. It is definitely not a boring text filled with stuffy research. If you wonder why people do things, especially things that seem so irrational, read this book. It will entertain and open your eyes, as well as answer a few questions. It sure did for me.