Alchemy

Author Rory Sutherland
Narrator Rory Sutherland
Publisher Ebury Publishing
Publish Date 4 July 2019
Run Time 9 hours and 38 minutes
Format Audio
Genre Behaviourism, Behavioural theory, Business and Management, Popular psychology, Sales and marketing, Self-help, personal development and practical advice, Society and Social Sciences.

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What to expect

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Alchemy: The Surprising Power of Ideas That Don't Make Sense, written and read by Rory Sutherland.

To be brilliant, you have to be irrational

Why is Red Bull so popular – even though everyone hates the taste? Why do countdown boards on platforms take away the pain of train delays? And why do we prefer stripy toothpaste?

We think we are rational creatures. Economics and business rely on the assumption that we make logical decisions based on evidence.

But we aren’t, and we don’t.

In many crucial areas of our lives, reason plays a vanishingly small part. Instead we are driven by unconscious desires, which is why placebos are so powerful. We are drawn to the beautiful, the extravagant and the absurd – from lavish wedding invitations to tiny bottles of the latest fragrance. So if you want to influence people’s choices you have to bypass reason. The best ideas don’t make rational sense: they make you feel more than they make you think.

Rory Sutherland is the Ogilvy advertising legend whose TED Talks have been viewed nearly 7 million times. In his first book he blends cutting-edge behavioural science, jaw-dropping stories and a touch of branding magic, on his mission to turn us all into idea alchemists.

Critics Review

Revelatory and entertaining

The Sunday Times

Reading Alchemy was, as its title promised, the process of turning paper and print into gold. Veins of wisdom regarding human functioning emerge regularly and brilliantly from the pages. Don’t miss this book.

Robert Cialdini, bestselling author of Influence, Yes!, The Small BIG and Pre-suasion

Deeply original

Robert Trivers, evolutionary biologist and author of Deceit and Self-Deception

Sutherland’s book touches on many facets of life, but all come down to the importance of “psycho-logic”, or non-rational factors, in how we make decisions and how problems can be solved

CAMPAIGN magazine

Rory Sutherland is one of the all-time great raconteurs, polymaths, and ad men. But this book shows his hidden depths. Within this fun, quirky, hilarious page-turner, he develops a profound critique of technocratic hubris and fetishised economics. Sutherland helps us rediscover the profound wisdom behind everyday human reasoning, and invites us to explore the magic that happens when we trust a bit less in our focus groups and optimization models, and trust a bit more in our creative eccentricity.

Geoffrey Miller, evolutionary psychologist, author of The Mating Mind, Spent, and What Women Want

Brilliant, Brilliant, Brilliant … wonderfully heretical, naughty and funny … Uncommon sense on stilts

Jules Goddard, Fellow of the Centre for Management Development at London Business School and co-author of Uncommon Sense, Common Nonsense

Buy this book for the footnotes alone… As a committed devotee of rationalism, who thinks there is not enough of it in this world, I rationally ought to hate this book. Instead I loved it. It’s full of great insights.

Matt Ridley, author of The Rational Optimist

Sutherland captivates in a narrative full of intellectual treats that explain much of the behaviours in the world around us. This illogically logical read is a must read for anyone who is in the people business!

Dilip Soman, Canada Research Chair in Behavioural Science and Economics, University of Toronto

Stimulating and funny

The Times

User Reviews

Book 5.0

Narration 5.0

5.0

This is a wonderfuly written and beautifuly narrated book full of thought-provoking insights and amusing anecdotes.

I would highly recommend to anyone interested in the psychology of marketing and advertising!

mark (xigxag staff) 16/05/2025

5.0

This is top of my list of the best business books of all time: clever, funny, counterintuitive and thought provoking. Itu2019s read brilliantly by the author himself in a gravelly voice that evokes the heady days of Mad Men. ud83dudc4d

Highly recommend!

kellifb 16/05/2025

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