William Poundstone

Prada stores carry a few obscenely expensive items in order to boost sales for everything else (which look like bargains in comparison). People used to download music for free, then Steve Jobs convinced them to pay. How? By charging 99 cents. That price has a hypnotic effect: the profit margin of the 99 Cents Only store is twice that of Wal-Mart. Why do text messages cost money, while e-mails are free? Why do jars of peanut butter keep getting smaller in order to keep the price the “same”? The answer is simple: prices are a collective hallucination. In Priceless, the bestselling author William Poundstone reveals the hidden psychology of value. In psychological experiments, people are unable to estimate “fair” prices accurately and are strongly influenced by the unconscious, irrational, and politically incorrect. It hasn’t taken long for marketers to apply these findings. “Price consultants” advise retailers on how to convince consumers to pay more for less, and negotiation coaches offer similar advice for businesspeople cutting deals. The new psychology of price dictates the design of price tags, menus, rebates, “sale” ads, cell phone plans, supermarket aisles, real estate offers, wage packages, tort demands, and corporate buyouts. Prices are the most pervasive hidden persuaders of all. Rooted in the emerging field of behavioral decision theory, Priceless should prove indispensable to anyone who negotiates.

The Myth of Fair Value (and How to Take Advantage of It)

Priceless

The author of How Would You Move Mt. Fuji reconstructs the fascinating story of two scientists who applied their talents to the roulette and blackjack tables of Vegas and then made a killing on Wall Street.

The Untold Story of the Scientific Betting System That Beat the Casinos and Wall Street

Fortune's Formula

Reprint of the fine biography first published by Doubleday in 1992. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Prisoner's Dilemma

You are shrunk to the height of a nickel and thrown in a blender. The blades start moving in 60 seconds. What do you do? If you want to work at Google, or any of America's best companies, you need to have an answer to this and other puzzling questions. ARE YOU SMART ENOUGH TO WORK AT GOOGLE? guides readers through the surprising solutions to dozens of the most challenging interview questions. The book covers the importance of creative thinking, ways to get a leg up on the competition, what your Facebook page says about you, and much more. ARE YOU SMART ENOUGH TO WORK AT GOOGLE? is a must read for anyone who wants to succeed in today's job market.

Trick Questions, Zen-like Riddles, Insanely Difficult Puzzles, and Other Devious Interviewing Techniques You Need to Know to Get a Job Anywhere in the New Economy

Are You Smart Enough to Work at Google?

A practical guide to outguessing everything from multiple-choice tests to the office football pool to the stock market. People are predictable even when they try not to be. William Poundstone demonstrates how to turn this fact to personal advantage in scores of everyday situations, from playing the lottery to buying a home. ROCK BREAKS SCISSORS is mind-reading for real life. Will the next tennis serve go right or left? Will the market go up or down? Most people are poor at that kind of predicting. We are hard-wired to make bum bets on "trends" and "winning streaks" that are illusions. Yet ultimately we're all in the business of anticipating the actions of others. Poundstone reveals how to overcome the errors and improve the accuracy of your own outguessing. ROCK BREAKS SCISSORS is a hands-on guide to turning life's odds in your favor.

A Practical Guide to Outguessing and Outwitting Almost Everybody

Rock Breaks Scissors

Explores the timeless question of how we know what we know by rethinking the paradoxes guiding our understanding in areas such as matter and antimatter, black holes and time travel

Paradox, Puzzles, and the Frailty of Knowledge

Labyrinths of Reason

How an Equation That Predicts the Future Is Transforming Everything We Know about Life and the Universe

Doomsday Calculation

For years, Microsoft and other high-tech companies have been posing riddles and logic puzzles like these in their notoriously grueling job interviews. Now "puzzle interviews" have become a hot new trend in hiring. From Wall Street to Silicon Valley, employers are using tough and tricky questions to gauge job candidates' intelligence, imagination, and problem-solving ability -- qualities needed to survive in today's hypercompetitive global marketplace. For the first time, William Poundstone reveals the toughest questions used at Microsoft and other Fortune 500 companies -- and supplies the answers. He traces the rise and controversial fall of employer-mandated IQ tests, the peculiar obsessions of Bill Gates (who plays jigsaw puzzles as a competitive sport), the sadistic mind games of Wall Street (which reportedly led one job seeker to smash a forty-third-story window), and the bizarre excesses of today's hiring managers (who may start off your interview with a box of Legos or a game of virtual Russian roulette). How Would You Move Mount Fuji? is an indispensable book for anyone in business. Managers seeking the most talented employees will learn to incorporate puzzle interviews in their search for the top candidates. Job seekers will discover how to tackle even the most brain-busting questions, and gain the advantage that could win the job of a lifetime. And anyone who has ever dreamed of going up against the best minds in business may discover that these puzzles are simply a lot of fun. Why are beer cans tapered on the end, anyway?

Microsoft's Cult of the Puzzle -- How the World's Smartest Companies Select the Most Creative Thinkers

How Would You Move Mount Fuji?

We are hard-wired to believe that the world is more predictable than it is. We chase ‘winning streaks’ that are often just illusions, and we are all too predictable exactly when we try hardest not to be. In the 1970s, Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky coined the phrase ‘representativeness’ to describe the psychology of this behaviour. Since then representativeness has been used by auditors to catch people fiddling their tax returns and by hedge fund managers to reap billions from the emotions of small investors. Now Poundstone for the first time makes these techniques fun, easy, and profitable for everyone, in the everyday situations that matter. You’ll learn how to tackle multiple choice tests, what internet passwords to avoid, how to up your odds of winning the office Premier League sweepstakes, and the best ways to invest your money.

