The Upside of Irrationality - A Review

Yet another enjoyable and educational read from Dan Ariely.

A few observations :

1)  On the 'agent' & 'principal' bit in the case of revenge chapter, I think that the reason why people would direct their revenge towards 'principals' even   though it is their 'agents' that are at fault, could very well be that the 'principals' are thought to deserve punishment for employing those 'agents' in the first place. The 'rationale' could be "If you didn't hire these people, then I wouldn't be unhappy and therefore, would not feel the need to punish you."

2)  Coming from an advertising background, I now know why some form of advertising can become blind spots. In the chapter on adaptation, because of our ability to adapt, it can cause us to, over time, pay less and less attention to things around us, which for me includes advertising, which would then render such things as unnoticeable.  So note to self, do not come up with advertising that stays the same for a long period.  Must vary.

Wizard!: Harry Potter's Brand Magic - A Review

A fun analysis of that marketing behemoth Harry Potter.

Stephen Brown is fast becoming one of my favorite marketing writers. He has a humorous and engaging writing style. Loved it when he tried to use the Crucio curse on Seth Godin. Funny haha.

And yes, liked the gimmick of using a mirror to read one of the chapters. Interesting, but a pain and yet it was a marketing message in itself. If you liked something so much, you'd do almost anything for it. For marketers, that is the ultimate response to get out of their customers.

What Would Google Do? - A Review

It's a very long ode to Google, methinks. Maybe too long? It seems like an expanded version of a blog post.

For me, I struggled to finish this. Yes, there are nuggets to be gleaned from it but it just wasn't gripping enough for me to get through this in one long sitting.

This book is for those who don't exactly understand why Google is big news and how it really works and why it's important in our lives. In other words, this book is actually for those who are not Net-savvy.