From Wikipedia, rationality is broadly described as "All that is required for an action to be rational is that if one believes action X (which can be done) implies Y, and that Y is desirable, he or she does X. The action would likewise be avoided were Y undesirable. Such arguments are logically valid but not necessarily logically sound." And being logically sound requires good human judgment.

So as humans do we make a decision based primarily our intelligence or impulse? As the title of his book Predictably Irrational may suggests, Dan Ariely thinks it is the latter. In a span of a week, I have seen or heard about the book from different sources. I first heard about the book when the author was being interviewed on NPR last week. Yesterday, I saw the book on the shelves in a bookstore in San Francisco. Earlier today, my friend Siobhan, sent me this link to the New York Times review of the book. The author is also one of the 2 co-professors of a marketing class I took at MIT 3 years ago (gosh, has it been that long). Here is the blog entry about my thoughts about his class.

As an economic junkie and a Freakonomics fan, I am attracted to the content of Ariely's book. Maybe I should go pick a copy up and read it on my red eye flight from San Francisco to Boston tomorrow.

2/27/2008 11:53:00 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

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