Alchemy: The Surprising Power of Ideas That Don't Make Sense

by Rory Sutherland

You will improve your thinking a great deal if you try to abandon artificial certainty and learn to think ambiguously about the peculiarities of human psychology. However, as I warned at the beginning of this book, this will not necessarily make life easier – it is much easier to be fired for being illogical than for being unimaginative.fn1 The chart opposite describes the consequences of different modes of decision-making, whether things go right or wrong. Why we need to spend more time and energy hunting for butterfly effects. Large organisations are not set up to reward creative thinking. As the chart shows, the greatest risks result from an imaginative approach, so it seems safer to act logically. However, it is the job of the alchemist to explore the upper half of this chart occasionally – and managers should give their staff permission and unwavering support when they do so.