{"id":474,"date":"2008-06-01T12:29:11","date_gmt":"2008-06-01T17:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/devinreams.com\/blog\/2008\/06\/01\/sway-the-irresistible-pull-of-irrational-behavior\/"},"modified":"2010-02-28T09:53:27","modified_gmt":"2010-02-28T16:53:27","slug":"sway-the-irresistible-pull-of-irrational-behavior","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.reams.me\/?p=474","title":{"rendered":"Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><strong>UPDATE:<\/strong> If you&#8217;re looking for a free copy of the book,  head on over to <a href=\"http:\/\/okdork.com\/2008\/06\/03\/startup-tips-how-i-grew-a-waiting-list-of-20000-at-mintcom-part-i\/\">okdork<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I finished reading an awesome book that&#8217;s about to come out: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Sway-Irresistible-Pull-Irrational-Behavior\/dp\/0385524382\">Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior<\/a>. These book comes from the same guy (and his brother) that wrote <a href=\"http:\/\/devinreams.com\/blog\/2006\/10\/23\/the-starfish-and-the-spider\/\">The Starfish and the Spider<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.devinreams.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/06\/swaybook.jpg\" style=\"float:left\"\/>Ori and his brother take another Tipping Point slash Freakonomics approach to this book which is very successful and very good at communicating complicated concepts. By using stories I&#8217;m able to quickly grasp the idea, and then I have a vivid application of the concept that I can turn around and use to share with others. This is the kind of book you read today and talk about with <em>everyone<\/em> you run into for the next three weeks.<\/p>\n<p>The main point of the book is that we are often drawn to doing dumb (irrational) things and making decisions that make no sense&#8230; but in reality, they do. These are some of the concepts that can help us understand why people behave irrationally:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>We fear a loss:<\/strong> if we sense we&#8217;re going to lose something, we&#8217;ll do everything we can, and make stupid choices, to try and reverse it (even if we know it&#8217;d be smarter to give up and accept the small loss now). Example: stock market.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Incentive can actually deter us:<\/strong> Our brain makes a decision based on either the intrinsic (do the right thing) or extrinsic (give me $10) reward&#8211;but that financial motivation may backfire and prevent us from doing something. Example: your company wants you to find new business and you do because it&#8217;s a good challenge and develops your skills&#8230; but then they introduce a $50 reward&#8211;you decide that&#8217;s not enough incentive to sell new business.<\/li>\n<li><strong>We make a wrong decision if someone else does, too:<\/strong> studies show that it takes just one person to agree and then, suddenly a bad decision becomes a good one. A simple confirmation is all it takes. Example: crossing the street without looking when the guy next to you steps out.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Go read the book and you&#8217;ll realize, yes, this is what is going on all the time. It helps explain so many behavioral (and economical) decisions that, hopefully, the understanding of &#8216;sway&#8217; can help you make better choices (about yourself, your products, your approaches, etc.).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Book Website:<\/strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.swaybook.com\/\">swaybook.com<\/a>*<br \/>\n<strong>Amazon page:<\/strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Sway-Irresistible-Pull-Irrational-Behavior\/dp\/0385524382\">Sway goes on sale June 3, 2008<\/a><\/p>\n<p>* Another book with an online (video-based) trailer. Very cool, and much better at explaining the book than I can. Check it out!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>UPDATE: If you&#8217;re looking for a free copy of the book, head on over to okdork. I finished reading an awesome book that&#8217;s about to come out: Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior. These book comes from the same guy (and his brother) that wrote The Starfish and the Spider. Ori and his brother [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[85],"tags":[73],"class_list":["post-474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-people"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.reams.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.reams.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.reams.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.reams.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.reams.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=474"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.reams.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1041,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.reams.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474\/revisions\/1041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.reams.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.reams.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.reams.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}