Sample writing (not part of the book)
Initially I thought this content to be part of the book, but later on while revising, I dropped it. Check it out, if you like it, you would surely enjoy reading the book.
========================
It’s the first Sunday of summer when our parents are not at home. They have gone for yatra to Rameshwaram in last night's train and will return next week. It means, there are no annoying remarks from them to get up early, nor a pressure to come home on-time until next week.
I was reading the supplements of the Ahmedabad Samachar esp. article by J Pandya. He is the author of youngsters. His writings inspire us to live in the present, enjoy the moment, and smile against any adversaries. Afternoons on Sundays are the best time for reading it because no one is going to interrupt me.
I finished the article and found remote to switch on the TV. Suddenly, a headline caught my eyes. It was on the newspaper page and got hidden by remote. Reading few lines made me laugh on that.
“What’s so funny?” asked Samyak.
Samyak is my older brother and my ideal in many things. I never knew when Samyak entered the room, so, I got startled by his voice.
“You scared me Samyak.”
Samyak looked different and handsome today. He has trimmed his beard and mustache. It looked perfect on his face and going with his well-built body and five feet and nine-inch height.
He is pursuing his online course M.S. in Psychology from Udacity - an online platform for different courses and nano-degrees. We all were shocked by his decision when he told us that he would be pursuing the online course. Based on his score, he would have got admission in any desired college either here or abroad. He is little strange and choosy when it comes to attaining knowledge. He selected this degree only because of a specific instructor who is teaching it through that medium only.
I pointed out the headline of another article in the newspaper and said, “This one is funny, and made me laugh. It has the quote by D. Westings - 'We humans are not rational in making our decisions when we are buying any product.’
I looked at him and continued, “He calls us irrational human being while making a purchasing decision. How stupid it is. I don’t think so, anyone would be irrational.”
“Do you know that any article published in the newspaper, it passes through verification process?”
“May be, but it looks like, this time editor must have missed it.”
“That’s the base of the behavior economics - the subject I studied in the current course. I can prove you that you are irrational when you buy an item.”
“If you can, I will return the favor by doing whatever you ask me to. Is it a deal?”
“Deal is done. Which is your favorite food outlet?”
I always loved to eat burgers at MyBurger store. So, I replied, “without any doubt, MyBurger place. The thought of it is bringing water in my mouth.”
“Let’s see. Say, for example, you decide to visit MyBurger’s store after you had your breakfast. Which one would you go for - Burger available at 70 rupees, or Value Meal available at 130 rupees?
“Value meal of course. It would be a fool who won’t go for that.”
Samyak smiled, “and why someone would be a fool in not ordering it?”
“It’s easy. Any rational person would see the benefits in ordering Value Meal. It contains Coke plus Aloo fries. If you order them individually, it would cost more.”
“Really?” there was sarcasm in Samyak’s voice.
“It’s simple maths Samyak. Individual price of Coke and Aloo fries are 60 rupees each. So, everything together would cost 70 + 60 + 60 = 190 rupees. The benefit I got while ordering Value Meal is 190 - 130 = 60 rupees. That made either my aloo fries or coke free of cost.” I said proudly.
Samyak chuckled - “That’s the trick Behavior Economics plays. It makes you spend more by anticipating that we don’t make a rational decision. Let me explain.”
He stood up and started explaining like a teacher to a student.
“You get benefit in value pack against if you order them individually. Let me ask you - what’s the quantity you get for small coke?”
“I don’t know. They offer in two sizes, regular and big. May be around 200 ml, I think.”
“You guessed it right, it is 200 ml. And what’s the price of 200 ml coke? Is it 60 rupees or just 12 rupees?”
I started thinking on that. It has never struck me while ordering Value Meal.
Samyak continued, “You would also agree to me that Aloo fries will also not cost 60 rupees, but it will be around 25 rupees max. If I add their actual individual prices, it will be - 70 + 12 + 25 = 107 rupees.”
I calculated the difference, 107 - 130 = loss of 23 rupees. It means Samyak has beaten me. How can he beat me so easily? I asked, “why it didn’t strike me while I was ordering it? I would call it as cheating from the store.”
“It is all the psychology of purchase and not the cheating. We go to MyBurger’s store because we love their burgers. Their menu has a lot of items where they list them individually and creates a combo pack as Value Meal. Individual prices are three-to-four times higher than their actual cost. They know, customers are lazy people by nature, and won’t take the pain in buying coke or aloo fries from somewhere else.”
“You are right. Once we are inside, we never think of buying coke from outside, even though the nearby store is selling coke or fries.”
“Menus are intelligently designed, where the quantity of coke is never mentioned. Even if someone asks for it, they will show their cups - regular and large. Without quantity, we are deceived by the individual prices as their actual prices.”
“Same as with the fries, they offer in small, medium and large quantity. We get small quantity in a value meal, and if I remember correctly, we get hardly fifteen fries.” I said.
“Unconsciously, our mind is trained to find deals wherever possible. We start calculating the individual price and compare it with combo pack. We think we are in control in making a decision, but in reality, it is restaurant owners who deluded us and leveraged our irrationality.”
That is a perfect explanation of my irrationality. I started wondering how many times I visited MyBurger’s store and got fooled by my own false satisfaction and rationality.
I got interrupted by Samyak. “So, now, it’s time to return the favor. You would be Ironing my clothes for this week.”
I hate ironing clothes and now I ended up doing it for Samyak. I am sure, he would be lavish in sending extra clothes to me, and would find every avenue to make my work miserable. Before I resist, he was out of my room.
