Rezensionen und Kommentare

Wieder eine sehr spannende und schöne Sammlung an den "Raketenheften" wie mein Freund Martin sagen würde. Klar, die Story kenne ich schon, mehrfach gelesen, aber es ist trotzdem schön. Und ich bin ja jetzt in dem Alter in dem man auch mal was vergisst, also... ;-)

The author Rory Sutherland has a long experience in marketing, so according to common stereotypes of the relationship between engineering and marketing I, a software engineer, shouldn't like this book. Well, I have to say that this book is really extraordinary insightful.

The basic claim of this book is that there is not only a "logical" solution to problems, but also a "psychological" solution. And somtimes behavious is completely irrational which is not bad, as Sutherland explains on the example of a gazelle that flees from a predator and running zig-zag patterns that are completely random and unpredictable. Because if they would be predictable the predator could learn and have an advantage.

Sutherland is also citing great authors like Dan Ariely ("Predictably irrational") or Daniel Kahneman ("Thinking, fast and slow") when it comes to behavioural psychology. One interesting conclusion is the fact that we often value only things that can be measuered with a metric but we don't value things like "architecture".

Sutherland got my sympathy when he condemned the cost saving in economics as bullshit because all those decision makers usually do not consider what damage they do with their "downsize this" mentality. An example is that we invest in high speed trains to save time on travel, but sometimes it would be much easier and cheaper to save the same amount of time when switching trains in stations.

The author also tells you that the alchemists did great work, but since they were so obsessed to turn lead into gold they didn't notice the good things they created.

You get some insightful anectodes from marketing about rebranding stuff which makes things that nobody wanted to buy before suddenly skyrocket. You learn why doorhandles are a better design than door knobs (because you can use it even with your elbow) and that "less is more" on the example of the Sony Walkman that got the recording function removed in the beginning.

Sutherland also explains very well, why brands are important and that this signals to the customer, that you can trust the firm, because a brand has much more reputation to lose than a "no brand" company. I also learned that you have to get a 4 year training before you can become a taxi driver in London, this is why he trusts the London taxi drivers.

You learn about the signals that are there, but not obvious, but still give you messages. An example is a street cafe that puts out valueable seats and tables every day. This signals not only that they are open, but that they care.

One great quote is "a flower is just a weed with a marekting budget". What works with flowers also works with other lifeforms, even humans invest in "marketing" to attract potential sexual partners.

Sutherland also has some parts on Placebos and why they seem to work. An example is Red Bull which people think tastes bad, but besides that sells very good.

Theres a part about how we make decisions and how we build trust. Lessons I take away from that is that its better to be mostly right than perfectly wrong and that when you make decisions you should always think on about the worst case scenario. A impressive example is the flight that ended in the Hudson river after a bird strike that killed both engines. There was a slight chance to save the plane from getting wet and trying a landing at Teteboro airport, but if things would go wrong and the plane crashes people would die. So the better decision was landing in the river, even it this means losing the plane.

You learn a lot about decision making processes and also about perception, sometimes with some funny examples. You learn how you can influence people or deliver "bad news" in a way that they seem to be "good news". Sutherland is quoting Shakespeare here: "There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so."

At the end, this book is telling you to act a little bit less logical and be eager to try out even "crazy ideas". The reward could be a wonderland of miracles that you wouldn't have discovered by just acting "logical".

A really great and insightful book, highly recommended to read, even for engineers. ;-)

The only part I disagree with Sutherland is about the idea that you can postpone buying a new car for a while when you get your old car professinally cleaned because then the old car looks like a new car for a little price. Wouldn't have worked for me when I bought my last car, because the previous car had engine problems beyond repair.

An interesting book to read, even after Joe Biden was elected to be the next president of the United States. Sarah writes about a nation in despair, a country with lots of inner conflicts. She tells the history of the Trump clan and how they are connected to crimes, money laundering, Russian oligarchs and so on. Its a shame that with all this criminal record Donald Trump faced no legal consequences so far and was able to damage the democracy and international affairs during his presidency.

A remarkable advice for me is the following qoute from the book: "This is why I wrote that open letter encouraging people to write down who they were before autocratic consolidation took hold. I wanted Americans to have a way to remember what we thought of as normal and acceptable and track how far we have deviated."

A very wise advice, especially in the time of a global pandemic where you find out that lots of weird people are around that only care for themselves.

Now if you ask, why not 5 stars, then I need to explain that I got the impression that even while diagnosing more or less the critical condition of the US the author is still looking at some events like the whistleblowing of Eric Snowden with the eyes of an american patriot. Living in a country where the leaders were spied on by the NSA I see this a bit different than her.

Nevertheless, a book to recommend for reading. Hopefully the American nation has learned the lesson in 4 years of Trump's presidency.

