I wrote this about 8 months ago — but it makes particular sense right now ….
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If (as is often the case) talking about sex makes people more interested in having it, does that mean that the current talk about a recession could actually be creating one? Well, maybe.
Or so one general finding of behavioral economics would have us believe. With all this chatter about a recession, consumers might, for example, hold off on buying that new dishwasher because of the “bad economy,” or pass up the more expensive restaurant because “we’re in a recession.” Without any discussion about recession, we’re unlikely to change our pattern of behavior. But talking about it can be a force that affects our decisions and alters our consumption habits.What makes me think that we’re such creatures of habit? Consider the experience of eating a Godiva truffle: The chocolate is melting in your mouth, the aroma penetrates your nose, there is a small nut inside. . . . Now think about this familiar experience and try to determine how much it’s worth to you. A quarter? $0.50? $0.75? $1.25? $2.50? While the experience of eating a truffle is very familiar, figuring out what we would be willing to pay for it proves difficult. So what do we do when we make purchasing decisions? (more…)
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Like From the NYT op-ed
BY withholding bonuses from their top executives, Goldman Sachs and UBS may soften negative reaction from Congress and the public if their earnings reports in December are poor, as is expected. But will they also suffer because their executives, lacking the motivation that big bonuses are thought to provide, will not do their jobs well? (more…)
Dear Irrational,
Congratulations on being selected as one of Fortune’s 10 new gurus of the year.
My question to you is how do I get my son to call me more frequently? Any advice on this?
Yours
Yoram
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Dear Aba (father in Hebrew),
I suspect that guilt could work as one of the best ways to increase phone call frequency — so I would try that first. Also it would help if you would answer your cell phone more frequently…
Anyway, I just got home after being away for 5 days, so I will call you tomorrow.
Love
Dan
Burns are a particularly nasty and painful type of injury: the nerve endings are damaged, skin regrows tougher and tighter, and on top of this patients have to also deal with physical therapy.
A new game, called Snow World gets burn patients to play a 3D computer game in which move along a snowy path and fire snowballs at nonmoving target. What are the effects of this game? A recent report shows that patients playing the game report feeling less pain when playing, and more impressively also get a greater range of motion in their burnt limbs as their muscles relaxed. Finally, they also get less pain medication was also required, meaning patients were lucid for longer periods of time.
This is just great — and I wish I had this game when I was in hospital. Maybe we can find games for other issues as well (eliminating the pain of social rejection, losing money in the stock market….).
As it turns out Predictably Irrational was selected by Amazon’s customers as their favorite book for 2008 in the category of Business & Investing.
It was also selected as #23 in customer favorites across all categories.
I can’t tell you how happy this makes me.
Irrationally yours
Dan
Today was an interesting customer service day. First, our cable (phone, internet and TV) stopped working. I got on the neighbors network and requested a technician from Time Warner. I was told that someone would come the next day and that they would call 30 minutes before they arrived and if we did not answer the phone they would not show up and we would have to call to reschedule the service visit. I tried to point out that the reason I need someone is that I don’t have a working phone, but this was lost on them.
When I got to the office I called the mortgage company. Our mortgage was just sold from one bank to another, and I called to make sure that they applied the first payment correctly. Yes, they got the payment but they did apply it to the mortgage. Why? I have no idea and they did not know either – so they asked me to call back in a few days to see if something had changed. Reluctantly I agreed, and then the customer service person asked me if all my questions were answered. “Are you joking?” I asked. “I had one question and you told me to call back.” You are correct,” she said, “did I answer all your questions?” “What do you think” I asked. “I guess we didn’t.” she said.
I am sure looking forward to calling them again in a few days.