Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior
by Ori Brafman, Rom Brafman
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Book Summary Information
Author: Ori Brafman, Rom BrafmanEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Format: Deckle Edge
Published: 2008-06-03
ISBN: 0385524382
Number of pages: 224
Publisher: Crown Business
Book Reviews of Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior
Book Review: Super Book, Fast Read, Relevant to Participatory Democracy
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a very fine book, a fast read, and highly relevant to Web 2.0 and all the emergent opportunities to turn our world right side up, restoring power back to all the people. My reading has moved heavily toward cognitive science and "open everything," and my avowed goal, apart from creating public intelligence in the public interest, is to make "true cost" visible to the public on every product and service, penetrating through the kinds of sway barriers this book describes.
Each chapter is excellent, with a nice teaser diagram. The book is double-spaced with adequate notes and index.
My flyleaf highlights:
+ Diagnosis bias is huge. [The book does not focus enough on how our "experts know more and more about less and less," but the core point is valid: once their tiny little brain storage reaches a conclusion, they bend everything to fit it. this could also be called paradigm or disciplinary bias.]
+ Hidden currents in the individual and group decision support process include loss aversion, value attribution or negatiion, and a commitment to the wrong s trategy. Holy Cow. Talk about CIA, Microsoft, Google, CISCO, they are all there.
+ NBA draft is mostly guess and speculation [so is most intelligence "analysis" and both groups get away with it because they are not held accountable for getting it wrong.]
+ Labels *matter* and deeply influence outcomes.
+ Visualization *sells* just about anything.
+ Cues and subtle messages are nuanced and complex and omnipresent. I was really engaged by this section.
+ Need to be heard is vital and the more one does that, the more value is created (this is social networking 101, as Web 2.0 starts to go over the cliff so Web 3.0 can rise like a Pheonix.] The authors stress that those offering to listen must *hear* each individual voice.
+ Blockers matter, i.e. there have to be people in the loop who have the courage, the commitment, the *role* of saying no to abuses of authority including rankism. [I think of all our flag officers and Congress Members who refused to challenge the criminal lies of the White House and the abuses of power by the Vice President, all documented now in the open literature. Had Colin Powell resigned and called for a stop, he would be President in 2009, instead of those now running. all flawed in their own way [and each a testiment to how easily we are swayed by a lack of substance on the part of all three--visit Earth Intelligence Network to see the 52 questions none of the candidates can answer, and the 52 "starter" answers for a Citizens Summit to discuss (February 2009 in Chicago, over Lincoln's birthday).
Great little book. Here are some others I have found to be valuable:
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media
The Landscape of History: How Historians Map the Past
Voltaire's Bastards: The Dictatorship of Reason in the West
Group Genius: The Creative Power of Collaboration
The Age of Missing Information
Forbidden Knowledge: From Prometheus to Pornography
Fog Facts: Searching for Truth in the Land of Spin
Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush's War on Iraq
Below is the first in a series of non-profit books (also free online), relevant to creating public intelligence in the public interest).
Collective Intelligence: Creating a Prosperous World at Peace
Summary of Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior
A fascinating journey into the hidden psychological influences that derail our decision-making, Sway will change the way you think about the way you think.
Why is it so difficult to sell a plummeting stock or end a doomed relationship? Why do we listen to advice just because it came from someone ?important?? Why are we more likely to fall in love when there?s danger involved? In Sway, renowned organizational thinker Ori Brafman and his brother, psychologist Rom Brafman, answer all these questions and more.
Drawing on cutting-edge research from the fields of social psychology, behavioral economics, and organizational behavior, Sway reveals dynamic forces that influence every aspect of our personal and business lives, including loss aversion (our tendency to go to great lengths to avoid perceived losses), the diagnosis bias (our inability to reevaluate our initial diagnosis of a person or situation), and the ?chameleon effect? (our tendency to take on characteristics that have been arbitrarily assigned to us).
Sway introduces us to the Harvard Business School professor who got his students to pay $204 for a $20 bill, the head of airline safety whose disregard for his years of training led to the transformation of an entire industry, and the football coach who turned conventional strategy on its head to lead his team to victory. We also learn the curse of the NBA draft, discover why interviews are a terrible way to gauge future job performance, and go inside a session with the Supreme Court to see how the world?s most powerful justices avoid the dangers of group dynamics.
Every once in a while, a book comes along that not only challenges our views of the world but changes the way we think. In Sway, Ori and Rom Brafman not only uncover rational explanations for a wide variety of irrational behaviors but also point readers toward ways to avoid succumbing to their pull.
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