The Review This Week
What We’re Reading- Alchemy: The Surprising Power of Ideas That Don’t Make Sense by Rory Sutherland
Halfway through this book, and it’s fast becoming a favourite given the ease with which concepts are explained and the emphasis on context and counter-intuitive thinking. While the academic study of Behavioural Economics / Science begins from simply acknowledging irrationality, Alchemy celebrates and explores this irrationality to point out the genius that often emerges of it. https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/tell-us-what-we-want
What We’re Listening To- Adam Grant and Tim Harford - The Power of Knowing What We Don’t Know
In a world obsessed with knowing more and more about everything, Adam Grant took this powerful statement - Think Again - for the title of his new book (which I will be reading soon!) and has had a compelling few discussions around reminding ourselves to to keep questioning our own assumptions. I found this conversation particularly intriguing also given the presence of Tim Harford, one of the first I discovered when I began exploring this field. https://open.spotify.com/episode/788noyFoiKyoFEi3ZVZ4KW
What We’re Watching- The Last Mile Problem: TED Talk by Sendhil Mullainathan [2010]
You might be wondering why I bring up this decade old talk.. It’s often one of the first resources I point out whenever someone who might be interested in the field asks for places to begin exploring. In a short time, the fundamental issues of counter-intuitive thinking and design of interventions that are not behaviourally sensitive are spoken about through the lens of development. https://www.ideas42.org/blog/last-mile-problem-sendhil-mullainathans-tedtalk/
