In Predictably Irrational Dr. Ariely discusses how even irrational behavior is predictable. More specifically how irrational economic behavior is predictable. He calls his study of irrational economic decisions behavior economics. Many facets of the irrational behavior in humans is covered in the book. I'll pick a few of my favorites, relativity and pricing and apply them to interests in my life, girls and coding.

Many books have been written for people on the best way of attracting the opposite sex. In his book Dr. Ariely boils this art form down to an easy notion, relativity. Humans need a direct basis of comparison for everything in their life. This means, when a person is looking for a mate they should make sure their wing person is uglier than them. Dr. Ariely conveys that every human basis's worth using comparisons, not on the function the object offers to their life, but on the function the object offers in comparison to a comparable object, in this instance another person. A great example of this is pointed out in the first chapter "The Truth About Relativity." He uses the $275 bread maker made by William-Sonoma (W.S.) to assist his case. The bread maker sales were lower than expected. The problem being consumers didn't have a basis for comparison. How did consumers know what a quality bread maker was? Worse yet, consumer were comparing W.S. bread makers against coffee machines. W.S. wants consumers to buy both products and not view one as a substitute for another. After deliberation W.S. decided not to discontinue the bread maker, but to introduce a second larger and more expensive model. Thus, giving customers a basis for comparison. As a result the less expensive bread maker flew off the shelves. Having another bread maker to compare against consumers were no longer confused if they wanted a bread maker or the coffee machine, they knew they wanted a bread maker and could easily make a decision on quality based on comparing the two products. Bread makers are not humans, is what most will think. Wrong. Humans base beauty off comparison, don't believe me, walk into a bar with a model, see who gets more attention, then try walking in with a weight watchers "point counter" put an appetizer in front of them and watch how much attention you get while your wing person forgets to breath as they devour the spin dip.

Now offering nerds an insight to the book. Let's say a programmer has written the next killer application (app). This app will change the world, but how does one price an app? In chapter ten "The Power of Price." Dr. Ariely covers this dilemma quite well. Dr. Ariely states two mechanisms shape the expectations on the price we pay for things. One is belief and the other is conditioning. An example of belief is provided with a humorous viral video which has a man following around the now famous "free hug" people carrying a sign that states "deluxe hugs." Watching the deluxe hug video from an outside perspective it's apparent there is no difference from one hug to the other, but the deluxe hug huckster makes people believe there is a big enough difference they pay him $2 for what should cost nothing. Examining the second mechanism, conditioning, Starbucks provides insight. Starbucks made people comfortable with the idea of a $4 coffee, when they were used to paying $.80. Starbucks conditioned the customer with incremental price steps into finally accepting that a $4 coffee was indeed worth $4's. Now looking at the developers app, the developer should ask themselves if there are similar apps.  If so, does the developer want the consumers to view the app as the premiere expensive app, or a cheaper competitor? Does the developer believe that people will value the app enough to pay for it? Will the developer have to condition the consumer to the cost by gradually working the consumer to accept the price the developer wants to charge?

As cliche as it sounds, once I picked up the book I couldn't set it down nor could I stop thinking of the application it has. I realized I had fallen victim to the marketing ideas portrayed in the book. Oh well, now I know.