Psychology

The book presents an interesting viewpoint on the meaning of life, questioning traditional self-help gurus, consumerism, and over-obsession with positive thinking.

The book talks about randomness, associated maths, and the psychological biases which interfere with a more stochastic approach to thinking about life.

The book talks about Martin’s experience as a brand consultant where he tries to expose the subtleties of marketing used by corporations to create or increase demand for their products. Some techniques mentioned in the book are morally questionable. Overall, it’s a great read into at the intersection of psychology and business. I would recommend reading this in conjunction with “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion”

The way the human brain learns is different from how it remembers. Good practitioners know how to remember. Good teachers know how to make others learn.

You cannot read a book kept too far or too close to your eyes. You cannot comfortably watch a movie from the first row of the multiplex, and you can’t watch it from the other end of a football field either. When you are too far, details are lost. And when details are lost, everything looks similar and boring. When you are too close, the perspective is lost. And when perspective is lost, one gets overwhelmed by the details. ...

If you are driving at a speed of 60 mph (or kmph, it won’t matter) from one city to another and return at 40 mph, then what would be your average speed?

You are standing in a queue waiting to buy food, order drinks, or buy tickets. The queue is long and is moving slowly. You are grumbling about the people standing in the front, why are they asking so many questions, why can’t they make choices beforehand. And then your turn comes. You are prepared. You know what you want. But it took so long to reach here. why not confirm your choices? After all, you stood for so long, at least you can spend a minute or two confirming that you are making the right choice. If you made an incorrect or an incomplete order, who would stand again in this long queue to correct it? ...

KBB is used in the US for estimating the value of a used car before buying/selling it. While helping friends buy used cars, I felt that it always overvalued the car. I feel there is an anchoring effect in play here. A car owner (seller) feels happier checking the value of their car since it is being reported higher than what they expect. This provides a nice room for providing a discount for converting the buyer. A buyer, especially a first-time one, would feel happier since they are getting a discount on the KBB value. If instead KBB rightly priced the cars, it would leave no room for negotiation, leading to lower conversions. Thus, despite having no direct incentives, KBB would be inclined towards overvaluation. I wonder if the same thing applies for home-buying sites like Zillow and Trulia.

The book is an interesting take on what it takes to attain a happy marriage and why only ~30% of us end up in happy marriages. The book is divided into three sections - what is love, why we fail in the game of love and what can we do differently to succeed at it.

The book talks about various psychological tactics used by compliance practitioners like salespeople, waiters, car dealers, and fundraisers to influence us into saying yes to something to which ideally we would have said no. The author went and took sales jobs as a car salesman and waiter to see these tactics in action. He referred to these tactics as six weapons of influence. Each of them forms the basis of a chapter in the book. Weapons of influence Weapons of influence consist of identifying fixed action patterns and exploiting them. Compliance practitioners use them as a basis for influence.