The Art of Outsmarting Almost Everyone

How to Predict the Unpredictable

Cosmic Complexity and the Limits of Scientific Knowledge

The Recursive Universe

yeni ekonominin herhangi bir lalanında iş bulmanız için cevabını bilmeniz gereken yanıltıcı sorular ve diğer aldatıcı teknikleri

Google'da çalışacak kadar akıllı mısımız?

Fiyatlandirma Sirlari

Discusses the puzzle questions asked by Microsoft and other Fortune 500 companies of potential employees.

Microsoft's Cult of the Puzzle : how the World's Smartest Companies Select the Most Creative Thinkers

Как сдвинуть гору Фудзи? Подходы ведущих мировых компаний к поиску талантов

Como a psicologia da construção dos preços afeta nossos hábitos de consumo, a percepção das marcas e as vendas Preços são uma alucinação coletiva. Quem delimita o valor de tudo o que compramos: aquele que vende ou aquele que compra? Das mais variadas pesquisas sobre economia, um resultado é comum a todas: somos altamente influenciáveis na hora de estabelecermos valores aos produtos. Um simples 9 no final de um preço ou a palavra “liquidação” são capazes de modificar nossa tomada de decisão. As pessoas costumavam baixar músicas de graça, quando Steve Jobs as convenceu de que valia a pena pagar por elas. Como? Cobrando 99 centavos. A Prada e outras lojas de luxo têm alguns artigos absurdamente caros – só para fazer com que os outros artigos do catálogo pareçam uma bagatela. A nova psicologia dos preços determina o desenho das etiquetas de preços, o formato dos cardápios, os tipos de desconto, os anúncios de “liquidação”, a arrumação dos corredores dos supermercados, o tamanho das letras das embalagens e muito mais. Os preços são fatores de persuasão muito sutis, mas ao mesmo tempo extremamente subjetivos e determinantes de fracassos ou sucessos de vendas. Com muitos casos atuais e interessantes, o livro será muito útil tanto para profissionais de marketing como para empreendedores.

Preço

The Book That Gives the Inside Story on Hundreds of Secrets of American Life --Big Secrets. Are there really secret backward messages in rock music, or is somebody nuts? We tested suspect tunes at a recording studio to find out. What goes on at Freemason initiations? Here's the whole story, including -- yes! -- the electric carpet. Colonel Sanders boasted that Kentucky Fried Chicken's eleven secret herbs and spices "stand on everybody's shelf." We got a sample of the seasoning mix and sent it to a food chemist for analysis. Feverish rumor has it that Walt Disney's body was frozen and now lies in a secret cryonic vault somewhere beneath the Pirates of the Caribbean exhibit at Disneyland. Read the certified stranger-than-fiction truth. Don't bother trying to figure out how Doug Henning, David Copperfield, and Harry Blackstone, Jr., perform their illusions. Big Secrets has complete explanations and diagrams, nothing left to the imagination.

Big Secrets

Why Elections Aren't Fair (and What We Can Do About It)

Gaming the Vote

From the author of Are You Smart Enough to Work at Google?, a fascinating look at how an equation that foretells the future is transforming everything we know about life, business, and the universe. In the 18th century, the British minister and mathematician Thomas Bayes devised a theorem that allowed him to assign probabilities to events that had never happened before. It languished in obscurity for centuries until computers came along and made it easy to crunch the numbers. Now, as the foundation of big data, Bayes' formula has become a linchpin of the digital economy. But here's where things get really interesting: Bayes' theorem can also be used to lay odds on the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence; on whether we live in a Matrix-like counterfeit of reality; on the "many worlds" interpretation of quantum theory being correct; and on the biggest question of all: how long will humanity survive? The Doomsday Calculation tells how Silicon Valley's profitable formula became a controversial pivot of contemporary thought. Drawing on interviews with thought leaders around the globe, it's the story of a group of intellectual mavericks who are challenging what we thought we knew about our place in the universe. The Doomsday Calculation is compelling reading for anyone interested in our culture and its future.

How an Equation that Predicts the Future Is Transforming Everything We Know About Life and the Universe

The Doomsday Calculation

Robert T. Wainwright

The real-world value of knowledge in the mobile-device age. More people know who Khloe Kardashian is than who Rene Descartes was. Most can't find Delaware on a map, correctly spell the word occurrence, or name the largest ocean on the planet. But how important is it to fill our heads with facts? A few keystrokes can summon almost any information in seconds. Why should we bother learning facts at all? Bestselling author William Poundstone confronts that timely question in HEAD IN THE CLOUD. He shows that many areas of knowledge correlate with the quality of our lives--wealth, health, and happiness--and even with politics and behavior. Combining Big Data survey techniques with eye-opening anecdotes, Poundstone examines what Americans know (and don't know) on topics ranging from quantum physics to pop culture. HEAD IN THE CLOUD asks why we're okay with spelling errors on menus but not on resumes; why Fox News viewers don't know which party controls Congress; why people who know "trivia" make more money than those who don't; how individuals can navigate clickbait and media spin to stay informed about what really matters. Hilarious, humbling, and wildly entertaining, HEAD IN THE CLOUD is a must-read for anyone who doesn't know everything.

William Poundstone

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