I often recommend Rory Sutherland’s Alchemy: The Dark Art and Curious Science of Creating Magic in Brands, Business, and Life.
(I did mention it in a 2020 reading recap here.)
But I haven’t done a full podcast episode on it. I want to change that so here we go. Setting a 5 minute timer to outline and then a 10 minute timer to grab some quotes to talk over in the podcast.
As an aside, I was listening to the Bookworm podcast (“The Extended Mind” episode) and they mention the benefit of writing notes about books you’re reading. You can highlight all you want but it’s in synthesizing things, even just as a quick reaction to the book, that you really start to retain things. Podcasting is how they’ve done it week over week.
I want to do the same with the podcast, detached from any dream of making money with the podcast. It reminds me of Tiago Forte’s phrase “intermediate packets”. The outline for the podcast, the podcast itself, and then the show notes can all be intermediate packets.
Quick overview
- How would you describe it in 3 sentences? Humans are irrational and the best marketers know how to use that knowledge to make ideas spread. If you think you are immune to advertising, this book will explain while you’re wrong. If you want to look at the world a little bit differently, Alchemy will help.
- What’s one takeaway that comes to mind? The opposite of a good thing can also be a good thing. My own example: The opposite of 3-star Michelin food is probably food that’s a single course, thrown together quickly and served out of a hole in the wall. Both can be good. Look closer and they’re often not quite opposites.
- What’s are some similar books that would fit the “Liked that? Read this” bill? Probably any behavioral economics book. If you like Daniel Kahneman or Dan Ariely and don’t want to read a book by another Dan, then this would be a good one to pick up. Also, if you liked Primalbranding by Patrick Hanlon, you’ll enjoy the branding discussion in Alchemy.
Quotes
[GOING TO ADD THEM HERE. IT’S NOT A MISTAKE IF YOU SEE THIS AS A PUBLISHED POST ON THE BLOG I JUST WANT TO POST OUTLINES THERE FIRST AND THEN WILL UPDATE AS THE SHOW NOTES PAGE AFTERWARD. I HELD SHIFT FOR CAPS HERE INSTEAD OF DOING CAPS LOCK BTW.]