=====================
Hope, you would have enjoyed it.
========================
It’s the first Sunday of summer when our parents are not at home. They have gone for yatra to Rameshwaram in last night's train and will return next week. It means, there are no annoying remarks from them to get up early, nor a pressure to come home on-time until next week.
I was reading the supplements of the Ahmedabad Samachar esp. article by J Pandya. He is the author of youngsters. His writings inspire us to live in the present, enjoy the moment, and smile against any adversaries. Afternoons on Sundays are the best time for reading it because no one is going to interrupt me.
I finished the article and found remote to switch on the TV. Suddenly, a headline caught my eyes. It was on the newspaper page and got hidden by remote. Reading few lines made me laugh on that.
“What’s so funny?” asked Samyak.
Samyak is my older brother and my ideal in many things. I never knew when Samyak entered the room, so, I got startled by his voice.
“You scared me Samyak.”
Samyak looked different and handsome today. He has trimmed his beard and mustache. It looked perfect on his face and going with his well-built body and five feet and nine-inch height.
He is pursuing his online course M.S. in Psychology from Udacity - an online platform for different courses and nano-degrees. We all were shocked by his decision when he told us that he would be pursuing the online course. Based on his score, he would have got admission in any desired college either here or abroad. He is little strange and choosy when it comes to attaining knowledge. He selected this degree only because of a specific instructor who is teaching it through that medium only.
I pointed out the headline of another article in the newspaper and said, “This one is funny, and made me laugh. It has the quote by D. Westings - 'We humans are not rational in making our decisions when we are buying any product.’
I looked at him and continued, “He calls us irrational human being while making a purchasing decision. How stupid it is. I don’t think so, anyone would be irrational.”
“Do you know that any article published in the newspaper, it passes through verification process?”
“May be, but it looks like, this time editor must have missed it.”
“That’s the base of the behavior economics - the subject I studied in the current course. I can prove you that you are irrational when you buy an item.”
“If you can, I will return the favor by doing whatever you ask me to. Is it a deal?”
“Deal is done. Which is your favorite food outlet?”
I always loved to eat burgers at MyBurger store. So, I replied, “without any doubt, MyBurger place. The thought of it is bringing water in my mouth.”
“Let’s see. Say, for example, you decide to visit MyBurger’s store after you had your breakfast. Which one would you go for - Burger available at 70 rupees, or Value Meal available at 130 rupees?
“Value meal of course. It would be a fool who won’t go for that.”
Samyak smiled, “and why someone would be a fool in not ordering it?”
“It’s easy. Any rational person would see the benefits in ordering Value Meal. It contains Coke plus Aloo fries. If you order them individually, it would cost more.”
“Really?” there was sarcasm in Samyak’s voice.
“It’s simple maths Samyak. Individual price of Coke and Aloo fries are 60 rupees each. So, everything together would cost 70 + 60 + 60 = 190 rupees. The benefit I got while ordering Value Meal is 190 - 130 = 60 rupees. That made either my aloo fries or coke free of cost.” I said proudly.
Samyak chuckled - “That’s the trick Behavior Economics plays. It makes you spend more by anticipating that we don’t make a rational decision. Let me explain.”
He stood up and started explaining like a teacher to a student.
“You get benefit in value pack against if you order them individually. Let me ask you - what’s the quantity you get for small coke?”
“I don’t know. They offer in two sizes, regular and big. May be around 200 ml, I think.”
“You guessed it right, it is 200 ml. And what’s the price of 200 ml coke? Is it 60 rupees or just 12 rupees?”
I started thinking on that. It has never struck me while ordering Value Meal.
Samyak continued, “You would also agree to me that Aloo fries will also not cost 60 rupees, but it will be around 25 rupees max. If I add their actual individual prices, it will be - 70 + 12 + 25 = 107 rupees.”
I calculated the difference, 107 - 130 = loss of 23 rupees. It means Samyak has beaten me. How can he beat me so easily? I asked, “why it didn’t strike me while I was ordering it? I would call it as cheating from the store.”
“It is all the psychology of purchase and not the cheating. We go to MyBurger’s store because we love their burgers. Their menu has a lot of items where they list them individually and creates a combo pack as Value Meal. Individual prices are three-to-four times higher than their actual cost. They know, customers are lazy people by nature, and won’t take the pain in buying coke or aloo fries from somewhere else.”
“You are right. Once we are inside, we never think of buying coke from outside, even though the nearby store is selling coke or fries.”
“Menus are intelligently designed, where the quantity of coke is never mentioned. Even if someone asks for it, they will show their cups - regular and large. Without quantity, we are deceived by the individual prices as their actual prices.”
“Same as with the fries, they offer in small, medium and large quantity. We get small quantity in a value meal, and if I remember correctly, we get hardly fifteen fries.” I said.
“Unconsciously, our mind is trained to find deals wherever possible. We start calculating the individual price and compare it with combo pack. We think we are in control in making a decision, but in reality, it is restaurant owners who deluded us and leveraged our irrationality.”
That is a perfect explanation of my irrationality. I started wondering how many times I visited MyBurger’s store and got fooled by my own false satisfaction and rationality.
I got interrupted by Samyak. “So, now, it’s time to return the favor. You would be Ironing my clothes for this week.”
I hate ironing clothes and now I ended up doing it for Samyak. I am sure, he would be lavish in sending extra clothes to me, and would find every avenue to make my work miserable. Before I resist, he was out of my room.
=====================
Hope, you would have enjoyed it.
No comments have been added yet.
