Nudge
I’ve just skim read Thaler & Sustein’s book “Nudge” . It is very similar in style to Malcolm Gladwell’s “Tipping Point” in that both race through a range of examples at an almost “breathless pace”. Writing about “Nudge”, Leavitt is quoted as “…it is fun to read, drawing on examples as far afield as urinals, organ donations and marriage”. In fact I found the examples in “Nudge” annoying – but perhaps it was beacuse I had already experienced the approach in “Tipping Point” and “Blink”. Gladwell’s books are easier to follow for me – more conversational. Rather like his talk on TED . Whereas Thaler and Sunstein write about “choice architecture” and “libertarian paternalism”. I get the ‘nudge’ examples, but the use of such unattractive terms puts me off their book and made it heavier reading than I wanted. I couldnt find any speeches by either of the on TED, but I guess its only a matter of time!
Blink
Having said that, I do think that their examples are useful to practitioners of social marketing. (Particularly as the NHS is investing heavily in social marketing these days)! The Texas Anti-litter campaign was interesting.
It was probably the hype which led me to have unrealsitic expectations about the book
Tipping Point
Haven’t read the book, but heard the author of Nudge on the radio the other day. It did sound like another Tiping Point-formula book, but none the less entertaining for that. I do remember getting to the end of Tipping Point with a real sense of “is that all there is?” It sounds as though I might be able to give Nudge a miss!