Dahlia Bock

Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions by Dan Ariely

The High Price of Ownership

Why do things become more valuable after we own them? Why do we think that the 10 year-old couch that we are trying to sell is worth $200 when someone else wouldn’t pay more than $30 for it? I won’t be able to phrase it more aptly than Dan does:

Ownership pervades our lives and, in a strange way, shapes many of the things we do. Adam Smith wrote, “Every man [and woman] … lives by exchanging, or becomes in some measure a merchant, and the society itself grows to be what is properly a commercial society.” That’s an awesome thought. Much of our life story can be told by describing the ebb and flow of our particular possessions – what we get and what we give up.

The 3 irrational quirks in our human nature:

1. We fall in love with what we already have.
2. We focus on what we may lose, rather than what we may gain. Our aversion of loss is a strong emotion.
3. We assume other people will see the transaction from the same perspective as we do.

Keeping Doors Open

Now this plagues me personally more than anything else. I’ve been finding it hard to put my roots down but I feel as though I would be missing out on life if I did. FOMO – Fear of Missing Out.

What is it about options that is so difficult for us? Why do we feel compelled to keep as many doors open as possible, even at great expense? Why can’t we simply commit ourselves?

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a built-in alarm, to warn us when the doors are closing on our most important options?

Dan suggests that we need to start closing the doors ourselves. Start with smaller doors, then move on to bigger ones.

But the bigger doors (or those that seem bigger) are harder to close. Doors that just might lead to a new career or to a better job might be hard to close. Doors that are tied to our dreams are also hard to close. So are relationships with certain people – even if they seem to be going nowhere.

I’m leaving out the last 5 chapters because there’s just too much I want to point out. But you should pick up this book, for yourself, or for a friend. It points out a lot of things about the human nature that we take for granted but if we start noticing them we might be able to make our lives a little easier, a little less complicated, possibly a little better.