RORY SUTHERLAND’S 10 RULES OF ALCHEMY | Ebury Reads YouTube Video Summary

Rory Sutherland's 10 Rules of Alchemy

Rory Sutherland shares his ten rules of alchemy for being less logical and how to still come out on top.

The Opposite of a good idea can be another good idea

Conventional logic loves the idea of a single right answer but it's not always the case. Policy making and business loves the idea of a single right answer because when you come up with a single right answer, no one can blame you for the conclusion.

Design For Average

Most models cause aggregation for people. However, that makes problems very difficult to solve since proving things for the average person or developing new products for the average person is hard to find something they like.

Look for the extremes, which are more unusual consumers. Eventually the extreme consumer behaviors move into the mainstream.

It Doesn't Pay to Be Logical

It doesn't pay to be logical if everyone else is also being logical. You don't want to be too predictable in the business world for military stategy. The point is that logic will probably get you to the same place as everybody else, which is a race to the bottom.

What is suggested to do is, what is your competitors are logically wrong about because their use of logic is too narrow and restrictive and find out what's wrong with their models and exploit it.

Nature of Attention

The nature of our attention affects the nature of our experience. What a restaurant or hotel is good or bad does not depend on just the hotel objectively but what we expect the hotel is like.

If you are expecting the marriot, your experience will be the worst in your life. If you turn up expect a real east berlin experience, it may be the best hotel experience of your life.

Flowers Are Advertising

A flower is simply a weed with an advertising budget. Pointlessness and extravagance sometimes can convey meaning to others.

When you invite people to your wedding you don't make your wedding vows door-to-door and send invitations by email. You send out the costly creative laborate invitation because you want to have them share with you and your new partner.

Logic Kills Magic

In the need to be rational, people construct models which are roughly based on a very simple idea of physics and a childish idea of math or economics. Solving problems using only rationality is like playing golf using only one club.

Once you devise what seems like a logical schema or map for things, what you'll be doing is creating something which is modeled on physics and simple GCSE or children's math, or a dead end for yourself.

Good Guess

A good guess which stands up to empirical observation is still science. So is a lucky accident. Science is open to a bit of luck, don't throw that away. A philosopher who describes himself as a methodological alchemist. He effectively says that when you look at scientific discovery, the idea that all worthwhile discoveries have been arrived by obeying very strict rules of methodology is simply false.

Test Counter-Intuitive Things

Test counter-intuitive things, because nobody else will. It's unbelievably risky and dangerous being slightly bonkers in business. Anything bonkers you do that fails then your jobs on the line.

Solve With Rationality

Solving problems using only rationality is like playing golf with one club. You have a limited number of options. To make your life simple, make sure your goals are simple and make sure that people do not over rationalize a problem in a way where they reduce their own agency.

Don't Stop at Ten

Dare to be trivial. The rules of logic demand that there can be no magic. But, if there was already a logical answer, we would've found it already.