Sunstein and Hastie in Wiser have produced a useful book. They discuss being wiser through less happy talk. Group Decision-Making Many elements of their text will be familiar to those who read popular decision-making books. That said, the ideas are well explained and practically applicable. The added interest is that Sunstein served in the Obama…
Category: Decision Making
Confusion About Individual Rationality and Market Outcomes
Amongst marketing scholars there is a lot of confusion regarding individual rationality and market outcomes. There is also plenty of blame to go around for the confusion. Marketing’s Two Groups Who Politely Ignore One Another In marketing we have bifurcated into two groups. Psychologically trained scholars often suggest that economically trained scholars all believe in…
Fitting Marketing Messages To The Circumstances
Fitting marketing messages to the circumstances is a critical skill. There isn’t a perfect message irrespective of context. People Hate Marketing As a marketing professor, it is always fun to hear how people hate marketing. Sometimes people: A) simply only really hate bad marketing. B) don’t appreciate that marketing is broader than selling/advertising/communications. Of course,…
Should We Get Rid Of Irrationality? Perhaps, What Is Irrationality?
Dan Ariely is a very enjoyable writer and an excellent researcher. That said I find his central theme of “irrationality” a problem. It is hard to know what people mean when they talk about irrationality. My central question is: What Is Irrationality? Advice To The Irrational In his advice book, Irrationally Yours, readers ask Ariely…
Some Excellent Advice
Dan Ariely clearly has a lot of fun writing his newspaper column. He has an edited volume of his advice, Irrationally Yours, which contains some excellent advice. Today I’ll share some of this. Next week I’ll explain why I don’t like the book’s title. Advice Columns Firstly, advice columns are challenging. As an academic, I…
Crossing Chasms and Anecdotal Evidence
Geoffrey Moore‘s book, Crossing the Chasm, has been a hugely popular book in the marketing strategy area. I can see why. Moore has a clear thesis, the examples are interesting, and the topic important. Unfortunately Crossing the Chasm has a plausible story but no more. Crossing the chasm is just an anecdote, a good anecdote…
A Bias Towards A Bias To Action?
Phil Rosenzweig likes criticizing other people. He is usually correct. Still, at his worst, he is highly selective in his criticisms. Rosenzweig seems starstruck by CEOs and their dodgy pronouncements. He happily agrees with dubious advice from top managers. He shows a bias towards a bias to action. Yet, he gets out his microscope when…
Decision-Making In The Real World
Phil Rosenzweig is a contrarian. You can tell he enjoys disagreeing with people. The Halo Effect was a great read that targeted strategy researchers. His new book , Left Brain, Right Stuff, is an attack on decision research. It focuses on decision-making in the real world. Positive Comments The book has many good points and…
Sales And Consumer Protection
Peter Shawn Taylor discusses sales and consumer protection. He criticizes the Canadian Competition Bureau “for going after retailers for discounting too often” (Taylor, 2015). The piece was interesting. Sadly, Taylor’s arguments were unconvincing. Sales And Consumer Protection I’ll focus upon the general arguments rather than the specific cases. I cannot comment on the specific details…
Antifragility
Nassim Nicholas Taleb is clearly worth listening to. His idea of antifragility is useful. But he seems determined to alienate people. His book, Antifragile, is sprawling and confrontational. He uses it to settle a long list of scores with famous names. Those who disagree are not merely wrong. Instead, they are portrayed as cartoon villains…
