Hughs Blog

Embrace your irrational side

I’m reading Dan Ariely’s latest book the upside of irrationality. This is a fascinating collection of his behavioral studies first in Israel and later at Duke University on the irrational side of human behavior. Sprinkled throughout the book are very personal reflections on the struggles he went through recovering from massive burns while in college.

No question, we are irrational. We drive across town to save one cent on a liter of gas (spending more to get there and back than the saving are worth), put huge extra value on something we made versus something we bought, even though both perform the same (something he calls the “IKEA effect”) and feel more pride when we simply plop an egg into a store-bought cake mix (the one-egg theory).I think this is great – we are human.

I like the fact that I often do things that don’t make economical sense.

Like the cool metal butterfly with its wild rainbow colors that I picked up while cycling to get some milk last week. It sits proudly by our juniper tree and brightens up my view every time I look out the kitchen window. Or that I like to read trash novels during the summer, even though there is arguably zero long-term value in them and lots of other great writing gets passed by.

How boring it would be if we only acted based on economic sense! And I love that many of us now engage in service for others, that we don’t even know, in foreign countries with the hope that some lasting good will come of it. It’s faith, not fact, and it feels good.

Now, go do something completely irrational.

Tags: clients, conflict, culver, humour, inspiration, irrational, leadership, motivation, testimonials, time

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