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Title details for Everything Is Obvious by Duncan J. Watts - Available

Everything Is Obvious

by Duncan J. Watts
Duncan J. Watts
Audiobook (Includes supplementary content)
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By understanding how and when common sense fails, we can improve our understanding of the present and better plan for the future. 
Drawing on the latest scientific research, along with a wealth of historical and contemporary examples, Watts shows how common sense reasoning and history conspire to mislead us into believing that we understand more about the world of human behavior than we do; and in turn, why attempts to predict, manage, or manipulate social and economic systems so often go awry.
It seems obvious, for example, that people respond to incentives; yet policy makers and managers alike frequently fail to anticipate how people will respond to the incentives they create. Social trends often seem to be driven by certain influential people; yet marketers have been unable to identify these “influencers” in advance. And although successful products or companies always seem in retrospect to have succeeded because of their unique qualities, predicting the qualities of the next hit product or hot company is notoriously difficult even for experienced professionals.
Watts' argument has important implications in politics, business, and marketing, as well as in science and everyday life.
Expand title description text
Publisher: Books on Tape Edition: Unabridged

OverDrive Listen audiobook

  • ISBN: 9780307879981
  • File size: 249066 KB
  • Release date: March 29, 2011
  • Duration: 08:38:53

MP3 audiobook

  • ISBN: 9780307879981
  • File size: 249289 KB
  • Release date: March 29, 2011
  • Duration: 08:38:53
  • Number of parts: 7

Formats

OverDrive Listen audiobook
MP3 audiobook

subjects

Business Sociology Nonfiction

Languages

English

By understanding how and when common sense fails, we can improve our understanding of the present and better plan for the future. 
Drawing on the latest scientific research, along with a wealth of historical and contemporary examples, Watts shows how common sense reasoning and history conspire to mislead us into believing that we understand more about the world of human behavior than we do; and in turn, why attempts to predict, manage, or manipulate social and economic systems so often go awry.
It seems obvious, for example, that people respond to incentives; yet policy makers and managers alike frequently fail to anticipate how people will respond to the incentives they create. Social trends often seem to be driven by certain influential people; yet marketers have been unable to identify these “influencers” in advance. And although successful products or companies always seem in retrospect to have succeeded because of their unique qualities, predicting the qualities of the next hit product or hot company is notoriously difficult even for experienced professionals.
Watts' argument has important implications in politics, business, and marketing, as well as in science and everyday life.
Expand title description text
Business Sociology Nonfiction
  • Details

    Publisher:
    Books on Tape
    Edition:
    Unabridged

    OverDrive Listen audiobook
    ISBN: 9780307879981
    File size: 249066 KB
    Release date: March 29, 2011
    Duration: 08:38:53

    MP3 audiobook
    ISBN: 9780307879981
    File size: 249289 KB
    Release date: March 29, 2011
    Duration: 08:38:53
    Number of parts: 7

  • Creators
  • Formats
    OverDrive Listen audiobook
    MP3 audiobook
  • Languages
    English
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