Daniel

I notice most people who give this book a high rating start off by saying that it is an influential piece of work; important, and so on. So what? That doesn't make the ideas in it any better. In fact, the ideas are terrible. He can babble about classes all he wants, but when he never defines what a social class is, it's utterly meaningless.

However, don't construe my rating as suggesting that you don't read it. You should read this work precisely because it was influential; because it has been important. Anything that can give you a further understanding of history and of mankind is worth spending time on.


“But even in Das Kapital Marx does not delimit precisely the concept of class, although it is of fundamental importance for his theory. He does not define what class is, but limits himself to enumerating the “great classes” into which modern capitalist society is divided.” – Ludwig Von Mises, Socialism.

Amazing writing. She has a way with words that's unparalleled.

I could not bear to finish reading all of this book. while intriguing enough to not give it 1 star, I found the the writing itself poor with characters unrealistic. I stopped where a grown man was weeping over something very benign. That was the last straw. The writing really read like someone with no or little writing experience.

Unlike many books, this is a book that I actually feel I can make practical use of. That's my favorite type of book. Another search book is Robert Cialdini's influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. If you know more about that type of book, then feel free to recommend them to me.

Another point of delight is that Ariely is a funny author. It's a subtle humor, one that I greatly enjoyed.

This was a great read. A lot of revelations