The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic at Work and at Home by Dan Ariely

The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic at Work and at Home by Dan Ariely
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This books, as the name indicates, tries to highlight the flip side of irrationality.

Some of the observations are as under.

High bonuses do not necessarily translate in better performance. When the bonus goes beyond a point the apprehension to perform hinders the performance of the person and they end up delivering less than they could have, if the bonus had been nominal. Although irrational, it probably make sense to temper the bonus offered. Besides the money is not the only driver to performance. Other factors like how much the person enjoys the work, the completion of the tasks and seeing their output being useful to the organization or others are other motivating factors.

People value their creation more than anybody else's, however mediocre the outcome may be. This is called the IKEA effect. The corollary of this is the "Not-Invented-Here" bias. People tend to reinvent the wheel or continue to use inefficient tools and processes just because they happen to have been invented by them or in the organization. A classic example that is quoted is that of Thomas Edison who failed to see the value in the Alternating Current invented by Tesla and continued to blow the trumpet of Direct Current. It is said he even went to the extent of killing animals using AC to prove his point.

Fear of revenge is a very big deterrent. One way to reduce the reduce the chances of revenge and/or to reduce the severity of revenge is to apologize unconditionally. An example is that if Jefferey Katzenberg who left Disney in a huff and went on to establish Dreamworks SKG and produced very successful films like Shrek and extracted further revenge by parodying his boss from Disney, Micheal Eisner in those films.

Humans are extremely adaptable. From our eyes adjusting to variations in light to our mind getting adjusted to a loss or tempering after a big success. Humans tend to bounce back normalcy. It is only a matter of time. This is further strengthened by the fact that people who have endured pain which has benefited them (like removal of bandages from wound) have a better endurance than ones who have not endured much pain.

Pleasure of pain if interrupted stretches longer. So it makes a lot of sense to finish a painful task than taking breaks and taking breaks in a pleasurable task.

People show more empathy and emotion towards people who they are close to or relate to or have something in common than to others. Individual appeal (a cancer patient or a child suffering from a congenital problem) draws more attention, sympathy, empathy and more grants than a mass appeal (refugees in Rwanda or tsunami victims in Asia). Global warming does not make people change their way because they are effected; there is no dramatic effect; the effect is not immediate; and we feel as an individual we will have no significant effect (this is called the drop in the ocean effect).

We get emotional and make decisions under these circumstances and act. Later when encountered with the same or a similar situation we tend to act the same way. This is because we remember the action, but not the emotion under which we acted.

A good follow up read.

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