Lessons from the Book "The Upside of Irrationality"

The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying 
Logic at Work and at Home
by Dan Ariely

   I found this book interesting. The book teaches us some of the irrational human behaviors and explains the truth behind them. It covers some of the human behaviors and psychology of the actions that we usually do. The author tries to find out the insights and logic at the decisions we make generally by conducting social experiments.

   For me, some of the ideas that were proved by social experiments looked with obvious answers. Intuitively, I agree with ideas like "Over-payment does not improve the performance", "Everyone wants to see his work appreciated", and "Saying sorry to people works well" without proving them.

   Overall, it is a good book and you can get useful ideas. The conclusions in this book shed light to understand irrational decisions and make you think about them. Some of my lessons from the book are:

   1. Paying too much or giving big bonuses can not motivate employers always. Over-payment may work well for those who work for fixed or lower wages.

   2. Not paying enough attention to the performance of the others means that you are ignoring them. And this will demotivate them. People want recognition and appreciation of their work.

   3. We over evaluate our work, even if it is something simple.

   4. If you do wrong accept your fault and simply apologize. The revenge of people may cost you too much. Forgiveness makes your life easier.

I recommend reading this book!