„The Upside of Irrationality“  is a sequence to Dan Ariely’s previous book „Predictably Irrational“  and it is almost as good as the first one. In this book Ariely concentrates more on the practical issues of being irrational and he comes up with a couple of benefits of defying the logic at work and at home.  He explores what it is to live irrationally and how being aware of the hidden impacts of thougths, emotions, meaning and ownership can lead us to a better decision making and thus to a happier and more contented life.

With tests performed on regular people and examples from real life, Ariely describes:

• Why big bonuses don’t usually work;
• Why it is so that we can feel empathy towards one person but not for thousands: one 2-year old girl falling into a well in Texas got much more empathy than a million people (including numerous 2-year olds) murdered in the civil war of Ruanda);
• Why we overvalue what we make;
• The „Not-Invented-Here“ bias – why „My“ ideas are better than „Yours“;
• The case of revenge:  what makes us seek justice;
• Why we get used to things;
• The long-term effects of short-term emotions and why we should not always act on our negative feelings;
  and also a lot of other things.

In „The Upside of Irrationality“ Ariely makes examples of his personal experience of having a very serious accident in the childhood. For my taste, in some cases he goes into too much detail with that. But it helps him to make a point and maybe also makes the reader think how he turned out the person he is.

I liked the book, but for the person not familiar with Ariely’s work, I suggest to start with his first book „Predictably Irrational“. Predictably Irrational is a real eyeopener. You can watch it’s introducing videoclip in YouTube.