Ein durchaus interessantes Buch für Leute die in der Lebenssituation "Paar mit Kind(ern)" stecken und bei denen sich einer der Erwachsenen von den Aufgaben des Familienmanagements überfordert fühlt. Hier bietet das Buch ein ein paar gute Ansätze zum gerechten Aufteilen der Aufgaben in der Familie. Zum Beispiel den sehr hilfreichen Tipp, dass man wenn man Aufgaben delegiert auch dazu sagen muss wie der Sollzustand bei Erledigung (Definition of Done) aussehen soll.

Für andere Lebenssituationen wie "alleinerziehend" oder "Partner ist behindert und braucht Pflege" bietet das Buch leider nicht viel an. Es liest sich wie ein Erfahrungsbericht der Autorin mit Hinweisen, was in ihrer ersten Beziehung schlecht lief und jetzt mit einem neuen Partner deutlich besser funktioniert.

Für mich als "Productivity Nerd" ist es auch interessant zu lesen, dass die Autorin immer wieder den "Mental Load" als die Überforderung definiert, sich als alleinig Verantwortliche(r) alles merken zu müssen. Hier kann ich nur auf David Allen "Getting Things Done" verweisen und den Spruch "Your brain is for having ideas, not for holding them". Viel von dem Stress der aus der Idee wächst, sich alles merken zu müssen kann man nämlich auch vermeiden, indem man die Dinge die man tun muss und will in einem externen System aufschreibt.

Insgesamt durchaus interessant abhängig von der Lebensituation des Lesers, aber nicht unbedingt so fesselnd dass man es nicht mehr aus der Hand legen will.

Da ich die epub-Version auf meinem Kobo-Reader gelesen habe hier noch als Anmerkung, dass in manchen Abschnitten die Umlaute sehr "merkwu"rdig" gesetzt sind, also genauso wie ich das geschrieben habe, die Punkte nicht über dem Buchstaben sondern im Leerzeichen daneben. Das scheint besonders of bei Zitaten zwischen ">>" und "<<" vorzukommen.

An interesting book. Manson tells a lot of stories and dives deep into philosophical questions. I would have given 5 stars if there wouldn't be a historic flaw. In the first chapter he tells the story of Witold Pilecki, a polish man that sneaked into the Auschwitz contentration camp during World War 2 and spied against the Nazis. And then you read "How did you build you own transistor radio out of spare parts and stolen batteries, Mac-Gyver style, and then successfully transmit plans for an attack on the prison camp to the Secret Polish Army in Warsaw?". The problem I see is that the "official birth date" of the transistor is December 21, 1947, so two and a half year after the war was over.
Besides that inaccuracy its a book worth reading. You learn about the basic concepts of religions and you learn, that even capitalsim and whatever drives the world is a sort of religion. Then you visit great philosophers like Nietzsche or Kant. And at the end you learn about the disruption that artificial intelligence is introducing to our daily life. That AI might be the next god.

Lots of pages, but at the end I'm still thinking "WTF?! What is the message of this book?" Honestly, I can't see it. Yes, there is that black swan which is very rare, but what is the takeaway from this conclusion?

I was reading the german translation, so even in my mother tongue I'm not able to get the message, if there is any. The only thing I understood so far is that the author does not like Gauss and his bell curve for normal distributions. The funny part of his "evidence that Gauss is wrong" seems to be the idea that according to Gauss a crash of the finance market should happen only once in whatever million years and since we had several of those crashes in the past this proves that Gauss is wrong. Problem with this is, that Gauss is looking at random events. Finance markets are not random events but driven by greed. So if you misbehave, then you get the bill for it. If I'm daily speeding on the road and get my daily speeding tiket I can't blame Gauss for that because according to Gauss it would be a very low probability to get speeding tickets for 28 days in a row.

One of the books that was painful to read for me.

Ein interessantes Buch das leicht zu "verdauen" ist. Jedes Kapitel hat genau drei Seiten. Kann man locker nebenbei lesen, ist aber deswegen nicht oberflächlich sondern durchaus informativ.

An interesting book. Hardy is telling you, that willpower alone won't do the job. The key seems to be to shape your environment so that you're less distracted, more focussed and things just fit in place. But at the end its nothing new, it is practically the same advice as "leave toxic environments" and after all, the first step is always to collect enough willpower to initiate the change. Nevertheless, this book can be recommended, if offers some special insights on the "if you really want it, you can achieve everything" mantra.

A great book about capitalism and economy. I had some lectures in economy during my time at the University and didn't understand much about what they were telling me. Reading this book now (years later of course, so I might have gotten some lifetime experiene) makes it very clear.
The book is comprehensive and easy to read, because the author is explaining the topics in a way that also a teenager can understand. You learn why Britain colonized Australia and not vice versa. And you learn the important difference between "experiencal value" and "commodity value". You learn how money is created out of nothing and how markets function. And at the end you learn why democracy and regulation of the markets is so important. Quick read with very interesting knowledge, highly recommended for everyone who is interested in how our economy works.