The author used a very easy-going manner in discussing some important ideas that we often take for granted and on which many of us are often wrong.
One of the first concepts he discusses is the idea of the HEDONISTIC TREADMILL or the idea of keeping up with the Jones philosophy which in large part resulted in our present economic mess. As part of this concept the author discusses HEDONISTIC ADAPTATION in which people perform certain activities to either maximize their pleasure or reduce their pain. Intuitively we might think that if we were trying to study and our partner were running the vacuum, we would want that person to complete part of the cleaning,then quit for a while, do a little more and quit again, but that is not what the experimental results showed. We tend to build up an adaptation to an unpleasurable activity as it progresses and if it is stopped we lose that adaptation and must work harder to build up the adaptation a succeeding time[s] , so that in this case if would be better if the person continued with the unpleasurable activity until completed, another example of that might be completing your income tax return in one sitting rather than spreading it out over several days. The corollary to that is that it is better to break up a pleasurable activity into smaller portions to savor its effects for a longer period of time. An example of that might be sex; for that I can refer you to the Alan Jackson song in which the refrain goes "Nothing left to do after we done it!"
The author also discusses concepts as people with certain levels of attractiveness seek partners of approximately equal levels of attractiveness, although a caveat is made that women are more forgiving on physical levels of partners attractiveness than are men. There are still a lot more men rated a 4 trying to hook up with a female 10 than a woman who is 4 believing she is going to find the 10 male.
Another topic reviewed was can we really act rationally in a fit of anger and, if in such an angry state, how does it affect our ideas of fairness and unfairness [revenge] towards many other people not just the person we think caused us pain. These are just a few of the topics discussed out of many interesting areas.
As others have mentioned and as has the author, he was severely injured as a young soldier due to a bomb blast and suffered some permanent scarring and limited range of motion from it, yet he overcame that and turned his life into a worthwhile endeavor in spite of injuries both physical and psychological and I speak as someone who interned at a VA hospital during the Viet Nam war, so am familiar with such wounds. It is obvious from the ease with which he discusses his various topics that he is learned and intelligent which is also supported by the fact that he was a professor at MIT and now a professor at Duke. As a disclaimer, I have never met nor talked to the author, but simply liked the book and think you will too.
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From the Publisher
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| IRRATIONALLY YOURS | HONEST TRUTH ABOUT DISHONESTY | PREDICTABLY IRRATIONAL | DOLLARS AND SENSE | |
| Customer Reviews |
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| Price | $14.41 | $15.00 | $10.99 | $10.99 |
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Vikash Kumar Munda
Another Masterpiece after Predictable Irrationality
Reviewed in India on October 26, 2022
