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Alchemy
Alchemy
Oct 11, 2024 5:27 AM

Author:Rory Sutherland

Alchemy

‘A breakthrough book. Wonderfully applicable to everything in life, and funny as hell.’ Nassim Nicholas Taleb

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?

Discover the alchemy behind original thinking, as TED Talk superstar and Ogilvy advertising legend Rory Sutherland reveals why abandoning logic and casting aside rationality is the best way to solve any problem.

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. He shows how economists, businesses and governments have got it all wrong: we are not rational creatures who make logical decisions based on evidence. Instead, the big problems we face every day, whether as an individual or in society, could very well be solved by thinking less logically. To be brilliant, you have to be irrational.

Reviews

This is a breakthrough book: Mother Reality makes sense in her own way. She yields her secrets to practitioners, almost never to academics - something psychologists, economists and non-skin in the game people, no matter what they say, are functionally unable to grasp. And the book is funny as hell: I smiled and laughed at every paragraph.
Furthermore, this is the first such treatise written by someone who had true contact with reality via something called a P/L.
And this is wonderfully applicable to about everything in life, from how to announce airplane delays to how to handle unsold opera tickets.
Buy two copies of this book in case one is stolen.

—— Nassim Nicholas Taleb, scholar and former trader; author of the Incerto.

Revelatory and entertaining

—— The Sunday Times

Reading Alchemy was, as its title promised, the process of turning paper and print into gold. Veins of wisdom regarding human functioning emerge regularly and brilliantly from the pages. Don't miss this book.

—— Robert Cialdini, bestselling author of Influence, Yes!, The Small BIG and Pre-suasion

Deeply original

—— Robert Trivers, evolutionary biologist and author of Deceit and Self-Deception

Sutherland’s book touches on many facets of life, but all come down to the importance of “psycho-logic”, or non-rational factors, in how we make decisions and how problems can be solved

—— CAMPAIGN magazine

Rory Sutherland is one of the all-time great raconteurs, polymaths, and ad men. But this book shows his hidden depths. Within this fun, quirky, hilarious page-turner, he develops a profound critique of technocratic hubris and fetishised economics. Sutherland helps us rediscover the profound wisdom behind everyday human reasoning, and invites us to explore the magic that happens when we trust a bit less in our focus groups and optimization models, and trust a bit more in our creative eccentricity.

—— Geoffrey Miller, evolutionary psychologist, author of The Mating Mind, Spent, and What Women Want

Brilliant, Brilliant, Brilliant … wonderfully heretical, naughty and funny … Uncommon sense on stilts

—— Jules Goddard, Fellow of the Centre for Management Development at London Business School and co-author of Uncommon Sense, Common Nonsense

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. It’s full of great insights.

—— Matt Ridley, author of The Rational Optimist

Sutherland captivates in a narrative full of intellectual treats that explain much of the behaviours in the world around us. This illogically logical read is a must read for anyone who is in the people business!

—— Dilip Soman, Canada Research Chair in Behavioural Science and Economics, University of Toronto

Stimulating and funny

—— The Times

Serious, at times funny, but also kind and knowledgable

—— Hertfordshire Life

A lovely, thoughtful, caring and informative book which will help very many people

—— Ed Balls

Include in 'Health solutions for your mind and body'

—— Woman's Weekly

Wise, kind, funny, sad and beautifully written. Everyone who occupies a human body should read it

—— Erin Kelly

Fabulous . . . Sensitively and cleverly written . . . remarkable

—— Judy Murray

The most moving and real account of a person's relationship with their body I have ever read... A book with a wild, deep, joyous, tender love of people at its heart

—— Emma Jane Unsworth

A much needed clarion call for greater empathy, compassion and respect for humanity

—— Daisy Buchanan

A sensitively written, wise and joyful look at the way that families can crack apart and then reconfigure... [Heminsley's] telling of their family tale is so warm, observant, and kind, and perfectly illustrates how malleable love can be

—— Farming Life

A gorgeous open-hearted read but also a vital, instructive one

—— Caroline Sanderson , Bookseller

A raw, heartbreaking, uplifting memoir about reinvention, being a woman and love in all its forms. An important book, beautifully written

—— Kate Davies, author of In at the Deep End

Alexandra Heminsley understands what it is to be a woman in a world that judges us, our bodies, and the experience of these bodies, in every way and at all times... Charting her journey to her own body through loss, heartache and trauma, alongside love, friendship and hope, she suggests that each of us might find our own way to embody our deepest truths, and that we might do so with generosity to others on their own journey

—— Stella Duffy

[Heminsley] writes with unflinching clarity

—— Brian Morton , Tablet

[An] insightful memoir

—— Joanne Finney , Good Housekeeping

Bracingly honest...big-hearted... [and] page-turningly compelling

—— Holly Williams , Observer

Some Body To Love is an honest and thoughtful memoir that touches on difficult contemporary topics . . . Incredibly moving and very, very powerfu

—— Monocle

A powerful treatise on pain and love, this is an honest, moving and authentic examination of the end of a relationship, and the way our lives can fracture and recover from sudden, seismic shifts. Heminsley's writing is sharply resonant - you don't have to share her experiences to be struck by her observations about letting go with love, and how we can find strength in self-love too

—— SheerLuxe, *Books of the Year*

I wish I had saved The Shapeless Unease to read in isolation but Samantha Harvey’s book about insomnia, time, death and so many unknowable things is a blessing to have in lonely times. It is a profound and stunning book but funny, too.

—— Fatima Bhutto , Evening Standard

A beautiful, jagged little book about insomnia and so many unknowable things: life and death, Buddhism, and how language alters our thinking. But I was most struck by its form and structure.

—— Fatima Bhutto , New Statesman

[Samantha Harvey's] cerebral, startlingly clear account of somehow pulling through [from insomnia] carries an electric charge and meditates on not only the mystery of sleep but also writing, swimming and dreams.

—— Net-a-Porter

[The Shapeless Unease] is beautifully crafted and its achievement makes itself more apparent on a second reading.

—— Richard Gwyn , Wales Art Review

A masterpiece, so good I can hardly breathe. I'm completely floored by it.

—— Helen Macdonald

This book seems appropriately messy-haired and wild-eyed... Anyone who has lain awake the night before a big test will recognize such manic flourishes. Harvey captures the 4 a.m. bloom of magical thinking; stories proliferate within stories... To read Harvey is to grow spoiled on gorgeous phrases.

—— Katy Waldman , New Yorker
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