Alchemy: The Dark Art and Curious Science of Creating Magic in Brands, Business, and Life

Imagine you are a company whose product is not selling well. Which of the following proposals would be easier to make in a board meeting called to resolve the problem? a) ‘We should reduce the price’ or b) ‘We should feature more ducks in our advertising’. The first, of course – and yet the second could, in fact, be much more profitable.

Perhaps advertising agencies are largely valuable simply because they create a culture in which it is acceptable to ask daft questions and make foolish suggestions.

Church attendance is the most important predictor of marital stability and happiness.

On the one hand, luxury goods would be destroyed if they were too widespread – no one would want a designer bag that was owned by five million other people.* On the other hand, many foodstuffs seem to be popular only because they are popular.

Remember, if you never do anything differently, you’ll reduce your chances of enjoying lucky accidents.

For a business to be truly customer-focused, it needs to ignore what people say. Instead it needs to concentrate on what people feel.

The alchemy of this book’s title is the science of knowing what economists are wrong about. The trick to being an alchemist lies not in understanding universal laws, but in spotting the many instances where those laws do not apply. It lies not in narrow logic, but in the equally important skill of knowing when and how to abandon it. This is why alc... See more

Restaurants are only peripherally about food: their real value lies in social connection, and status.*

Solving problems using rationality is like playing golf with only one club.