borgbookcollective reviewed Alchemy by Rory Sutherland
A delightful read!
5 stars
It's refreshing to read a book that encourages exploring childlike curiosities to problems instead of relying solely on the cold, mechanical, unimaginative steady drumbeat of logic.
This passage nicely summed up the theme of the book for me (replace "messages" for ideas and it still applies beautifully):
"Quite simply, all powerful messages must contain an element of absurdity, illogicality, costliness, disproportion, inefficiency, scarcity, difficulty or extravagance - because rational behaviour and talk, for all their strengths, convey no meaning."
It's refreshing to read a book that encourages exploring childlike curiosities to problems instead of relying solely on the cold, mechanical, unimaginative steady drumbeat of logic.
This passage nicely summed up the theme of the book for me (replace "messages" for ideas and it still applies beautifully):
"Quite simply, all powerful messages must contain an element of absurdity, illogicality, costliness, disproportion, inefficiency, scarcity, difficulty or extravagance - because rational behaviour and talk, for all their strengths, convey no meaning."