Sway

If you want to understand the reasons behind irrational behaviour, \”Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions by Dan Ariely\” is a much better choice. The authors of \”Sway\” preferred storytelling to detailed explanation to explain irrational behaviours. Although their stories are mildly entertaining, they lack the depth and details of Ariely\’s book. Unless you are looking for superficial answers to irrational behaviours, I would recommend you invest a few more hours in reading Ariely\’s book and get a much better understanding.

I really enjoyed listening to Sway. The authors gave great examples of poor decision making They backed up the examples by laying out a \”research supported\” framework that helped explain what caused these bad decisions to occur. Further, they also laid out frameworks of decision making designed to avoid making poor decision. Narration was solid.

If you have before read/listened to books for Daniel Kahneman, Dan Ariely, Daniel Gilbert or any of the other great psychologists who illustrate the human biases, heuristics and mental fallacies … then avoid this book. The books only provides anecdotal evidence for already well studied topics while putting the whole thing in a very clumsy, shallow model. Most of the anecdotes are entertaining though 🙂

I passed this book over several times because of a couple of bad reviews. The truth is, if you enjoy your information delivered through narrative, you\’ll like this book very much.

Fans of Malcolm Gladwell (especially “The Tipping Point: How Little Things Make a Big Difference,” 2000 and “Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking,” 2005) will appreciate Ori Brafman and Rom Brafman’s “Sway: The Irresistible Power of Irrational Behavior” I have all of Gladwell’s books. In hardback. And I really liked “Sway”. Actually, “Sway” was an easier read/listen. “Sway” has a lot more anecdotal stories to illustrate the points the Brothers Brafman are making. My favorite chapter was Eight, “Dissenting Justice.” The Brafmans have the most thorough and easy to understand discussion of how the US Supreme Court reviews cases it decides to hear. The purpose of Supreme Courts conferences is to determine how the Court will rule, and the process – honed over hundreds of years – is to make rational decisions, and to respect the voices of dissent. Very few organizations, business or government, would have the time or discipline to engage in the same process – but a modified procedure, encouraging similar careful consideration of the facts, would be well applied used in corporate decision making processes. Chapter Seven, “Cocaine and Compassion” was a close second to Chapter Eight. In “Cocaine and Compassion”, the Brafmans discuss the difference between pleasure center motivation (money, cocaine) and altruistic motivation. The bottom line is that people are more likely to cooperate and perform well for altruistic reasons – and, for biological reasons, the motivation is going to be either pleasure or altruism, but not both at the same time. Altruism is discussed extensively in Adam Grant’s 2013 “Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success.” “Sway” was easier to understand, and I think I would have had an easier time with “Give and Take” if I’d read/listened to “Sway” first. I liked parts of “Sway” so much, I listened to parts of it more than once. The narration was good, but I could have done without the random music – I wasn’t sure what sections it was setting apart.

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