BookShared
  • MEMBER AREA    
  • Everything is Obvious: Once You Know the Answer

    (By Duncan J. Watts)

    Book Cover Watermark PDF Icon Read Ebook
    ×
    Size 27 MB (27,086 KB)
    Format PDF
    Downloaded 668 times
    Last checked 14 Hour ago!
    Author Duncan J. Watts
    “Book Descriptions: Why is the Mona Lisa the most famous painting in the world? Why did Facebook succeed when other social networking sites failed? Did the surge in Iraq really lead to less violence? How much can CEO’s impact the performance of their companies? And does higher pay incentivize people to work hard?

    If you think the answers to these questions are a matter of common sense, think again. As sociologist and network science pioneer Duncan Watts explains in this provocative book, the explanations that we give for the outcomes that we observe in life—explanation that seem obvious once we know the answer—are less useful than they seem.

    Drawing on the latest scientific research, along with a wealth of historical and contemporary examples, Watts shows how common sense reasoning and history conspire to mislead us into believing that we understand more about the world of human behavior than we do; and in turn, why attempts to predict, manage, or manipulate social and economic systems so often go awry.

    It seems obvious, for example, that people respond to incentives; yet policy makers and managers alike frequently fail to anticipate how people will respond to the incentives they create. Social trends often seem to have been driven by certain influential people; yet marketers have been unable to identify these “influencers” in advance. And although successful products or companies always seem in retrospect to have succeeded because of their unique qualities, predicting the qualities of the next hit product or hot company is notoriously difficult even for experienced professionals.

    Only by understanding how and when common sense fails, Watts argues, can we improve how we plan for the future, as well as understand the present—an argument that has important implications in politics, business, and marketing, as well as in science and everyday life.”

    Google Drive Logo DRIVE
    Book 1

    Hit Makers: The Science of Popularity in an Age of Distraction

    ★★★★★

    Derek Thompson

    Book 1

    Wired for Story: The Writer's Guide to Using Brain Science to Hook Readers from the Very First Sentence

    ★★★★★

    Lisa Cron

    Book 1

    Narrative Economics: How Stories Go Viral and Drive Major Economic Events

    ★★★★★

    Robert J. Shiller

    Book 1

    Hope for Cynics: The Surprising Science of Human Goodness

    ★★★★★

    Jamil Zaki

    Book 1

    You Are Not So Smart

    ★★★★★

    David McRaney

    Book 1

    The spirit level: why more equal societies almost always do better

    ★★★★★

    Richard G. Wilkinson

    Book 1

    The Identity Trap: A Story of Ideas and Power in Our Time

    ★★★★★

    Yascha Mounk

    Book 1

    The Great CEO Within: The Tactical Guide to Company Building

    ★★★★★

    Matt Mochary

    Book 1

    Practical Optimism: The Art, Science, and Practice of Exceptional Well-Being

    ★★★★★

    Sue Varma

    Book 1

    Linked: How Everything Is Connected to Everything Else and What It Means for Business, Science, and Everyday Life

    ★★★★★

    Albert-László Barabási

    Book 1

    Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life

    ★★★★★

    Luke Burgis

    Book 1

    All It Takes Is a Goal: The 3-Step Plan to Ditch Regret and Tap Into Your Massive Potential

    ★★★★★

    Jon Acuff