Everything Is Obvious: *Once You Know the Answer

Everything Is Obvious: *Once You Know the Answer

Why is the Mona Lisa the most famous painting in the world? Why did Facebook succeed when other social networking sites failed? Did the surge in Iraq really lead to less violence? How much can CEOâ€™s impact the performance of their companies? And does higher pay incentivize people to work hard?

If you think the answers to these questions are a matter of common sense, think again. As sociologist and network science pioneer Duncan Watts explains in this provocative book, the explanations that we give for the outcomes that we observe in lifeâ€”explanation that seem obvious once we know the answerâ€”are less useful than they seem.

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 have been driven by certain influential people; yet marketers have been unable to identify these â€œinfluencersâ€ 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.

Only by understanding how and when common sense fails, Watts argues, can we improve how we plan for the future, as well as understand the presentâ€”an argument that has important implications in politics, business, and marketing, as well as in science and everyday life.

Country	USA
Author	Duncan J. Watts
Binding	Hardcover
EAN	9780385531689
ISBN	0385531680
Label	Crown Business
Manufacturer	Crown Business
NumberOfItems	1
NumberOfPages	352
PublicationDate	2011-03-29
Publisher	Crown Business
ReleaseDate	2011-03-29
SKU	9780385531689
Studio	Crown Business

Everything Is Obvious: *Once You Know the Answer

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