Hasta La Ideas

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pOne might hope that the real estate bubble and 2008 bust might shatter once and for all the myth of the rational consumer, but unfortunately our profligate ways don’t show any signs of slowing. John Stuart Mill coined the term homo economicus, to refer to an idealized human consumer who always behaved with rational self interest. Salespeople, however, whether hawking Cadillacs or Gucci loafers, have long realized that J.S. Mill was a little off the mark. When it comes to money, human beings are, well, more than a little bit crazy. While a few notable empsychologists/em and economists have been chipping away at the efficient market hypothesis since the 1950s, their thinking hasn’t yet trickled down to the business community. With his book a href=”http://www.amazon.com/Priceless-Myth-Fair-Value-Advantage/dp/080909469X/?tag=core77-20″emPriceless: The Myth of Fair Value (and How to Take Advantage of it)/em/a, William Poundstone finally takes the last 40 years of economic psychology from the lab to the showroom./p

pWhile the cover of emPriceless/em shows a price tag in relief with successive markdowns and the subtitle includes the parenthetical “and how to take advantage of it,” emPriceless/em spends far more time on the history of economic psychology than the pricing games any prospective seller can play. That said, the source material that Poundstone is drawing from is exceptionally dry and often mathematical, so readers should be thankful that the author does an exceptional job of presenting difficult to grasp material in an entertaining and engaging way. emPriceless/em is cut into short quick chapters that bounce quickly through decades of research and science using anecdote and analogy, before settling down into analysis and application about halfway through the book./pa href=”http://www.core77.com/blog/book_reviews/book_review_priceless_by_william_poundstone_16250.asp”(more…)/a
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