Book Review: Predictably Irrational

Finally, after 18 cities in 30 days (from Ixtapa to Coimbatore, and everywhere in between), I'm back to the daily grind. And this blog.

Here's a pearl if you haven't read it already: Predictably Irrational, by Dan Ariely. Ariely, a behavioral economist, enlightens readers about everything from absurd CEO compensation (they make 369x what workers make, up threefold from what it used to be a decade ago) to why we shouldn't trust teenagers to use condoms in the heat of the moment.

The parts most useful to social entrepreneurs are a couple of chapters in the middle, where Ariely describes how market norms (the kind that make you pay for stuff) differ from social norms (the kind that make you want to do stuff for free). It helped me understand how we were able to pull off our Gala last week with an all-volunteer staff, and how nonprofits can score great employees from the for-profit sector if we focus on our competitive advantage (doing good, even if it's for far less pay).

There's also great advice on how to build a good company (make people feel valued and appeal to social norms, not just market norms) and how to stop procrastinating. I'm still working on the latter.