E1077: “Alchemy” Author Rory Sutherland on the Darwinian approach to business, analyzing outliers, why eccentric CEOs have a psychological advantage with customers & more!
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1:00 Jason intros "Alchemy" author Rory Sutherland 3:45 Architecture is the cheapest way to buy art 6:01 How Rory is dealing with quarantine, why he prefers working from home, and will businesses be more efficient post-COVID? 14:12 What is Rory's job, why you should strive to create your own job title, treating the free market as Galapagos Island, using the Darwinian approach to business & analyzing outliers 19:47 Why some business successes are due to psychological discoveries: Red Bull, Dyson & Nespresso 27:25 Jason's theory on why Dyson succeeded, Kano theory on product development, why eccentric CEOs have a psychological advantage with customers, how Uber's arrival map was the key feature of the product 33:48 Why the actual value of products are typically not the proposed value of products 39:40 How new products hold value as a conversation starter, how context, setting & framing is essential to innovation 43:21 Two ways to create economic value: find something people want and figure out how to make it OR figure out what you can make and make people want it & examples: Lionfish, Fish That Ate The Whale, Royal Potatoes 50:13 Why are Americans resistant to behavioral economics? Is there still a hangover from McCarthyism? How this relates to COVID and wearing masks 1:02:08 Daily news is 95% noise, why political news coverage doesn't reflect political reality 1:11:40 Why modern politics is dumb since far left and far right are much closer than they've ever been, issues with referrals & nepotism 1:21:06 How Rory got his first job in advertising "as a weirdo" and the wildcard since he was hired as part of a group, individual hiring vs. group hiring 1:23:20 TWiST Book Club Questions - Casey: Favorite behavioral study experiment or one that he found the results to be surprising? (ie. Milgram experiment or Stanford Prison Study) 1:32:12 Catherine: What’s Rory’s favorite alchemist moment of his own from work? Has he had to advocate for an illogical idea, and how did he persuade others? 1:41:01 What will we lose by being remote? 1:51:19 Reading their own audiobooks, how cheaper and easier consumption does NOT cannibalize original mediums 2:01:26 How Rory would reinvent the theatre experience, why modern corporations are slow to innovate & experiment 2:11:18 Greatness of re-readable books and rewatchable movies/television