As humans, we all generally like to think we're rational, logical individuals. We also have a tendancy to assume other people also have logical behavior.  Unfortunately, that is far from the case. 

Lucky for us there are researchers like Dan Ariely. Thanks to his in depth studies of human nature and the choices we make, he's discovered some amazing trends and patterns that, as the title says, makes us all "Predictably Irrational."

Ever wish you could climb in the brain of your customer to really understand what they're thinking? Want to know how to get the most out of your employees? Is there a secret underlying process that make use all alike in how we think?  While How We Decide is not a magic solution to all of those questions, it does provide fantastic and fascinating insight into all of them.  I highly recommend this book to anyone that wants to better understand the underlying thought processes that make up the complex human mind. Read on to find a few of the key things I discovered in reading this book. 

I recently came across a post claiming, "Why Startup Founders Should Stop Reading Business Books." While I appreciate the sentiments of choosing your reading material wisely, I strongly disagree with the belief that you should not spend time reading anything but the most narrowly focused books.  Especially for first time and young entrepreneurs, they're an essential stepping stone in knowledge growth. I'd like to highlight the reasons I believe this here and also specifically address some of the other blogger's contentions.

 Ever wonder why some ad campaigns are huge successes and others flop? Ever find yourself thinking that someone made a great argument only to find yourself still doing the opposite? As humans, there are many triggers that affect us and influence our decision making on a subconscious level.  Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive reveals 50 of these lessons and backs them up with real world examples and studies that may surprise you.

I'd like to highlight a few of the cases that were particularly interesting to me: