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

by Rory Sutherland

However, the theory of sexual selection was a truly extraordinary, outside-the-box idea, and it still is; once you understand it, a whole host of behaviours that were previously baffling or seemingly irrational suddenly make perfect sense. The ideas that emerge from sexual selection theory explain not only natural anomalies such as the peacock’s tail, but also the popularity of many seemingly insane human behaviours and tastes, from the existence of Veblen goodsfn5 such as caviar, to more mundane absurdities such as the typewriter. For almost a century in which few men knew how to type, the typewriter must surely have damaged business productivity to an astounding degree, because it meant that every single communication in business or government had to be written twice: once in longhand by the originator and then again by the typist or typing pool. A series of simple amendments could delay a letter or memo by a week, but the ownership and use of a typewriter was a signal that you were a serious business – any provincial solicitor who persisted in writing letters by hand became a tailless peacock.