Books on Behaviour, Irrationality, & Economics
I’m struggling to separate the wheat from the chaff in this list of books. I just know that hidden within some there must be a treasure trove of knowledge. The problem is: in which?
- Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness
- Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions
- The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable
- Irrationality: The Enemy Within
- More Sex Is Safer Sex: The Unconventional Wisdom of Economics
- Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior
- Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
- Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
- Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything
- The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
- The Long Tail: How Endless Choice Is Creating Unlimited Demand
- The Undercover Economist
- Which of Seth Godin’s books are ‘required reading’?
Most of these have a multitude of reviews, but I’ve never put much stock in this; the best reviewed books can often be awful and an undiscovered masterpiece could have a single unfavourable review. I feel the paradox of choice is playing a key role here.
2 Comments
I would recommend that you try
Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions
Best
Dan
Dan,
I didn’t realise that you—an MIT professor—had written Predictably Irrational. A long-term wish of mine has been to study there and I respect the staff enormously. This bodes well as another vote for Predictably Irrational.
At first I was attracted to the book through the following quote from Daniel Gilbert:
I really enjoyed Stumbling on Happiness, finding it to have a great mix of anecdotes and ‘hard’ science. It sounds like this is may be the theme with your book too.
Thanks,
Lloyd