Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

Quick Thoughts:

1. This is an older book, originally published in the 1980's.  You can tell because many of the author's examples come that period and earlier.  However, this really doesn't take away from the basic power of his arguments, just the points of reference he uses to support his positions.
2. This book is touted as being for marketing professionals.  I can see why, it deals with how sales professionals get to yes, but it goes further than that by including examples of influence in politics and religious cults.
3. What is brilliant about this book is the author's approach to the subject.  He is a Ph.D in marketing and psychology.  So he has much original research to bring to the table on persuasive influence, plus he is well read on other studies in the subject.  But, he takes things to the next level when he spends much of his time posing as a new sales hire and working for car dealers, door-to-door sales, and other high pressure sales jobs.  He goes through sales training and learns the techniques that they teach.  And he watches the best sales people he can find in the field.  When he sees a technique 'work', he designs a research experiment to see why it worked and if he can identify the principal that made it work.  This makes him especially well-suited to write this book.  And his technique works because the book is a really great read.
4. An aspect of the book I particularly liked is that the author recommends specific methods that the reader can use to render the sales techniques useless.  They were a few that I think most of us already know, but a good defense to an shifty salesperson is a worthwhile thing to have.
5. The writing is convincing, entertaining, and I dare-say useful.  Example examples/anecdotes are sprinkled throughout the book combined with really interesting experimental evidence.  And the author's insights just keep on coming.
6. If you have an interest in marketing/sales, this book is block and tackle stuff and should be read.  However, this isn't why I picked up the book.  I'm really interested in market failures especially given the cliff diving we went through in 2008.  It seems to me that market failures are really about human failings.  The fact that we are subject to persuasion attempts and will act in ways that are against our interests is another aspect of our failings.  Are these irrationalities enough to discredit the market economy?  I don't think so, but I'd like to believe that we can figure out ways to protect people from the greater excesses of the market while enabling us to enjoy its benefits.  I can't say this book brought me any closer to 'fixing' our free market society.  But it does have some real insights into why we behave the way we do.  For that, it was worth the read.

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The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less

Quick Thoughts:

1. Excellently written, well argued, entertaining, and likely correct.
2. I really enjoyed the way that the author blended in study after study to prove his case.
3. Bottom-line.  This book is well worth reading by anyone and everyone.  He proves that the number of choices we have increases our discontent.  The strategies that the author recommends for dealing with choices are well-thought out given the scope of the problem.

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Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior

Quick Thoughts

1. Really enjoyable book.
2. When the book starts out, I found myself questioning how rigorous it would be.  I was wrong to think that.  The writing style appears unstructured, but is actually very tight and loaded with effective and interesting evidence.  The writers do a great job of building their cases and proving out the kind of ways we allow our thinking/actions to be swayed.

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Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

Quick Thoughts

1. Lots of great case studies illustrate his argument that much of our thought processes and ability to make complex decision/judgments is from our sub-conscious mind.
2. Found it much more interesting and well-supported than The Tipping Point.
3. Loved the part on the war games for GWB's gulf war.  The idea that one group could have so much information that they lost the ability to react effectively to the opposition carries a lot of weight.  In my day job, I often wonder when we can stop the analysis and just take a read of our gut and make a decision.
4. This a very quick read.  The anecdotes are fun and memorable.

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The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference

Quick Thoughts

1. Neat vision on how information/change can make it's way through society.
2. Great anecdotal examples.

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