Everything is Obvious: Why Common Sense is Nonsense

Review From the reviews of Everything is Obvious: 'A fascinating book that ranges through psychology, economics, marketing and the science of networks.' Wall Street Journal 'Watts is an enjoyable companion... His enthusiasm is admirable and the book will hold valuable insights for a great many professions.' Prospect 'Penetrating and engaging... Common sense is a kind of bespoke make-believe, and we can no more use it to scientifically explain the workings of the social world than we can use a hammer to understand molluscs... It's this sort of study, not common sense, that will shed bright light on human affairs.' ― New York Times Product Description Sociologist Duncan Watts explains in this provocative book that the explanations that we give for the outcomes that we observe in life - explanations that seem obvious once we know the answer - are less useful than they seem. Watts shows how commonsense reasoning and history conspire to mislead us into thinking that we understand more about the world of human behavior than we do; and in turn, why attempts to predict, manage, or manipulate social and economic systems so often go awry. Only by understanding how and when common sense fails can we improve how we plan for the future, as well as understand the present-an argument that has important implications in politics, business, marketing, and even everyday life. Book Description From one of the world's most influential and cited sociologists, Everything is Obvious reveals how variable is human common sense and how, as individuals, societies and businesses, we delude ourselves into thinking we can know the future. 'Fascinating... Sparkles with counter-inuitive insights' Financial Times About the Author Duncan Watts is a principal research scientist at Yahoo! Research, and a former professor of sociology at Columbia University. His research on social networks and collective dynamics has appeared in a wide range of academic journals, including Nature, Science, and the American Journal of Sociology. He is also the author of two previous books, Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age; and Small Worlds: The Dynamics of Networks between Order and Randomness. He lives in New York.